Set up working groups & volunteer pipeline

There are now about 600 people in this discord. We've got a list of 120 people who signed up on the website. About 1500 people are following us on twitter. That's a huge amount of people. We should be able to capitalize on this way more than we're currently doing. Right now most of PauseAI actions come from a small group of agentic people who self-organize. That ignores all the people who want to contribute, but just need a small push.

Working groups can help getting more volunteers to become active. It helps structure the organization, it helps to give people a set of responsibilities.

Current teams

Press. Get in contact with journalists. Write press releases. Find out about relevant articles. @Kathleen v @Sevatar , see projects-💪Press Team
Recruitment (HR / volunteers / needs a better name). Onboarding: reach out to every single person who signs up to PauseAI. No Access ake them feel welcome. Get them in some working group. Make sure there is a good vibe. Organise events.

## Which teama do we want

(some ideas, please share thoughts below)

Strategy. High-level stuff. Coordinate other working groups. Choose long-term strategy. @Guido Reichstadter @Charlie H
Local groups. See No Access. This is probably the most important part, because face to face meetings are magic.
Media. Photos, posters, graphics. All that kind of stuff!
Video. @Will Petillo
Web. Website, sign up flow, technical side of things. @Liron Shapira @Joseph Miller
Policy & Lobbying. Reach out to politicians, write proposals, read proposals, give feedback, discuss.
Funding. Work on getting grants, manage the merchandise, manage funds.

## Questions

Which working groups do we need? How do we make sure it's not too much / too little?
How do we make people enter? Is it a formal process? Do people share it on linkedin? Do they have to sign an agreement?
Do we require some commitments? E.g. 4 hrs / week?
Do working groups have closed / private discord channels?
Do we make working group members public on the website? Helps to find the right person and connect.

## How can you help

Share ideas on which working groups are needed
Want to start and lead a working group? Please do!

primary-violet•10/27/23, 6:03 PM

As newbie to PauseAI I think this could be really helpful. I joined yesterday and have been inputting in the discord channels but I didn't really know where to start or what help is needed.

In previous campaigns (as a casual volunteer and as various specific roles) I have found it is a lot more effective when they are core people are driving areas of work and getting people to input / contribute as and when needed. It really helped make sure we maximise key moments, utilise people's skills, and allow others to unskill / be supported too.

Some teams could be:

press and comms
Website
volunteer experience (on boarding, wellbeing, updates etc)
policy and lobbying
Social media
partnerships (working with other campaigns, influencers, organisations)
events They are all very interconnected in practice.

colossal-harlequin•10/27/23, 6:36 PM

https://docs.google.com/document/d/15coeKnRLAOjRuQZo2hDht4hoUPtT-O3QjlIdkukB7FE/edit could be useful here.

Google Docs

A Toolkit of Deep Collaboration Practices

A Toolkit of Deep Collaboration Practices Open the google doc outline at the sidebar to navigate between sections easily. Introduction This toolkit is a collection of useful collaboration practices, all of which are aligned and expanding on both the principles & values and the constitution. They...

hurt-tomatoOP•10/28/23, 9:27 AM

@Guido Reichstadter had a lot of valuable ideas on this. Maybe you can share some thoughts here?

hurt-tomatoOP•10/28/23, 11:54 AM

@Charlie H would you be interested in being in a strategy working group? Perhaps with @Guido Reichstadter and me?

inner-olive•10/28/23, 1:56 PM

Yeah absolutely- got some things to take care of this morning but i can lay out the stuff ive picked up from my experience, may be useful as a jumping off point . I’m also interested in learning about your experience @Dingers & anyone else’s ideas.

inner-olive•10/28/23, 4:54 PM

Preface- I don't really have a lot of hands on organizing experience, what I do have comes from brief participation in XR (US) 2019-2020 & from workshops & meetings on mobilization with Roger Hallam, the main XR strategic architect as well as independent research. I have a little nonviolent direct action experience (two arrests on women's rights / civil rights activism- locking on to the US supreme court & occupying a bridge for 24 hours in response to the Dobbs ruling) & have seen a bit first hand how direct action interacts with mobilization & media outreach.

