I’m close to a single-issue voter/donor. I tend to like politicians who show strong support for AI safety, because I think it's an incredibly important and neglected problem. So when I make political donations, it's not as salient to me which party the candidate is part of, if they've gone out of their way to support AI safety and have some integrity.[1] I think many people who focus on AI safety feel similarly.

But working in government also seems important. I want the government to have the tools and technical understanding it needs to monitor AI and ensure it doesn’t cause a catastrophe. Some people are concerned that donating to Democrats makes it harder to work in a Republican administration, or that donating to Republicans makes it harder to work in a Democrat administration. Administrations understandably care about loyalty (though they also care about domain expertise), and they have [...]

---

Outline:

(02:33) Background/facts

(10:15) Recommendation

(17:50) Explanation

(21:49) Is it possible you will end up working in government?

(23:27) Other advice

(24:37) Counterarguments

(25:38) Rambling

(26:36) How did you come up with these heuristics?

The original text contained 5 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
October 20th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/8A8g4ryyZnaMhAQQF/considerations-around-career-costs-of-political-donations

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Considerations around career costs of political donations” by GradientDissenter

LessWrong (30+ Karma)

“Considerations around career costs of political donations” by GradientDissenter