Probably somewhat controversially, but I’ve been kind of happy about the Politico pieces that have been published. We had two that basically tried to make the case there is an EA conspiracy in DC that has lots of power in a kind of unaccountable way.
Maybe someone could reach out to the author and be like “Ok, yeah, we are kind of a bit conspiratorial, sorry about that. But I think let’s try to come clean, I will tell you all the stuff that I know, and you take seriously the hypothesis that we really aren’t doing this to profit off of AI, but because we are genuinely concerned about catastrophic risks from AI”.
I like that you imagine conversations like that in your head and that they sometimes go well there!
Seems important to select the right journalist if someone were to try this. I feel like the journalist would have to be sympathetic already or at least be a very reasonable and fair-minded person. Unfortunately, some journalists cannot think straight for the life of them and only make jumpy, shallow associations like “seeks influence, so surely this person must be selfish and greedy.”
I didn’t read the Politico article yet, but given that “altruism” is literally in the name with “EA,” I wonder why it needs to be said “and you take seriously the hypothesis that we really aren’t doing this to profit off of AI.” If a journalist is worth his or her salt, and they write about a movement called EA, shouldn’t a bunch of their attention go into the question of why/whether some of these people might be genuine? And if the article takes a different spin and they never even consider that question, doesn’t it suggest something is off? (Again, haven’t read the article yet – maybe they do consider it or at least leave it open.)
Interesting discussion!
I like that you imagine conversations like that in your head and that they sometimes go well there!
Seems important to select the right journalist if someone were to try this. I feel like the journalist would have to be sympathetic already or at least be a very reasonable and fair-minded person. Unfortunately, some journalists cannot think straight for the life of them and only make jumpy, shallow associations like “seeks influence, so surely this person must be selfish and greedy.”
I didn’t read the Politico article yet, but given that “altruism” is literally in the name with “EA,” I wonder why it needs to be said “and you take seriously the hypothesis that we really aren’t doing this to profit off of AI.” If a journalist is worth his or her salt, and they write about a movement called EA, shouldn’t a bunch of their attention go into the question of why/whether some of these people might be genuine? And if the article takes a different spin and they never even consider that question, doesn’t it suggest something is off? (Again, haven’t read the article yet – maybe they do consider it or at least leave it open.)