Suppose we are also unsure about when we may need the problem solved by. In scenarios where the solution is needed earlier, there is less time for us to collectively work on a solution, so there is less work on the problem than in scenarios where the solution is needed later. Given the diminishing returns on work, that means that a marginal unit of work has a bigger expected value in the case where the solution is needed earlier. This should update us towards working to address the early scenarios more than would be justified by looking purely at their impact and likelihood.
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There are two major factors which seem to push towards preferring more work which focuses on scenarios where AI comes soon. The first is nearsightedness: we simply have a better idea of what will be useful in these scenarios. The second is diminishing marginal returns: the expected effect of an extra year of work on a problem tends to decline when it is being added to a larger total. And because there is a much larger time horizon in which to solve it (and in a wealthier world), the problem of AI safety when AI comes later may receive many times as much work as the problem of AI safety for AI that comes soon. On the other hand one more factor preferring work on scenarios where AI comes later is the ability to pursue more leveraged strategies which eschew object-level work today in favour of generating (hopefully) more object-level work later.
The above is a slightly unrepresentative quote; the paper is largely undecided as to whether shorter term strategies or longer term strategies are more valuable (given uncertainty over timelines), and recommends a portfolio approach (running multiple strategies, that each apply to different timelines). But that’s the sort of argument I think Vaniver was referring to.
The standard cite is Owen CB’s paper Allocating Risk Mitigation Across Time. Here’s one quote on this topic:
The above is a slightly unrepresentative quote; the paper is largely undecided as to whether shorter term strategies or longer term strategies are more valuable (given uncertainty over timelines), and recommends a portfolio approach (running multiple strategies, that each apply to different timelines). But that’s the sort of argument I think Vaniver was referring to.