I think I’m glad Steven Byrnes is doing what he’s doing, but notably he is in fact funded to do it! I don’t know how hard it was for him to get funding.
I don’t really feel excited for people being more encouraged to do deep learning theory or agent foundations. I do appreciate that people tried out agent foundations back in the day.
Oh, I didn’t mean to imply that getting funded at all for ambitious research wasn’t possible or was extremely difficult. The directions I mentioned above are all funded to some extent. Just that e.g. I expect Steven could get 10x+ financial compensation by joining a lab and doing less ambitious AI safety research (or, with less confidence, get more compensation and credit by starting a for-profit or even a non-profit doing less ambitious work). And that people making these sacrifices should be lauded.
I think I’m glad Steven Byrnes is doing what he’s doing, but notably he is in fact funded to do it! I don’t know how hard it was for him to get funding.
I don’t really feel excited for people being more encouraged to do deep learning theory or agent foundations. I do appreciate that people tried out agent foundations back in the day.
Oh, I didn’t mean to imply that getting funded at all for ambitious research wasn’t possible or was extremely difficult. The directions I mentioned above are all funded to some extent. Just that e.g. I expect Steven could get 10x+ financial compensation by joining a lab and doing less ambitious AI safety research (or, with less confidence, get more compensation and credit by starting a for-profit or even a non-profit doing less ambitious work). And that people making these sacrifices should be lauded.