What are people’s current thoughts on London as a hub?
OAI and Anthropic are both building offices there
2 (?) new AI Safety startups based on London
The government seems to be taking AI Safety somewhat seriously (so maybe a couple million gets captured for actual alignment work)
MATS seems to be on the path to be sending somewhat consistent scholars to London
A train ride away from Oxford and Cambridge
Anything else I’m missing?
I’m particularly curious about whether it’s worth it for independent researchers to go there. Would they actually interact with other researchers and get value from it or would they just spend most of their time alone or collaborating with a few people online? Could they get most of the value from just spending 1-2 months in both London/Berkeley per year doing work sprints and the rest of the time somewhere else?
AFAIK, there’s a distinct cluster of two kinds of independent alignment researchers:
those who want to be at Berkeley / London and are either there or unable to get there for logistical or financial (or social) reasons
those who very much prefer working alone
It very much depends on the person’s preferences, I think. I personally experienced a OOM-increase in my effectiveness by being in-person with other alignment researchers, so that is what I choose to invest in more.
What are people’s current thoughts on London as a hub?
OAI and Anthropic are both building offices there
2 (?) new AI Safety startups based on London
The government seems to be taking AI Safety somewhat seriously (so maybe a couple million gets captured for actual alignment work)
MATS seems to be on the path to be sending somewhat consistent scholars to London
A train ride away from Oxford and Cambridge
Anything else I’m missing?
I’m particularly curious about whether it’s worth it for independent researchers to go there. Would they actually interact with other researchers and get value from it or would they just spend most of their time alone or collaborating with a few people online? Could they get most of the value from just spending 1-2 months in both London/Berkeley per year doing work sprints and the rest of the time somewhere else?
AFAIK, there’s a distinct cluster of two kinds of independent alignment researchers:
those who want to be at Berkeley / London and are either there or unable to get there for logistical or financial (or social) reasons
those who very much prefer working alone
It very much depends on the person’s preferences, I think. I personally experienced a OOM-increase in my effectiveness by being in-person with other alignment researchers, so that is what I choose to invest in more.