Your Biggest Lever: Designing your AI Career for Maximum Impact, with 80,000 Hours founder Ben Todd

Ben Todd, co-founder of 80,000 Hours and author of the newly rewritten book by the same name, shares his latest thinking on how individuals can position their careers to improve the chances that AI benefits humanity. They discuss AI timelines reframed around personal impact, top global risks including loss of control over AI systems and dangerous power concentration, the pros and cons of working at frontier AI labs, and undervalued emerging concerns like AI welfare and space governance. Ben also assesses the current funding landscape and whether to join existing organizations or start new ones.

LINKS:

• 80,000 Hours homepage
• Nick Bostrom Astronomical Waste
• AI 2027 forecast
• Ajeya Cotra AI timelines
• METR evaluations research
• Redwood Research homepage
• AI tools existential security
• Gradual disempowerment EA Forum
• Why viatopia is important
• Benjamin Todd author page
• The Precipice Wikipedia page
• Forethought Research homepage
• Catalyze Impact homepage
• Horizon Public Service Fellowship
• Gradual Disempowerment paper
• Mark Humphries faculty profile
• Andrew Ng discussion thread
• Cognitive Revolution show home
• Cognitive Revolution Apple Podcasts

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