Would broadcasting beliefs that are controversial but extremely popular with a small minority, then also broadcasting opinions about AI safety move that minority towards agreement with you on AI safety? Would a concerted and coordinated influence campaign doing this, where you said things like ‘I hate alpine worms, just like you, now please form a positive opinion on this AI safety professional who only talks about that issue’ work? What if two people screamed at each other about their strong disagreement about alpine worms, then accused each other of ‘not taking AI safety seriously’ and persuaded their respective followers to take AI safety as a good thing that belongs to their side?
I really like the “mutual accusations of not taking AI safety seriously” idea… like those old “when you eat smarties do you eat the red ones last” advertisements, draw focus away the question of whether you [support AI safety / eat smarties] because it’s assumed that you do, and towards the question of how you [support AI safety / eat smarties].
But I don’t actually know how well that would work in practice.
Let’s think about the opposite strategy.
Would broadcasting beliefs that are controversial but extremely popular with a small minority, then also broadcasting opinions about AI safety move that minority towards agreement with you on AI safety? Would a concerted and coordinated influence campaign doing this, where you said things like ‘I hate alpine worms, just like you, now please form a positive opinion on this AI safety professional who only talks about that issue’ work? What if two people screamed at each other about their strong disagreement about alpine worms, then accused each other of ‘not taking AI safety seriously’ and persuaded their respective followers to take AI safety as a good thing that belongs to their side?
I really like the “mutual accusations of not taking AI safety seriously” idea… like those old “when you eat smarties do you eat the red ones last” advertisements, draw focus away the question of whether you [support AI safety / eat smarties] because it’s assumed that you do, and towards the question of how you [support AI safety / eat smarties].
But I don’t actually know how well that would work in practice.