PauseAI Values & Strategy

Having a written down document detailing our core values and strategy helps us to have a shared set of beliefs about how we operate.

I've written a first version and would love to know your thoughts!

Values: https://pauseai.info/values
Theory of Change: https://pauseai.info/theory-of-change

How you can help

Is something missing?
Do you disagree with some of the values?
Do things have to be worded differently?

Feedback & discussion below please!

EDIT: Also possible: directly edit the page using the edit button in the footer

PauseAI

PauseAI values

How does PauseAI plan to achieve its mission?

PauseAI

Theory of Change

How does PauseAI expect to achieve its mission?

hurt-tomatoOP•1/12/24, 12:09 PM

Would love to hear your input: @1167436741842575460

foolish-indigo•1/12/24, 12:14 PM

My biggest value is "survival of the human species". I realize this doesn't sound as fun as other values and don't recommend putting it on the website yet. I am content with the other values.

hurt-tomatoOP•1/12/24, 12:17 PM

good point, we should have something like that. Perhaps we should also clearly state something against human replacement / enhancement? Not entirely sure how broad that's supported here though

dead-brown•1/12/24, 2:01 PM

Community. Should this be the first one? Initial thought is that, although this is great, this does not make us sound very serious, especially in relation with the seriousness of our cause. We are talking about the imminent end of humanity after all. "It's not just about constructive action, it's about making friends" gives me vibes of "Don't look up" where even the people who understand what is going on don't take it seriously enough. Don't get me wrong, I agree with this core value, mostly because I believe it is key for a well functioning organisation. However I am wondering whether it should be the first one, which implicitly puts a lot of emphasis on it, and maybe whether it should be rephrased.
Meta question: how immutable are these core values? My feeling is that this should be a first try, not extremely immutable, that gets refined with time and becomes more and more constitutional. Seems like a good trade-off between the problems of "not getting it right on the first try" and "value drift"
Honesty: I love that and I would add something about self-criticism. Making sure that we periodically review our beliefs and check that they are still a good fit to reality. The disagreements channel is a good example of that; we are, and should stay, open to criticism, internal and external.
I am OK with diversity of risks but we need to also make sure that there is a will for epistemological convergence.
Maybe minor concern about the "Grassroots" culture. If a "big corporation" wants to fund us, does that mean we have to reject the funding? How do we define "big corporation"?

broad-salmon•1/12/24, 3:22 PM

Looks good! My deepest moral value is anti-(extreme) suffering: reducing, preventing, not causing it. Preventing s-risks / dystopian outcomes is what really motivates me with regard to PauseAI - but conscious others have different moral priorities

sacred-rose•1/13/24, 8:35 AM

I like that we are making this page and there is a lot of important points that are cool to have public, but also I don't like various things. I'm having trouble thinking through all though

sacred-rose•1/13/24, 8:36 AM

I think the order of the things although is not numbered sends a message

sacred-rose•1/13/24, 8:40 AM

I think that even though the community stuff is really important to push is dishonest to have it so up there and have so many points about it kinda

sacred-rose•1/13/24, 8:42 AM

The grassroots stuff is unnecessary and I actually think could be more damaging than useful.
I know that it probably comes in response to criticism of e/accs and conspiracy people but i don't think we should limit ourselves like that.
Actually now that I think about it, I'm not sure what "grassroots" mean? Would exempt funding from millionaires?

sacred-rose•1/13/24, 8:45 AM

transparency = honesty
friendly = open

sacred-rose•1/13/24, 8:48 AM

community = anyone can contribute

sacred-rose•1/13/24, 8:55 AM

also the description of anyone can contribute it doesn't have anything to do with "anyone can contribute" and is actually something that when I read sounds like a justification to not pay anyone ?

sacred-rose•1/13/24, 8:57 AM

like.. we get donations some money WILL be used. so the idea would be to not have anyone working? because if someone starts to work for it sounds like we're trying to explote the volunteers with that paragraph without any real argument imo.

sacred-rose•1/13/24, 8:58 AM

possible bias for grassroots and the last thing: I would like to work fulltime on this

sacred-rose•1/13/24, 9:00 AM

I would have a simple "diversity" thing that accepts people who fear different risks, AND the different views on politics, an more stuff

sacred-rose•1/13/24, 9:02 AM

So I would put as core values

'humanity' kinda stuff
honesty / transparency
community
diversity

sacred-rose•1/13/24, 9:03 AM

(without the numbers)

sacred-rose•1/13/24, 9:14 AM

I don't know if it is necessary to have 'core values' separated from 'culture'. action-oriented comes from the first value, friendly/open from community/diversity.
I guess that reasonable is kinda different

sacred-rose•1/13/24, 9:14 AM

but could be our 5th value also

sacred-rose•1/13/24, 9:18 AM

Who are we trying to convince seems fine although we are not "trying to convince" journalists but to make them write about us ?

