For ASIC to survive long term, it needs at leasat one person who is long term committed to running the program. Without such a person I estimate the half-life of of AISC to be ~1 year. I.e, there would be be ~50% chance of AISC dying out every year, simply because there isn’t an organiser team to run it.
Since the start, this person has been Remmelt. Because of Remmelt AISC has continued to exist. Other organiser have come and gone, but Remmelt has stayed and held things together. I don’t know if there is anyone to replace Remmelt in this role. Maybe Robert? But I think it’s too early to say. I’m definitely not available for this role, I’m too restless.
Hiring for long term commitment is very hard.
Why AISC would currently have had even less funding without Remmelt
For a while AISC was just me and Remmelt. During this time Remmelt took care of all the fundraising, and still mostly does, because Robert is still new, and I don’t do grant applications.
I had several bad experiences around grant applications in the past. The last one was in 2021, when me and JJ applied for money for AI Safety Support. The LTFF committee decided that they didn’t like me personally and agreed to fund JJ’s salary but not mine. This is a decision they were allowed to make, of course. But on my side, it was more than I could take emotionally, and it led me to quit EA and AI Safety entirely for a year, and I’m still not willing to do grant applications. Maybe someday, but not yet.
I’m very grateful to Remmelt for being willing to take on this responsibility, and for hiring me at a time when I was the one who was toxic to grant makers.
I have less triggers for crowdfunding and private donations, than for grant applications, but I still find it personally very stressfull. I’m not saying my trauma around this is anyone’s fault, or anyone else’s problem. But I do think it’s relevant context for understanding AISC funding situation. Organisations are made of people, and these people may have constraints that are invisible to you.
Some other things about Remmelt and his role in AISC
I know Remmelt get’s into argument on Twitter, but i’m not on Twitter, so I’m not paying attention to that. I know Remmelt as a friend and as a great co-organiser. Remmelt is one of the rare people I work really well with.
Within AISC, Remmelt is overseeing the Stop/Pause AI projects. For all the other projects, Remmelt is only involved in a logistical capacity.
For the current AISC there are
4 Pause/Stopp AI projects. Remmelt is in charge of accepting or rejecting projects in this chathegory, and also supporting them if they need any help.
1 project which Remmelt is running personally as the research lead. (Not counted as one of the 4 above)
26 other projects where Remmelt only have purely logistical involvement. E.g. Remmelt is in charge of stipends and compute reimbursement, but his personal opinions abut AI Safety is not a factor in this. I see most of the requests, and I’ve never seen Remmelt discriminate based on what he think of the project.
Each of us organisers (Remmelt, Robert, me) can unilaterally decide to accept any project we like, and once a project is accepted to AISC, we all support it in our roles as organisers. We have all agreed to this, because we all thinks that having this diversity is worth it, even if not all of us likes every single project the other ones accept.
Why AISC needs Remmelt
For ASIC to survive long term, it needs at leasat one person who is long term committed to running the program. Without such a person I estimate the half-life of of AISC to be ~1 year. I.e, there would be be ~50% chance of AISC dying out every year, simply because there isn’t an organiser team to run it.
Since the start, this person has been Remmelt. Because of Remmelt AISC has continued to exist. Other organiser have come and gone, but Remmelt has stayed and held things together. I don’t know if there is anyone to replace Remmelt in this role. Maybe Robert? But I think it’s too early to say. I’m definitely not available for this role, I’m too restless.
Hiring for long term commitment is very hard.
Why AISC would currently have had even less funding without Remmelt
For a while AISC was just me and Remmelt. During this time Remmelt took care of all the fundraising, and still mostly does, because Robert is still new, and I don’t do grant applications.
I had several bad experiences around grant applications in the past. The last one was in 2021, when me and JJ applied for money for AI Safety Support. The LTFF committee decided that they didn’t like me personally and agreed to fund JJ’s salary but not mine. This is a decision they were allowed to make, of course. But on my side, it was more than I could take emotionally, and it led me to quit EA and AI Safety entirely for a year, and I’m still not willing to do grant applications. Maybe someday, but not yet.
I’m very grateful to Remmelt for being willing to take on this responsibility, and for hiring me at a time when I was the one who was toxic to grant makers.
I have less triggers for crowdfunding and private donations, than for grant applications, but I still find it personally very stressfull. I’m not saying my trauma around this is anyone’s fault, or anyone else’s problem. But I do think it’s relevant context for understanding AISC funding situation. Organisations are made of people, and these people may have constraints that are invisible to you.
Some other things about Remmelt and his role in AISC
I know Remmelt get’s into argument on Twitter, but i’m not on Twitter, so I’m not paying attention to that. I know Remmelt as a friend and as a great co-organiser. Remmelt is one of the rare people I work really well with.
Within AISC, Remmelt is overseeing the Stop/Pause AI projects. For all the other projects, Remmelt is only involved in a logistical capacity.
For the current AISC there are
4 Pause/Stopp AI projects. Remmelt is in charge of accepting or rejecting projects in this chathegory, and also supporting them if they need any help.
1 project which Remmelt is running personally as the research lead. (Not counted as one of the 4 above)
26 other projects where Remmelt only have purely logistical involvement. E.g. Remmelt is in charge of stipends and compute reimbursement, but his personal opinions abut AI Safety is not a factor in this. I see most of the requests, and I’ve never seen Remmelt discriminate based on what he think of the project.
Each of us organisers (Remmelt, Robert, me) can unilaterally decide to accept any project we like, and once a project is accepted to AISC, we all support it in our roles as organisers. We have all agreed to this, because we all thinks that having this diversity is worth it, even if not all of us likes every single project the other ones accept.