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AI safety syllabus

Article by The 80,000 Hours team · Last updated August 2016 · First published August 2016

This page was written by Jan Leike, with contributions and comments by David Krueger, Jelena Luketina, Victoria Krakovna, Daniel Dewey, Laurent Orseau, and others. It is intended as a guide to working on technical aspects of AI safety. See our guide to working in AI policy and strategy for another approach.

This is a syllabus of relevant background reading material and courses related to AI safety. It is intended as a guide for undergraduates in mathematics and computer science planning their degree, as well as people from other disciplines who are thinking about moving into AI safety. It includes tips how to design your degree, how to transition into research, and the relevant conferences. This is not intended as a general guide of how to become a researcher.

Reading List

We now recommend using the bibliography from the Center for Human-Compatible AI at UC Berkeley. Their list is more comprehensive and up-to-date than the one below.

This is a list of the most relevant reading topics and the appropriate material. The chapter recommendations are indicative of what you should know. If you find the topic interesting, read more! As an undergraduate student, you can plan these courses into your degree. As a graduate student, you can use the provided material to extend your knowledge into areas that you do not have much background in. Focus on the textbooks and lecture notes and use the video lectures as supplementary materials.

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Trevor decided to move from a nonprofit to a for-profit to do more good in the long run. Was it the right call?

Blog post by Roman Duda · Published August 3rd, 2016

This is part of our series of profiles of people who changed their career in a major way in order to have more impact because of their exposure to 80,000 Hours.

I recently spoke to Trevor Shorb about how his career plans changed as a result of 80,000 Hours. After finishing university, Trevor worked in the Peace Corps in El Salvador and planned to work for an NGO in the developing world. But after reading our advice, he decided to gain skills in the private sector first, in order to have a bigger impact in the long run. Today Trevor does business development for an international education company in emerging markets in Latin America. He plans to start a nonprofit or for-profit in the developing world in the future.

How and why did he make this transition? Read our interview with him to find out.

How did you find out about 80,000 Hours and effective altruism, and what were you planning on doing with your career before that?

I first became interested in effective altruism when I read “The Life You Can Save” around the time I graduated college and had committed to serve in the Peace Corps.

Before that I had undergone a fundamental change in perspective. Recruited to college to play lacrosse, I was fully dedicated to the pursuit of being the best and leading the team. A case of chronic Lyme disease led to multiple operations and much time spent in doctor’s offices.

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Is deep work the most underappreciated skill for career success? An interview with Cal Newport.

Blog post by Benjamin Todd · Published August 2nd, 2016

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king – or so the saying goes. In his new book, Deep Work, Cal Newport argues that when it comes to deep concentration, we have become the land of the blind.

He believes that the ability to do focused work is essential for career success, but becoming increasingly rare. And the fewer people are capable of deep work, the more of an edge you should be able to get by being the exception.

We think Cal is one of the most interesting thinkers working on the issue of career strategy, so recommend you check it out. We interviewed Cal to learn more.

Quick summary of the book

Cal defines “deep work” as “the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task”.

In his previous book, So Good They Can’t Ignore You, Cal argues it’s better to focus on gaining career capital rather than “following your passion” (we agree). Part one of Deep Work takes off where his previous book ends – he argues that deep work is essential to gaining valuable career capital. In short:

Deep work is increasingly valuable in the modern economy because it’s what allows you to master new intellectual skills and produce creative breakthroughs. People able to do both of these can take work that’s unlikely to be automated and reach the top of their fields,

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Update on number of significant plan changes

Blog post by Roman Duda · Published July 14th, 2016

This is a brief update on the number of significant plan changes we’ve caused as of the end of Dec 2015.

We define a significant plan change as:

Someone tells us that 80,000 Hours caused them to change the career path they intend to pursue, in a way that they think increases their lifetime impact.

More on what counts as a significant plan change here.

Our total number of significant plan changes as of the end of Dec 2015 is 453.

Here’s a summary of our key figures:

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The best email scripts for cold-emailing

Article by Benjamin Todd · Published June 2016

Here’s a collection of the most useful email scripts we’ve found for asking for introductions and small favours from people you don’t know.

