zlacker

>>prawn+(OP)
> they asked: who on earth are Tasha McCauley and Helen Toner?

As a prominent researcher in AI safety (I discovered prompt injection) I should explain that Helen Toner is a big name in the AI safety community - she’s one of the top 20 most respected people in our community, like Rohin Shah.

The “who on earth” question is a good question about Tasha. But grouping Helen in with Tasha is just sexist. By analogy, Tasha is like Kimbal Musk, whereas Helen is like Tom Mueller.

Tasha seems unqualified but Helen is extremely qualified. Grouping them together is sexist and wrong.

>>upward+A6
I'm not sure what you are referring to with "AI safety community". Her background isn't exactly a strong "AI safety" either before joining the board if you read her CV. I don't see there sexism asking these questions.

>>siva7+I9
You’re definitely correct that her CV doesn’t adequately capture her reputation. I’ll put it this way, I meet with a lot of powerful people and I was equally nervous when I met with her as when I met with three officers of the US Air Force. She holds comparable influence to a USAF Colonel.

She is extremely knowledgeable about the details of all the ways that AI can cause catastrophe and also she’s one of the few people with the ear of the top leaders in the DoD (similar to Eric Schmidt in this regard).

Basically, she’s one of a very small number of people who are credibly reducing the chances that AI could cause a war.

If you’d like to learn about or become part of the AI safety community, a good way to start is to check out Rohin Shah’s Alignment Newsletter. http://rohinshah.com/alignment-newsletter/

>>upward+Fa
So the rumors that she has strong ties with the CIA are not unfounded?

>>drno12+Fv
I think it's pretty safe to assume by now that US state-side counterintelligence has full control over AI safety circles, and given that everything is a nail when you're a hammer, the spooks probably consider these people domestic terrorists and process them accordingly, including active and passive prophylaxis. I mean, what proof do you need when people like OP lose sleep and brag about meeting the spooks a handful of times like it's the most important event of their lives! I guess it must be both empowering AND embarrassing for the spooks to have this situation turn into shit.