Switching Careers Into AI Alignment

And so even if you don't have a PhD, you're not the leading expert on a particular topic, Just being able to provide that level of organizational capability massively accelerates the folks around you.

If I think about both my experience now and in the past, I'm not the expert in any one individual thing, but being able to connect people, whether that's folks in academia with our team to accelerate the research of those really good academics, that's one thing.

Whether it's just being able to start new initiatives without, like you say, without drowning in the bureaucracy that often happens in, you know, large government entities or nonprofits.

All of this stuff is really valuable to the point that if you aren't doing these things, then it's really hard to make progress on the research itself.

And we see this a lot when we're working with folks in government or working with nonprofits who increasingly come to us as both the kind of technical experts, but also the team that can actually make things happen and move quickly and really accelerate other folks that we're working with, like a core part of our team.

our output is you know not claiming that all the best ai alignment researchers work at ae i think like a bunch of the a bunch of the best ai alignment researchers work at ae but also some of the best alignment researchers outside of ae can really be accelerated by our team both from a technical standpoint as well as an you

know organizational standpoint and so

That would be my maybe call to action for folks who are sat there in industry, you know, really capable operators.

Maybe you don't think that they have the technical chops, whatever, for working on AI alignment.

I would question that.

And I'd be like, you know, I think what we are really looking for and we're hiring very actively is folks who are, you know, smart, capable and able to operate in fast moving environments and learn quickly.

You don't have to come in day one, I think, having, you know, all of the understanding pre-baked.

Yeah, 100%.

Yeah, I fully agree with that.

Like the work that I've been able to not just jump into, but really be successful at in the very first few months had very little to do with my understanding of the research and much more about my ability to understand the processes that drove people's work, my ability to understand the tools that they use.

None of that is specific to alignment research.

And it's been helpful that I know enough about AI alignment research and what's happening in the industry to be able to synthesize some of what's been being discussed around me.

But that is much more to do with my enjoyment and what drives me to do the work than it does for my ability to do the work.

So yeah, being impactful in this industry is certainly helped by whatever understanding you have of the work being done around you.

But for a research manager, it is much more important for you to just be the kind of person who can... understand what's happening around you, see what

needs

to be done and then go do it.

Totally.

Yeah, that's great.

So we'd love to backtrack now and talk a bit more about the journey that took you from Google to AE.