How to ask for an introduction
A basic script from the Muse

Hi [name],

I hope all is well with you. As you know, I’ve been [context: looking for a new job, raising capital, working in sales at XYZ company]. I noticed that you’re connected to [target name] and was hoping that you could introduce us for [reason] if you feel comfortable doing so.

I’ve included an easy-to-copy blurb below, to provide context, but let me know if there’s any other information I can provide. I appreciate your help!

[Your name]

Scott Britton

Britton is a successful tech entrepreneur. Here’s his advice.

How to set up an informational interview
Ramit Sethi

An informational interview is an opportunity to meet someone who works in a position or industry you’d like to work in, where you can ask them questions about their job and get the inside scoop.

Never, ever directly ask for a job in an informational interview. That’s a big no-no. You can turn an informational interview into a potential job opportunity, but only if you approach it wisely. Here’s the first step of that process: The email introduction for an informational interview.

By the way,

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Maria Gutierrez on doing good through art, Costa Rica and why 80,000 Hours changed her career

Blog post by Robert Wiblin · Published June 2nd, 2016

This week I interviewed Maria Gutierrez to learn more about how 80,000 Hours had changed her career plans. For the last year Maria has been our freelance graphic designer, producing most of the artwork on our site today.

I sped up the recording so it is quick to listen to:

Summary of the interview

In 2014 Maria had a general desire to improve the world, but no idea how to put that into practice. She didn’t see any way to do useful work while using her creative skills and was frustrated by this.
She stumbled onto 80,000 Hours and effective altruism while browsing the internet, and its ‘honesty’ immediately resonated with her. It provided a much more concrete way to assess what would actually be useful to do than she previously had. It was the first time she had considered ‘earning to give’ as a way to do good.
She realised that she could do a lot of good by using her artistic skills to contribute to any organisation that does exceptional work. She decided to make her first contribution by working for us.
Maria decided to move back to Costa Rica to dramatically lower her cost of living, and thereby be able to donate more. This is possible because all the work she does is online for groups in the US and UK. She recommends other people think about doing the same thing, and we suggest some careers that are particularly promising for remote work.
We discuss how the 80,000 Hours framework can be applied to others in the creative arts, and challenge the view that such skills are not valuable.
Long term, Maria is weighing up earning to give as a fine artist, against doing ‘direct work’ as a designer for non-profits or for-profits that she thinks are having a large social impact.
This raises tricky issues about personal fit, and which sacrifice she is willing to make and which she isn’t. Maria doesn’t think she could be happy without being challenged artistically. She also thinks she would burn out doing pure marketing.
Finally, we discuss RISE (Red de Impacto Sustenible y Effectivo), en effective altruism inspired organistion for Costa Rica, which she intends to launch with a friend. Maria explains why she doesn’t want to take donations away from charities that work in countries poorer than Costa Rica.

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To find work you love, don’t (always) follow your passion

Article by Benjamin Todd · Last updated May 2016 · First published September 2014

Watch our Executive Director’s TEDx talk, which has been viewed over 4.7 million times, or read a more up-to-date article below (updated May 2016).

“Follow your passion” has become a defining piece of career advice.

Source: Google Ngram

The idea is that the key to finding a great career is to identify your greatest interest – “your passion” – and pursue a career involving that interest. It’s an attractive message: just commit to following your passion, and you’ll have a great career. And when we look at successful people, they’re often passionate about what they do.

Now, we’re fans of being passionate about your work. Research shows that intrinsically motivating work makes people a lot happier than a big pay cheque. We also think it’s really important to find something you can excel at.

However, there’s four ways “follow your passion” can be misleading advice.

One problem is that it suggests that passion is all you need. But even if you’re interested in the work, if you lack the other key ingredients of job satisfaction that research has shown are important, you’ll still be unsatisfied. If a basketball fan gets a job involving basketball, but works with people he hates, has unfair pay, or finds the work meaningless, he’s still going to dislike his job.

In fact, “following your passion” can make it harder to satisfy the other ingredients,

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The rent is too damn high — should you work on reforming land use regulations?

Blog post by Robert Wiblin · Published May 11th, 2016

We’ve released a new ‘problem profile’ on reform of how land is used in cities.

Local laws often prohibit the construction of dense new housing, which drives up prices, especially in a few large high-wage urban areas. The increased prices transfer wealth from renters to landowners and push people away from centres of economic activity, which reduces their ability to get a job or earn higher wages, likely by a very large amount.

