Richard McNgo criticizes EA for turning AI safety into a 'fake field'
voooooogel · x · 2026-08-29
Richard McNgo argues that Effective Altruism's main impact has been turning AI safety into a 'fake field,' akin to academic psychology. He suggests that from 2016-2024, EA memes diverted the best young thinkers into marginally 'useful' work or capabilities research instead of discovering fundamental truths. Consequently, breakthroughs like Garrabrant induction have languished while sufficiently smart pioneers build safety evals, safety cases, and scary demos that simply will not generalize.
More from AGI Musings
- Gary Marcus cites data: AI capex boom yields no productivity gains — GaryMarcus · 2026-08-29
- AI alignment may require 'redemption' for agents, revealing moral scaling laws — jachiam0 · 2026-08-29
- The Money-Happiness Debate: Stevenson-Wolfers vs the Easterlin Paradox Still Unresolved — dioscuri · 2026-08-29
- 5 Rules for AI Writing Amid Druckenmiller AI-Authored Op-Ed Controversy — The AI Daily Brief · 2026-08-29
- Productivity Expert Chad Syverson on AI and Impact — Afinetheorem · 2026-08-29
- Prediction: Closed frontier models to become downloadable by 2027 — imjustnewatai · 2026-08-29