sacred-rose•1/13/24, 9:20 AM

Also they seem like in a lower level than the other 2 bigger objectives. at the same level that funders and influential voices although that would look weird

sacred-rose•1/13/24, 9:24 AM

Actions:
e-mails should be first.
I wonder how important are protests in comparison with other stuff like a podcast episode or something. I don't know, maybe we should at least mention the other forms of outreach in one?

sacred-rose•1/13/24, 9:26 AM

Fun Social activities.. is the opposite of action-oriented

sacred-rose•1/13/24, 9:27 AM

I mean we can put it but something more like "there's need to be a balance" and not "so people want to come back and bring their friends"

sacred-rose•1/13/24, 9:27 AM

I like everything else

Bbroad-salmon Looks good! My deepest moral value is anti-(extreme) suffering: reducing, preven...

moderate-tomato•1/13/24, 1:03 PM

I agree! Reduce suffering and extinction risks

moderate-tomato•1/13/24, 1:29 PM

On strategy, I really like this view:
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/4038971-a-campaign-plan-to-put-ai-regulation-in-the-political-zeitgeist/amp/

The Hill

A campaign plan to put AI regulation in the political zeitgeist

Leaders in the AI space who want to see regulations proposed, supported and enacted need to make that the only politically salient position to take in the 2024 campaigns.

worthy-azure•1/13/24, 4:50 PM

I think we should keep the values very tightly focused.

Saving people and the world as we know it from catastrophe or societal collapse
Empowerment of all people on the issue of dangerous AI, not just the ivory tower or powerful industries

worthy-azure•1/13/24, 4:51 PM

That is if these are public. Short and focused with changes if you need them is how you prevent value drift.

hurt-tomatoOP•3/4/24, 11:33 AM

Sorry for not getting back on this earlier. Thanks for all the thoughts! I made various changes (no more grassroots, added humanity first).

https://pauseai.info/values

Also, I separated it from a new theory of change page:

https://pauseai.info/theory-of-change

Please do point out the things that you don't agree with. These documents should be rewritten until the vast majority feel represented.

full-green•3/4/24, 6:55 PM

On the theory of change page, this sentence ends in a comma:

Virtually all AI chips used in training runs are created by NVidia,

Was that meant to describe other bottlenecks in the supply chain?

colossal-harlequin•3/4/24, 9:38 PM

(Other than that half-sentence) on both pages I don't see anything I disagree with orobvious ways to improve the writing or anything, and I strongly agree and resonate with most of the content.

It is pretty unusual to get this reaction from me so nice job!

dead-brown•3/5/24, 2:10 PM

!track

ProjectBot•3/5/24, 2:10 PM

Project Tracker: https://maximolog.notion.site/PauseAI-Values-Strategy-042c749db4fa420d9cdce4e38e13a85d

Maxime Fournes's Notion on Notion

PauseAI Values & Strategy | Notion

Having a written down document detailing our core values and strategy helps us to have a shared set of beliefs about how we operate.

I've written a draft and would love to know your thoughts!

Preview: https://deploy-preview-60--pauseai.netlify.app/values-and-strategy

How you can help

Is something missing?
Do you disagree with some ...

hurt-tomatoOP•6/17/24, 8:21 AM

@Chris Gerrby suggested adding "truth-seeking" and "calibration" to our values.

I think these are good additions, which should mean that we update our beliefs according to what we lear, and that we continue to criticize what we think is true.

sacred-rose•6/17/24, 9:44 AM

They sound good but I don't get how they differ from one another

hurt-tomatoOP•6/17/24, 9:48 AM

I'd prefer value changes to go through a formal PR proces

sacred-rose•6/17/24, 10:13 AM

sure

awake-maroon•6/17/24, 11:40 AM

I can do a short writeup on what I mean more succinctly before we publish, then you can scrutinize it.

This isn't TS, so give me a few days and I'll send it here.

PauseAI Values & Strategy

How you can help

How you can help

Similar Threads

Similar Threads

How you can help

Similar Threads