This is a linkpost for https://seekingtobejolly.substack.com/p/no-one-in-my-org-puts-money-in-their

Epistemic status: the stories here are all as true as possible from memory, but my memory is so so.

An AI made this

This is going to be big

It's late Summer 2017. I am on a walk in the Mendip Hills. It's warm and sunny and the air feels fresh. With me are around 20 other people from the Effective Altruism London community. We’ve travelled west for a retreat to discuss how to help others more effectively with our donations and careers. As we cross cow field after cow field, I get talking to one of the people from the group I don’t know yet. He seems smart, and cheerful. He tells me that he is an AI researcher at Google DeepMind. He explains how he is thinking about how to make sure that any powerful AI system actually does what we want it [...]

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Outline:

(00:18) This is going to be big

(01:23) This is going to be bad

(02:45) It's a long way off though

(03:52) This is fine

(05:11) It's probably something else in your life

(06:17) No-one in my org puts money in their pension

(07:17) Doom-vibes

(08:47) Maths might help

(10:30) A problem shared is…

(12:37) Hope