So what I can present is my understanding of a variant of the XR organizational model, parts of which may or may not be useful to PauseAI as a group not explicity focused on nonviolent direct action. There's a decent amount of thought that underlies the organizational and mobilization methodology of XR that could prove useful.

ripe-gray•10/28/23, 5:11 PM

I just posted about this in the wrong place, but I'm a marketing copywriter and I think as the group evolves it will be important to have some key messaging decided upon so that everyone is using consistent language and easy to understand and recall/remember slogans.

hurt-tomatoOP•10/28/23, 5:12 PM

Great you're here @Kathleen v ! Would love to hear your thoughts about chants and signs: No Access

Hhurt-tomato Great you're here <@1165714009585111141> ! Would love to hear your thoughts abou...

ripe-gray•10/28/23, 5:14 PM

I'll work on it this week.

dangerous-fuchsia•10/28/23, 5:38 PM

@Joep Meindertsma do we have any funding yet? I think if we want real impact it's inevitable we're going to have to pay people to work full time on this, so there needs to be some source of larger funding. I see no donation page anywhere, I'm assuming people self-funded the materials for the protests. Many people are lazy to do something themselves but would be willing to donate to the cause. Being better organized would also lead to more credibility and potentially getting sources of funding other than individual donations (like grants from EA funds)

Ddangerous-fuchsia <@211238287522791425> do we have any funding yet? I think if we want real impact...

hurt-tomatoOP•10/28/23, 5:40 PM

I will receive 20k funding, so far self-funded yeah. Will set up legal entity soon, enables a donate button (we'll get a bank account)

dangerous-fuchsia•10/28/23, 6:01 PM

awesome, thanks for doing that

primary-violet•10/28/23, 7:02 PM

I'd look at the coop banking for a campaign account because it is a lot more flexible. Some legal entities will restrict the ability to campaign and the type of account you can have. Coop gave the IC Change campaign (my previous experience) as just a community group. @Joep Meindertsma

Hhurt-tomato <@614210450284085258> would you be interested in being in a strategy working gro...

inner-olive•10/28/23, 7:12 PM

This may be a long shot but I would suggest trying to recruit the advice/ consultancy/ collaboration in strategy formation at whatever level of availability of Max Tegmark, Connor Leahy & Yoshua Bengio.

inner-olive•10/28/23, 7:20 PM

I'm sure there are others as well that I'm not aware of- but these strike me as some of the more practical and forward thinking individuals on this subject -folks with their "head in the game" who recognize the significance & necessity of action.

Iinner-olive This may be a long shot but I would suggest trying to recruit the advice/ consul...

dangerous-fuchsia•10/28/23, 7:31 PM

There may be some advantage in maintaining independence, because right now Tegmark, Bengio and Hinton are seen as credible institutional voices, while PauseAI protesters are being called cranks all over Twitter. I think this is likely to change soon but it's the current state

Iinner-olive This may be a long shot but I would suggest trying to recruit the advice/ consul...

hurt-tomatoOP•10/28/23, 9:35 PM

I'm in touch with Connor, but he's doing his own thing with Control AI, doesn't want to do protests.

I'm in touch with Mark Brakel from FLI, but not Tegmark. Also not Bengio, assume he's got his hands full.

colossal-harlequin•10/30/23, 1:51 PM

I should follow up re https://discord.com/channels/1100491867675709580/1103960230284492893/1165679334225350736 : even if Gail does have useful XR insight/history to share, it'll probably have to wait - her court case re some window-breaking direct action in 2019 finally runs today and I suspect it'll end with jail time.

There is one thing that came up I would like to put to the group: a global citizen assembly seems a pretty good fit for public engagement about what a useful AI pause entails.

What's a good place for me to present that concept and gather folk's thoughts? A project here? A message or thread in some other channel?

hurt-tomatoOP•10/30/23, 1:56 PM

Sounds like a post for projects-💪! WOuld love to hear your thoughts

hurt-tomatoOP•10/30/23, 8:12 PM

@Sevatar has some interesting insights in how we could be more effective in utilizing press releases

hurt-tomato•10/30/23, 8:55 PM

Hey, everyone!

First and foremost, we need a dedicated press team. This is essential, that way we don't step on each other's toes. If you'd like to volunteer for this, please chime in!!

Next, we should have a single repository for news we think is worth sharing. This could be a Discord channel, or something else. Finally, we need to organize our mailing lists.

LISTS

Currently, our media outreach is all over the place. Some people use wide email blasts, while others are using more targeted strategies, but we should be using both approaches!

First, we should merge the big blast-lists into a single 'master journalist contact list;' This would include any journalist who has ever written about artificial intelligence, and must be updated regularly! This list would get only our 'flagship releases,' where we announce major protests, events or activities.

Then, we make another list with reporters who have either answered our emails, or written about us in the past. These are journalists we have a relationship with, so they should get all of our releases. We can also periodically reach out to them, offer to connect them with sources or resources, and see what they're working on.

