1 year ago I quit my career as an academic experimental neuroscientist and began doing AI technical safety research full time. This was emotionally difficult! For more than a decade I had been committed to becoming a neuroscience professor, and had spent a lot of my 20s and 30s pursuing that end. So the move, which had its natural uncertainties (can I succeed in a totally different field? will I be able to support my family financially?) was made more difficult by an ingrained identity as a neuroscientist. In retrospect I wish I had made the move earlier (as Neel Nanda had suggested to me!), oh well, live and learn!
Yeah, that was hard for me too. I was really excited about neuroscience. I still hope to someday go back to neuroscience if the AGI transition goes well. In my case, making the transition in 2015, it was also hard to explain to people in my life why I was changing my focus to AI.
Yeah, that was hard for me too. I was really excited about neuroscience. I still hope to someday go back to neuroscience if the AGI transition goes well. In my case, making the transition in 2015, it was also hard to explain to people in my life why I was changing my focus to AI.