MATS is quite large (55 in-person scholars for winter);
There are good alignment mentors MATS could support that might get bumped out if we add governance mentors;
At some point, more MATS team members (to support a larger cohort) might make it hard for us to work effectively (as per Lightcone’s model);
A small, cohesive MAGS team could work in parallel with the MATS team for greater impact than a unified team;
GovAI are already doing something like the hypothetical MAGS, and the OpenAI governance team might want to do the same, which would mean a lot of potential mentors (maybe enough for a MATS-sized program, funders + mentors willing).
Additional reasons why MATS + MAGS > MATS + governance patch:
MATS is quite large (55 in-person scholars for winter);
There are good alignment mentors MATS could support that might get bumped out if we add governance mentors;
At some point, more MATS team members (to support a larger cohort) might make it hard for us to work effectively (as per Lightcone’s model);
A small, cohesive MAGS team could work in parallel with the MATS team for greater impact than a unified team;
GovAI are already doing something like the hypothetical MAGS, and the OpenAI governance team might want to do the same, which would mean a lot of potential mentors (maybe enough for a MATS-sized program, funders + mentors willing).