Over the recent months I have been able to gather some experience as an AI safety activist. One of my takeaways is that many people I talk to do not understand Yudkowsky’s arguments very well.
I think this is for 2 reasons mainly:
A lot of his reasoning requires a kind of “mathematical intuition” most people do not have. In my experience it is possible to make correct and convincing arguments that are easier to understand, or even invest more effort into explaining some of the more difficult ones.
I think he is used to a lesswrong-lingo that sometimes gets in the way of communicating with the public.
Still I am very grateful that he continues to address the public and I believe that it is probably a net positive, I think over the recent months the public AI-safety discourse has begun to snowball into something bigger, other charismatic people continue picking up the torch, and I think his contribution to these developments has probably been substantial.
On How Yudkowsky Is Perceived by the Public
Over the recent months I have been able to gather some experience as an AI safety activist. One of my takeaways is that many people I talk to do not understand Yudkowsky’s arguments very well.
I think this is for 2 reasons mainly:
A lot of his reasoning requires a kind of “mathematical intuition” most people do not have. In my experience it is possible to make correct and convincing arguments that are easier to understand, or even invest more effort into explaining some of the more difficult ones.
I think he is used to a lesswrong-lingo that sometimes gets in the way of communicating with the public.
Still I am very grateful that he continues to address the public and I believe that it is probably a net positive, I think over the recent months the public AI-safety discourse has begun to snowball into something bigger, other charismatic people continue picking up the torch, and I think his contribution to these developments has probably been substantial.