Question: I want help out AI alignment without necessarily making major life changes. What are some simple things I can do contribute?
Answer: OK, it’s great that you want to help, here are some ideas for ways you could do so without making a huge commitment:
- Learning more about AI alignment will provide you with good foundations for any path towards helping. You could start by absorbing content (e.g. books, videos, posts), and thinking about challenges or possible solutions.
- Getting involved with the movement by joining a local Effective Altruism or LessWrong group, Rob Miles’s Discord, and/or the AI Safety Slack is a great way to find friends who are interested and will help you stay motivated.
- Donating to organizations or individuals working on AI alignment, possibly via a ［https://funds.effectivealtruism.org/donor-lottery donor lottery］ or the ［https://funds.effectivealtruism.org/funds/far-future Long Term Future Fund］, can be a great way to provide support.
- ［https://stampy.ai/wiki/Answer_questions Writing］ or ［https://stampy.ai/wiki/Improve_answers improving answers］ on ［https://stampy.ai/wiki/ my wiki］ so that other people can learn about AI alignment more easily is a great way to dip your toe into contributing. You can always ask on the Discord for feedback on things you write.
- Getting good at giving an AI alignment elevator pitch, and sharing it with people who may be valuable to have working on the problem can make a big difference. However you should avoid putting them off the topic by presenting it in a way which causes them to dismiss it as sci-fi (dos and don’ts in the elevator pitch follow-up question).
- Writing thoughtful comments on ［https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/ai?sortedBy꞊magic AI posts on LessWrong］.
- Participating in the ［https://www.eacambridge.org/agi-safety-fundamentals AGI Safety Fundamentals program］ – either the AI alignment or governance track – and then facilitating discussions for it in the following round. The program involves nine weeks of content, with about two hours of readings + exercises per week and 1.5 hours of discussion, followed by four weeks to work on an independent project. As a facilitator, you'll be helping others learn about AI safety in-depth, many of whom are considering a career in AI safety. In the early 2022 round, facilitators were offered a stipend, and this seems likely to be the case for future rounds as well! You can learn more about facilitating in ［https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/WtwMy69JKZeHEvykc/contribute-by-facilitating-the-agi-safety-fundamentals this post from December 2021］.