As a source of funding, because SIAI is only one institution, whereas there are hundreds of decent philosophy departments I could apply to, however scarce positions are.
As an attempt to stimulate academia, because I am slightly more optimistic than SIAI’s staff that (a few) mainstream academics can contribute usefully to the project of designing Friendly AI.
Vladimir,
Yes; both of those.
As a source of funding, because SIAI is only one institution, whereas there are hundreds of decent philosophy departments I could apply to, however scarce positions are.
As an attempt to stimulate academia, because I am slightly more optimistic than SIAI’s staff that (a few) mainstream academics can contribute usefully to the project of designing Friendly AI.