Once we have these lists, we can start on our workflow:

WORKFLOW
Press Team would find story ideas via the news repository, and pitch a press release to Pause Leadership. Once greenlit, team then drafts a press release and submits it to leadership for approval. Once approved, the press release is sent!

hurt-tomato•10/30/23, 8:55 PM

PR BEST PRACTICES
Our current Guide (https://pauseai.info/writing-press-releases) is fantastic! I have very few notes, except for the following:

ALL press releases should include a quote from @Joep Meindertsma or another Pause leader;
Releases should also ALWAYS offer an interview with Joep or another Pause Leader!
Releases should have a BIG word at the start, like 'INTERVIEW,' 'PROTEST,' or 'NEW STUDY/REPORT,' which quickly explains what you're offering coverage of!

SIGNAL BOOSTS
Currently, we've only been announcing our major events and protests. This is a great start, but we can do more. For example, 'Signal Boost' releases allow us to promote stuff our friends are doing, or warn others about what our opponents have been saying. This would be a link to the relevant news-item, our own summary/perspective, a quote from Pause leaders, and offer an interview with Joep or someone else.

For example, we can signal-boost studies which show voters generally support pausing AI development. We should also signal-boost gaffes by accelerationists. When Sam Altman says GPT will replace 'mid' humans, that should be front-page news!!

NEWSLETTER

Another idea I had was a newsletter, along the lines of 'This Week in AI,' where we round-up major news items and talk a bit about our current activities and strategy, along with upcoming events, and 'decelerationist theory,' which in this case means anything from threads by major Pause/Stop/Safety thinkers, to our own op-eds responding to accelerationist claims. There's no shortage of potential material we can share in these newsletters, so let's get creative!

This newsletter should also be cross-posted to Substack.

Writing press releases for protests

How to be effective at writing a press release to cover a protest.

hurt-tomato•10/30/23, 8:56 PM

TLDR: WE NEED A PRESS TEAM. If you'd like to help, please chime in!!

Hhurt-tomato <@614210450284085258> would you be interested in being in a strategy working gro...

slow-yellow•10/31/23, 9:07 AM

Absolutely, sorry for my slow response. I also have fairly limited experience with organising/direct action. I’ve participated in several XR marches and organised a climate strike at school (but that’s it!). I’m more knowledgable about history of other protests. But would be very excited to help in any way I can!

Ccolossal-harlequin I should follow up re https://discord.com/channels/1100491867675709580/110396023...

slow-yellow•10/31/23, 9:12 AM

This sounds great! I am fairly confident that deliberate representative assembly would come up w better policies than RSP. I also wonder if anyone at Collective Intelligence Project has considered this. https://cip.org

The Collective Intelligence Project

Hhurt-tomato Hey, everyone! First and foremost, **we need a dedicated press team.** This is...

ill-bronze•10/31/23, 1:42 PM

This seems like good stuff. We do already have a shared list of media contacts (DM'd - happy to share with anyone interested, but think it's probably best not to post publicly).

ill-bronze•10/31/23, 1:43 PM

I think explainer videos about the risks of AI would be really good. Although making good videos is a challenging skill.

ill-bronze•10/31/23, 1:45 PM

imo there's no point proliferating Discords at this point. It's makes things more complex

moderate-tomato•10/31/23, 1:47 PM

fair enough. i suppose it could be done through threads here but would clutter things up. i do feel things like twitter/memes/media could be a single channel

slow-yellow•10/31/23, 3:30 PM

If you are London based @Guido Reichstadter @anthonybailey.net I’d recommend going to this: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ai-fringe-day-5-looking-ahead-what-next-for-ai-tickets-733418202587

Eventbrite

AI Fringe Day 5: Looking ahead; what next for AI?

Day Five delves into the topics and insights from across the AI Fringe and at the Government-hosted Summit, looking ahead to what’s next.

ripe-gray•10/31/23, 4:31 PM

I can help write press releases starting next week.

Copybykate.com is my portfolio.
I mostly write marketing materials, but it looks like you have a good template to follow.

Iill-bronze I think explainer videos about the risks of AI would be really good. Although ma...

distinguished-brown•10/31/23, 6:45 PM

As Rob Miles already has brilliant videos explaining the core concepts, what useful things can we do that he hasn't done?

2 ideas:

Responding to specific hopeful thoughts from specific notable people (ideally those thoughts are also in video form), i.e. I heard Neil deGrasse Tyson literally say "it's on a computer just turn it off bro" in a recent podcast - that's low hanging fruit
Basically doing a Rob Miles whilst also adding why a pause is a good/the best solution. Rob has (understandably) stood well clear of ever saying "therefore we should do X"

Mmoderate-tomato fair enough. i suppose it could be done through threads here but would clutter t...

hurt-tomato•10/31/23, 7:47 PM

Yeah, we should have a thread on this!

