Comment by ChadNauseam
3 days ago
> What are his actual credentials? What did he achieve?
He cofounded the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, an organization focused on AI alignment, in 2000, way way before it was a trendy topic.
He's also partially responsible for popularizing ideas such as the orthogonality thesis and instrumental convergence.
> Isn't he just some random dude on the internet?
Not really, most random dudes on the internet were not researching AI alignment in 2000.
> Why do people care what he says?
Many people were introduced to the concept of AI alignment thanks to him, so they are naturally interested in reading his reaction to progress in the field.
I've read the wikipidea page of MIRI, and it does not mention any achievements; just that it was founded "with the purpose of accelerating the development of artificial intelligence". Did they advance the field of AI alignment at all? Being concerned with a problem does not make one an expert.
For the rest, is he just an AI influencer? One that predated his topic of interest, but still just an influencer?
> Did they advance the field of AI alignment at all?
Not directly. Exotic decision theories were a dead end; as far as I know nobody outside of MIRI even cares about them. Certainly they’re not relevant to interpretability in the context of this thread.
Yes, he is a very influential AI doomer/influencer. All the big names at the AI companies read his blogs in the aughts, see also https://skywriter.blue/@segyges.bsky.social/3mvom4b4dn22q
It's a non-profit that pays his salary and puts out the occasional research report every 7 or so years. It relies on donations. It operates on a long tail approach, in the hope of enticing a billionaire to donate a lot.
Also, here is a list of his papers and citations.
https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/Eliezer-Yudkowsky/254...