EA - Co-found an incubator for independent AI Safety researchers! by Alexandra Bos

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Co-found an incubator for independent AI Safety researchers!, published by Alexandra Bos on May 26, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.Full-time, remoteAPPLY HEREDeadline: Thursday, June 8th (in your timezone)If your ideal job would be leading an impact-driven organization, being your own boss and pushing for a safer future with AI, you might be a great fit for co-founding Catalyze Impact!Below, you will find out more about Catalyze’s mission and focus, why co-founding this org would be high-impact, how to tell if you’re a good fit, and how to apply.In short, Catalyze will 1) help people become independent technical AI Safety researchers, and 2) deliver key support to independent AI Safety researchers so they can do their best work.If you think this non-profit’s work could be important, please like/upvote and share this message so that the right people get to see it.You can ask questions, register interest to potentially fund us, work with us, make use of our services in the future and share information here.Why support independent AI Safety researchers?Lots of people want to do AI Safety (AIS) research and are trying to get in a position where they can, yet only around 100-300 people worldwide are actually doing research in this crucial area. Why? Because there are almost no AIS researcher jobs available due to AIS research organizations facing difficult constraints to scaling up. Luckily there is another way to grow the research field: having more people do independent research (where a self-employed individual gets a grant, usually from a fund).There is, however, a key problem: becoming and being a good independent AIS researcher is currently very difficult. It requires a lot of qualities which have nothing to do with being able to do good research: you have to be proactive, pragmatic, social, good enough at fundraising, very good at self-management and willing to take major career risks. Catalyze Impact will take away a large part of the difficulties that come with being an independent researcher, thereby making it a suitable option for more people so they are empowered to do good AIS research.How will we help?This is the current design of the pilot - but you will help shape this further!1. Fundraising support> help promising individuals get funded to do research2. Peer support networks & mentor-matching> get feedback, receive mentorship, find collaborators, brainstorm and stay motivated rather than falling into isolation3. Accountability and coaching> have structure, stay motivated and productive4. Fiscal sponsorship: hiring funded independent researchers as ‘employees’> take away operational tasks which distract from research & help them build better career capital through institutional affiliationIn what ways would this be impactful?Alleviating a bottleneck for scaling the AIS research field by making independent research suitable for more people: it seems that we need a lot more people to be working on solving alignment. However, talented individuals who have invested in upskilling themselves to go do AIS research (e.g. SERI MATS graduates) are largely unable to secure research positions. This is oftentimes not because they are not capable enough of doing the research, but because there are simply too few positions available (see footnote). Because of this, many of these talented individuals are left with a few sub-optimal options. 1) try to do research/a PhD in a different academic field in hopes that it will make them a better AIS researcher in the future, 2) take a job working on AI capabilities (!), or 3) try to become an independent AIS researcher.For many people, independent research (i.e. without this incubator) is not a good & viable option because being an independent researcher brings a lot of difficulties with it and arran...