Thinking further, I’ve spotted something that may a crucial misunderstanding. Is the issue whether EY was right to create his own technical research institute on AI risk, is it whether he was right to pursue AI risk at all? I agree that before EY there was relatively little academic work on AI risk, and that he played an important role in increasing the amount of attention the issue recieves. I think it would have been a mistake for him to ignore the issue on the basis that the experts must know better than him and they aren’t worried.
On the other hand, I expect an equally well-funded and well-staffed group that is mostly within academia to do a better job than MIRI. I think EY was wrong in believing that he could create an institute that is better at pursuing long-term technical research in a particular topic than academia.
Thinking further, I’ve spotted something that may a crucial misunderstanding. Is the issue whether EY was right to create his own technical research institute on AI risk, is it whether he was right to pursue AI risk at all? I agree that before EY there was relatively little academic work on AI risk, and that he played an important role in increasing the amount of attention the issue recieves. I think it would have been a mistake for him to ignore the issue on the basis that the experts must know better than him and they aren’t worried.
On the other hand, I expect an equally well-funded and well-staffed group that is mostly within academia to do a better job than MIRI. I think EY was wrong in believing that he could create an institute that is better at pursuing long-term technical research in a particular topic than academia.