Thank you for sharing this; I’d be excited to see more writeups that attempt to analyze the strategy of AI labs.
This post is my attempt to understand Anthropic’s current strategy, and lay out the facts to consider in terms of whether Anthropic’s work is likely to be net positive and whether, as a given individual, you should consider applying.
I found that this introduction raised my expectations for the post and misled me a bit. After reading the introduction, I was expecting to see more analysis of the pros and cons of Anthropic’s strategy, as well as more content from people who disagree with Anthropic’s strategy.
(For example, you have a section in which you list protective factors as reported by Anthropic staff, but there is no corresponding section that features criticisms from others—e.g., independent safety researchers, OpenAI employees, etc.)
To be clear, I don’t think you should have to do any of that to publish a post like this. I just think that the expectation-setting could have been better. (I plan to recommend this post, but I won’t say “here’s a post that lays out the facts to consider in terms of whether Anthropic’s work is likely to be net positive”; instead, I’ll say “here’s a post where someone lists some observations about Anthropic’s strategy, and my impression is that this was informed largely by talking to Anthropic staff and Anthropic supporters. It seems to underrepresent the views of critics, but I still think it’s valuable read.”)
It’s deliberate that this post covers mostly specifics that I learned from Anthropic staff, and further speculation is going to be in a separate later post. I wanted to make a really clear distinction between “these are things that were said to me about Anthropic by people who have context” (which is, for the most part, people in favor of Anthropic’s strategy), and my own personal interpretation and opinion on whether Anthropic’s work is net positive, which is filtered through my worldview and which I think most people at Anthropic would disagree with.
Part two is more critical, which means I want to write about it with a lot of effort and care, so I expect I’ll put it up in a week or two.
+1. I think this framing is more accurate than the current first paragraph (which, in my reading of it, seems to promise a more balanced and comprehensive analysis).
It does! I think I’d make it more explicit, though, that the post focuses on the views/opinions of people at Anthropic. Maybe something like this (new text in bold):
This post is the first half of a series about my attempts understand Anthropic’s current strategy, and lay out the facts to consider in terms of whether Anthropic’s work is likely to be net positive and whether, as a given individual, you should consider applying. (The impetus for looking into this was to answer the question of whether I should join Anthropic’s ops team.) As part of my research, I read a number of Anthropic’s published papers, and spoke to people within and outside of Anthropic.
This post focuses on opinions that I heard from people who work at Anthropic. The second post will focus on my own personal interpretation and opinion on whether Anthropic’s work is net positive (which is filtered through my worldview and which I think most people at Anthropic would disagree with. )
Thank you for sharing this; I’d be excited to see more writeups that attempt to analyze the strategy of AI labs.
I found that this introduction raised my expectations for the post and misled me a bit. After reading the introduction, I was expecting to see more analysis of the pros and cons of Anthropic’s strategy, as well as more content from people who disagree with Anthropic’s strategy.
(For example, you have a section in which you list protective factors as reported by Anthropic staff, but there is no corresponding section that features criticisms from others—e.g., independent safety researchers, OpenAI employees, etc.)
To be clear, I don’t think you should have to do any of that to publish a post like this. I just think that the expectation-setting could have been better. (I plan to recommend this post, but I won’t say “here’s a post that lays out the facts to consider in terms of whether Anthropic’s work is likely to be net positive”; instead, I’ll say “here’s a post where someone lists some observations about Anthropic’s strategy, and my impression is that this was informed largely by talking to Anthropic staff and Anthropic supporters. It seems to underrepresent the views of critics, but I still think it’s valuable read.”)
It’s deliberate that this post covers mostly specifics that I learned from Anthropic staff, and further speculation is going to be in a separate later post. I wanted to make a really clear distinction between “these are things that were said to me about Anthropic by people who have context” (which is, for the most part, people in favor of Anthropic’s strategy), and my own personal interpretation and opinion on whether Anthropic’s work is net positive, which is filtered through my worldview and which I think most people at Anthropic would disagree with.
Part two is more critical, which means I want to write about it with a lot of effort and care, so I expect I’ll put it up in a week or two.
+1. I think this framing is more accurate than the current first paragraph (which, in my reading of it, seems to promise a more balanced and comprehensive analysis).
Edited first line, which hopefully clarifies this better.
It does! I think I’d make it more explicit, though, that the post focuses on the views/opinions of people at Anthropic. Maybe something like this (new text in bold):