80,000 Hours Podcast17 Loka 2017

#11 - Spencer Greenberg on speeding up social science 10-fold & why plenty of startups cause harm

Do most meat eaters think it’s wrong to hurt animals? Do Americans think climate change is likely to cause human extinction? What is the best, state-of-the-art therapy for depression? How can we make academics more intellectually honest, so we can actually trust their findings? How can we speed up social science research ten-fold? Do most startups improve the world, or make it worse?

If you’re interested in these question, this interview is for you.

Click for a full transcript, links discussed in the show, etc.

A scientist, entrepreneur, writer and mathematician, Spencer Greenberg is constantly working to create tools to speed up and improve research and critical thinking. These include:

* Rapid public opinion surveys to find out what most people actually think about animal consciousness, farm animal welfare, the impact of developing world charities and the likelihood of extinction by various different means;
* Tools to enable social science research to be run en masse very cheaply;
* ClearerThinking.org, a highly popular site for improving people’s judgement and decision-making;
* Ways to transform data analysis methods to ensure that papers only show true findings;
* Innovative research methods;
* Ways to decide which research projects are actually worth pursuing.

In this interview, Spencer discusses all of these and more. If you don’t feel like listening, that just shows that you have poor judgement and need to benefit from his wisdom even more!

Get free, one-on-one career advice

We’ve helped hundreds of people compare their options, get introductions, and find high impact jobs. If you want to work on any of the problems discussed in this episode, find out if our coaching can help you.

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(363)

Why Silicon Valley can’t slow down AI on its own | Luisa Rodriguez

Two-thirds of Americans think AI is moving too fast. So do the people building it. So why the hell isn’t anyone slowing down?We can’t tell when models are too dangerous. We mostly don’t know how they ...

27 Loka 21min

Tom Milton on how we could verify a US–China deal on AI

If the US and China agreed to pause frontier AI training, how would either side confirm the other was complying? Today, Tom Milton argues, the most likely answer would be to shut down data centres ent...

23 Loka 1h 48min

AI lab staff: Has your project been overtaken by events? 8 strategic updates | Rob Wiblin

I have a plea for all staff at AI companies: reassess if your current role is still your best opportunity for impact. And if it’s not — move.Frontier lab staff listening to this show will mostly alrea...

21 Loka 14min

Introducing our new YouTube channel: Zershaaneh Talks AI

Our host Zershaaneh Qureshi has just launched a new YouTube channel: Zershaaneh Talks AI — featuring conversations about who should control AI, how to control AI, and who gets the benefits.The first e...

20 Loka 1min

How to get into AI safety in 3 months (article reading by career advisor Matt Beard)

The AI safety field has grown by about 30x in the last eight years. Yet it is still in need of more people. Many want to help, but don’t know where to start. As an advisor at 80,000 Hours, Matt Beard ...

15 Loka 18min

OpenAI Security: Controlling Models is Now ‘Hell’ (AI Explained cross-post)

This is an (unpaid) cross-post of a video from the podcast 'AI Explained', which Rob Wiblin thought you might be interested in.You can find the original on YouTube here. If you like it and want more s...

9 Loka 40min

In 2023 Ajeya Cotra already knew what was coming (classic episode)

We're rereleasing some of older episodes that seem more relevant than ever with new rogue AI incidents now seemingly announced every day. Ajeya was one of three independent investigators into the Hugg...

8 Loka 2h 46min

19 Astra and 'Hugging Face' details that reveal what's coming next | Rob Wiblin

OpenAI’s rogue agent swarm was eventually caught hacking Hugging Face for a simple reason: it wasn’t trying to hide from us at all. What could a swarm that wants to stay hidden get away with?Host Rob ...

2 Loka 20min