Why everyone in AI safety knows each other: a tiny expert pool shaped by EA
burny_tech · x · 2026-09-28
The author explains why the AI risk field is such a dense web: until recently very few people took AI risk seriously, most serious work happened in the Bay Area, and the community formed through collaborations, friendships, and rivalries. Many came in via effective altruism, others joined forces with EA-aligned researchers, so nearly everyone has EA ties. The analogy: if Congress and every news network suddenly needed opinions on the cohomology of 4-manifolds, they'd find far too few low-dimensional topologists — AI policy faces the same expert scarcity.
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