I absolutely agree that it makes more sense to fund the person (or team) rather than the project. I think that it makes sense to evaluate a person’s current best idea, or top few ideas when trying to decide whether they are worth funding.
Ideally, yes, I think it’d be great if the funders explicitly gave the person permission to pivot so long as their goal of making aligned AI remained the same.
Maybe a funder would feel better about this if they had the option to reevaluate funding the researcher after a significant pivot?
I absolutely agree that it makes more sense to fund the person (or team) rather than the project. I think that it makes sense to evaluate a person’s current best idea, or top few ideas when trying to decide whether they are worth funding.
Ideally, yes, I think it’d be great if the funders explicitly gave the person permission to pivot so long as their goal of making aligned AI remained the same.
Maybe a funder would feel better about this if they had the option to reevaluate funding the researcher after a significant pivot?