Difference between revisions of "AI safety is harder than most things"
(Created page with "I recently got a visceral sense that '''AI safety is harder than most things''' when I started writing my [https://taoanalysis.wordpress.com/ Tao Analysis Solutions] blog. Aft...") |
|||
| (5 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) | |||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| − | I recently got a visceral sense that '''AI safety is harder than most things''' when I started writing my [https://taoanalysis.wordpress.com/ Tao Analysis Solutions] blog. After two months of near-daily blogging, I got blog comments from a smart-seeming high school student (?) and also a very nice thank you letter. In contrast, working on AI safety feels like .... there's absolutely no feedback on whether I'm doing anything useful? | + | I recently got a visceral sense that '''AI safety is harder than most things''' when I started writing my [https://taoanalysis.wordpress.com/ Tao Analysis Solutions] blog. After two months of near-daily blogging, I got blog comments from a smart-seeming high school student (?) and also a very nice thank you letter from a different person. In contrast, working on AI safety feels like .... there's absolutely no feedback on whether I'm doing anything useful? |
| + | |||
| + | I also had a similar feeling one day when I took a break from studying math and learned some microeconomics. The latter just felt so much easier. | ||
| + | |||
| + | When you've been at AI safety for too long, you're so used to just "[staring] at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead, trying to figure out what to think next"<ref>https://www.greaterwrong.com/posts/9SaAyq7F7MAuzAWNN/teaching-the-unteachable</ref> that you might forget that other things aren't like this. You might start to think that, actually, you're just incompetent. So I think it's nice to sometimes take a break and do easier things. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==References== | ||
| + | |||
| + | <references/> | ||
[[Category:AI safety meta]] | [[Category:AI safety meta]] | ||
| + | [[Category:Claim]] | ||
Latest revision as of 02:28, 28 March 2021
I recently got a visceral sense that AI safety is harder than most things when I started writing my Tao Analysis Solutions blog. After two months of near-daily blogging, I got blog comments from a smart-seeming high school student (?) and also a very nice thank you letter from a different person. In contrast, working on AI safety feels like .... there's absolutely no feedback on whether I'm doing anything useful?
I also had a similar feeling one day when I took a break from studying math and learned some microeconomics. The latter just felt so much easier.
When you've been at AI safety for too long, you're so used to just "[staring] at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead, trying to figure out what to think next"[1] that you might forget that other things aren't like this. You might start to think that, actually, you're just incompetent. So I think it's nice to sometimes take a break and do easier things.