Ddistinguished-brown As Rob Miles already has brilliant videos explaining the core concepts, what use...

hurt-tomato•10/31/23, 7:47 PM

Proliferation.

hurt-tomato•10/31/23, 7:48 PM

There's absolutely no reason we can't have multiple people saying the same thing. That's already a thing in other communities, such as BreadTube and the various LoreTuber communities. Different styles, aesthetics and content specialities appeal to different audiences, and it can be hard for one YouTuber to cover them all. Proliferation of channels allows a more varied approach.

hurt-tomato•10/31/23, 7:49 PM

Additionally, more creators means a larger community. Eventually, we'll reach critical mass and creators can start collaborating on bigger projects, such as larger series, debates or online seminars.

hurt-tomato•10/31/23, 7:50 PM

Finally, approaches. Rob has an alignment/safety focus. How about a channel with a more philosophical approach, looking at the intellectual antecedents behind e/acc and accelerationism? How about a left-leaning channel, which outlines the economic effects of artificial intelligence? How about a channel where we have an AI voice-synth reading LessWrong/EA's 'greatest hits' about AI safety?

Ddistinguished-brown As Rob Miles already has brilliant videos explaining the core concepts, what use...

hurt-tomato•10/31/23, 7:57 PM

I think a 'deboonker'/response channel would be AWESOME, as would a dedicated PAUSE/STOP channel. PauseAI has a YouTube channel right now, but it has exactly ONE video on it (and its a short), and only 13 subscribers. We should have footage from protests at least, and possibly more.

Also,

it's on a computer just turn it off bro

Tyler the Creator-ass idea from the dude who wants to kiss himself on the lips!!

Rripe-gray I can help write press releases starting next week. Copybykate.com is my portfo...

hurt-tomato•10/31/23, 7:58 PM

I shot you a DM about organizing a press team!

Ddistinguished-brown As Rob Miles already has brilliant videos explaining the core concepts, what use...

dual-salmon•11/1/23, 4:10 AM

I can help with video creation. I already have a channel like this https://youtube.com/@willpetillo1189?feature=shared

I would like some help in picking topics and gathering visuals, I can get the writing and editing (no objections to help here). Not having this collaboration is why I lost momentum on the explainer series (when I have ideas I really want to write, they go on a blog https://www.zenmarmotdigital.com/blog) and am currently focused on interviews, but I would happily pick it back up if there was interest!

YouTube

Will Petillo

Sslow-yellow If you are London based <@1092443605295177789> <@696064670296965181> I’d recomme...

colossal-harlequin•11/1/23, 11:13 AM

I'm actually Edinburgh Scotland - was only able to zip down/back to London yesterday to connect at the Wilton Hall event.

Joining those two dots together though Annika Brack was on the discussion panel and https://icfg.eu/ looks interesting.

ICFG@mini-m

ICFG - International Center for Future Generations

ICFG is a think tank that focuses on enabling decision-makers to anticipate and govern the societal impacts of rapid technological change.

Original message was deleted

hurt-tomatoOP•11/2/23, 9:52 AM

To keep this thread focused on working groups / volunteer pipeline I've moved @Pato's comments here: projects-💪This discord server

hurt-tomato•11/2/23, 9:14 PM

@Joseph Miller @Kathleen v @Joep Meindertsma due to some unexpected issues, we weren't able to attend today's meeting. Can we get together tomorrow or on Saturday to discuss press stuff? So sorry about this!

ill-bronze•11/2/23, 9:21 PM

I'm travelling the next few days. Will be happy to talk at next Thurday's meeting?

hurt-tomato•11/3/23, 12:01 AM

Sure! We can also set up a thread elsewhere, and chat asynchronously.

hurt-tomatoOP•11/5/23, 10:44 AM

For the press group discussion: projects-💪Press Team

hurt-tomatoOP•11/13/23, 9:25 AM

We now have a discord onboarding flow, quite a useful feature! This lets people ask questions and as a result follow channels and assign roles. This second one is relevant for working groups, because we could have roles like:

"volunteer"
"designer"
"video editor"
"writer"
"programmer"

With these roles, we can easily:

Mention people with relevant skillsets
show relevant channels

thoughts welcome! Also see this: projects-💪This discord server

broad-emerald•11/17/23, 5:24 PM

I've done some research in the past about scalable small-group organizing that might provide some inspiration. Would love to talk more about it if anyone's interested: https://agentofuser.com/groupdag/

Bbroad-emerald I've done some research in the past about scalable small-group organizing that m...

dead-brown•11/18/23, 4:34 PM

Very interesting

Hhurt-tomato **PR BEST PRACTICES** Our current Guide (https://pauseai.info/writing-press-rele...

spotty-amber•11/18/23, 7:15 PM

the newsletter can go handa in hand with a similar video content

Set up working groups & volunteer pipeline

Current teams

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