Again, there’s very few (<10) people working on technical alignment in China right now, and I feel a bit lost. Any advice is welcome.
Maybe there’s a backdoor approach. Instead of trying to convince the general public about the importance of alignment perhaps there’s a model for creating ‘alignment departments’ in existing tech and AI companies. Another idea could be outreach for high school or university students that want to pursue careers in tech.
From reading Part 1 it seems the ways that we’ve tried to spread the message in Western countries won’t work in China because of different cultural/social norms so maybe try surveying people in China on how to get the message across and incite interest and action.
Yes! That sounds like it could work! But as long as it isn’t something people can get a career in, it’ll just stay in the realm of a cool but easily forgotten idea. This is why I think it’s so important to hire people to work in technical alignment. If it is even a slightly theoretical possibility, it would get people thinking about it more seriously.
I feel there may be more to it, focus testing might provide some answers, get to the heart of why they don’t take tech disruption more seriously.
Here’s a crazier but more specific possible course of action: When I was visiting Albania in 2011 I heard from locals about foreign religious groups that offered free English language courses. Naturally, I assumed it was mainly for recruitment and now know it’s a fairly common tactic.
So the idea is what if someone offered coding classes (or English courses) and used it as a platform to discuss AI? And you could be upfront about it in the marketing: “Learn coding and AI fundamentals from an experienced expert”
Maybe there’s a backdoor approach. Instead of trying to convince the general public about the importance of alignment perhaps there’s a model for creating ‘alignment departments’ in existing tech and AI companies. Another idea could be outreach for high school or university students that want to pursue careers in tech.
From reading Part 1 it seems the ways that we’ve tried to spread the message in Western countries won’t work in China because of different cultural/social norms so maybe try surveying people in China on how to get the message across and incite interest and action.
Yes! That sounds like it could work! But as long as it isn’t something people can get a career in, it’ll just stay in the realm of a cool but easily forgotten idea. This is why I think it’s so important to hire people to work in technical alignment. If it is even a slightly theoretical possibility, it would get people thinking about it more seriously.
I feel there may be more to it, focus testing might provide some answers, get to the heart of why they don’t take tech disruption more seriously.
Here’s a crazier but more specific possible course of action: When I was visiting Albania in 2011 I heard from locals about foreign religious groups that offered free English language courses. Naturally, I assumed it was mainly for recruitment and now know it’s a fairly common tactic.
So the idea is what if someone offered coding classes (or English courses) and used it as a platform to discuss AI? And you could be upfront about it in the marketing: “Learn coding and AI fundamentals from an experienced expert”