I wonder why Professor Russell doesn’t describe his agenda in more technical detail, or engage much with the technical AI safety community, to the extent that even grad students at CHAI apparently do not know much about his approach.
For the sake of explaining this: for quite a while, he’s been engaging with academics and policymakers, and writing a book; it’s not that he’s been doing research and not talking to anyone about it.
Fyi, when you quote people who work at an organization saying something that has a negative implication about that organization, you make it less likely that people will say things like that in the future. I’m not saying that you did anything wrong here; I just want to make sure that you know of this effect, and that it does make me in particular more likely to be silent the next time you ask about CHAI rather than responding.
Clarification: For me, the general worry is something like “if I get quoted, I need to make sure that it’s not misleading (which can happen even if the person quoting me didn’t mean to be misleading), and that takes time and effort and noticing all the places where I’m quoted, and it’s just easier to not say things at all”.
(Other people may have more worries, like “If I say something that could be interpreted as being critical of the organization, and that becomes sufficiently well-publicized, then I might get fired, so I’ll just never say anything like that.”)
For the sake of explaining this: for quite a while, he’s been engaging with academics and policymakers, and writing a book; it’s not that he’s been doing research and not talking to anyone about it.
Fyi, when you quote people who work at an organization saying something that has a negative implication about that organization, you make it less likely that people will say things like that in the future. I’m not saying that you did anything wrong here; I just want to make sure that you know of this effect, and that it does make me in particular more likely to be silent the next time you ask about CHAI rather than responding.
Clarification: For me, the general worry is something like “if I get quoted, I need to make sure that it’s not misleading (which can happen even if the person quoting me didn’t mean to be misleading), and that takes time and effort and noticing all the places where I’m quoted, and it’s just easier to not say things at all”.
(Other people may have more worries, like “If I say something that could be interpreted as being critical of the organization, and that becomes sufficiently well-publicized, then I might get fired, so I’ll just never say anything like that.”)