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I agree, but I think that with genuine care these problems are addressable. If you actually, sincerely, care about AI safety more than you do about not getting on with rednecks, you can go and meet these people, you can spend time with them, you can ask them sincere questions because you really care about getting honest answers. Understanding other cultures is tough and comes with pitfalls for sure, but it's still something you can do with a little care.
Just get your senior guys to turn up to a bunch of slam-poetry recitals to start with, get a feel for it, get the lay of the land, work out who's important. Actually being open minded gets you 50% of the way there. After a few months you can at least get a feel for which PR consultants are bullshitters and which ones are authentic.
This is the main constraint, I think. The AI safety people only think their priority is 100% AI safety, it's actually about 60% AI safety; 40% not looking bad to their friends and getting redneck/trans taint on them.
Yes, but how many of them potentially hold America's future in their hands? Trump and his administration clearly cares about AI to some degree, they've tweeted about it, served legal notices on it. The door is open, you just have to let them walk through it now and again, and be willing to say nice things when they do.
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