[Career review] “AI governance and policy” by Cody Fenwick

As advancing AI capabilities gained widespread attention in late 2022 and 2023, interest in governing and regulating these systems has grown. Discussion of the potential catastrophic risks of misaligned or uncontrollable AI has become more prominent, potentially opening up opportunities for policy that could mitigate the threats.

There’s still a lot of uncertainty about which AI governance strategies would be best. Many have proposed policies and strategies aimed at reducing the largest risks, which we discuss below.

But there’s no roadmap here. There’s plenty of room for debate about what’s needed, and we may not have found the best ideas yet in this space. In any case, there’s still a lot of work to figure out how promising policies and strategies would work in practice. We hope to see more people enter this field to develop expertise and skills that will contribute to risk-reducing AI governance and policy.

Narrated by the author.

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Outline:

(00:00) Rob's intro

(00:32) AI governance and policy

(02:22) Why this could be a high-impact career path

(05:17) First, what kinds of work might contribute to AI governance?

(28:36) Now we’ll cover how to assess your fit and get started

(40:39) How this career path can go wrong

(45:08) What the increased attention on AI means

(46:20) Where can this kind of work be done?

(50:07) Want one-on-one advice on pursuing this path?

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First published:
June 19th, 2023

Source:
https://80000hours.org/career-reviews/ai-policy-and-strategy