“We’re Not Advertising Enough (Post 3 of 6 on AI Governance)” by Mass_Driver

In my previous post in this series, I explained why we urgently need to change AI developers’ incentives: if we allow the status quo to continue, then an AI developer will recklessly deploy misaligned superintelligence, which is likely to permanently disempower humanity and cause billions of deaths. AI governance research can potentially be helpful in changing this status quo, but only if it's paired with plenty of political advertising – research by itself doesn’t automatically convince any of the people who have the power to rein in AI developers.

Executive Summary

Here, in the third post, I want to make it clear that we are not doing nearly enough political advertising to successfully change the status quo. By my estimate, we have at least 3 governance researchers for every governance advocate. This means that we are predictably generating more good ideas than we can hope to share with decision-makers. [...]

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Outline:

(00:43) Executive Summary

(03:37) There are 3 Researchers for Every Advocate

(03:42) Methodology

(08:39) Results

(09:20) A Note on Privacy

(12:29) A Note on Activist Researchers

(17:06) Put the Largest Team on the Most Central Problem

(17:54) Multiplier Effects and Staffing Ratios

(22:15) How Many Levels Removed Are You?

(22:30) Marathons and S'mores

(26:43) 0 Levels Removed: Government.

(27:50) 1 Level Removed: Politics.

(29:15) 2 Levels Removed: Drafting.

(31:39) 3 Levels Removed: Commentary.

(35:43) 4 Levels Removed: Theorizing.

(43:46) What Kind of Research Helps Advocates?

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First published:

May 22nd, 2025

Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/BjeesS4cosB2f4PAj/we-re-not-advertising-enough-post-3-of-6-on-ai-governance

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.