An opportunity to tackle the problem which nobody has yet taken is to start a nonprofit or lobbying body to advocate for more housing construction in key urban areas and states. Another option would be to try to shift zoning decisions from local to state governments, where they are less likely to be determined by narrow local interests, especially existing land-owners who benefit from higher property prices.

In the profile we cover:

The main reasons for and against thinking that working on land use reform is among the best uses of your time.
How to use your career to make housing in prospering cities more accessible to ordinary people.

Read our full profile on land use reform.

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New report: Is climate change the biggest problem in the world?

Blog post by Robert Wiblin · Published May 11th, 2016

We’ve released a new ‘problem profile’ on the risks posed by extreme climate change.

There is a small but non-negligible chance that unmitigated greenhouse emissions will lead to very large increases in global temperatures, which would likely have catastrophic consequences for life on Earth.

Though the chance of catastrophic outcomes is relatively low, the degree of harm that would result from large temperature increases is very high, meaning that the expected value of working on this problem may also be very high.

Options for working on this problem include academic research into the extreme risks of climate change or whether they might be mitigated by geoengineering. One can also advocate for reduced greenhouse emissions through careers in politics, think-tanks or journalism, and work on developing lower emissions technology as an engineer or scientist.

In the profile we cover:

The main reasons for and against thinking that the ‘tail risks’ of climate change are a highly pressing problem to work on.
How climate change scores on our assessment rubric for ranking the biggest problems in the world
How to use your career to lower the risk posed by climate change.

Read our full profile on the most extreme risks from climate change..

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Land use reform

Problem profile by Robert Wiblin · Published April 2016

Local laws often prohibit the construction of dense new housing, which drives up prices, especially in a few large high-wage urban areas. The increased prices transfer wealth from renters to landowners and push people away from centers of economic activity, which reduces their ability to get jobs or earn higher wages, likely by a very large amount.

The direct beneficiaries of progress on this problem would mostly be middle-class people in developed countries – not the most needy of groups globally. However, if you believe economic growth, wage increases and technological advancement in developed countries are valuable goals, this is one of the more promising policy changes for raising productivity.

An opportunity to tackle the problem is to start or join a nonprofit or lobbying body to advocate for more housing construction in key urban areas and states. For example, the YIMBY Party and More New York are grassroots lobbying groups that advocate for changes to zoning regulations in San Francisco and New York City respectively. Another option would be to try to shift zoning decisions from local to state governments, where they are less likely to be determined by narrow local interests, especially existing land-owners who benefit from higher property prices.

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Why and how to work on nuclear security

Blog post by Robert Wiblin · Published April 12th, 2016

We’ve released a new ‘problem profile’ on the risks posed by nuclear weapons.

Nuclear weapons that are currently armed have the potential to kill hundreds of millions of people directly, and billions through subsequent effects on agriculture. There are many examples in history of instances in which the US or Russia came close to accidentally or deliberately using their nuclear weapons.

Fortunately, nuclear security is already a major topic of interest for governments, inter-governmental organisations and think tanks. However, this does make it harder for any additional individual to influence the outcome.

Most opportunities to reduce the risks posed by nuclear weapons seem to be through work in the military or foreign policy establishments, or research in the think tanks that offer them ideas on how to lessen the risk of nuclear conflict.

In the profile we cover:

The main reasons for and against thinking that nuclear security is a highly pressing problem to work on.
How to use your career to ensure nuclear weapons are never used.

Read our full profile on nuclear security.

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How and why to use your career to make artificial intelligence safer

Blog post by Robert Wiblin · Published April 7th, 2016

We’ve released a new ‘problem profile’ on the risks posed by artificial intelligence.

Many experts believe that there is a significant chance we’ll create artificially intelligent machines with abilities surpassing those of humans – superintelligence – sometime during this century. These advances could lead to extremely positive developments, but could also pose risks due to catastrophic accidents or misuse. The people working on this problem aim to maximise the chance of a positive outcome, while reducing the chance of catastrophe.

Work on the risks posed by superintelligent machines seems mostly neglected, with total funding for this research well under $10 million a year.

The main opportunity to deal with the problem is to conduct research in philosophy, computer science and mathematics aimed at keeping an AI’s actions and goals in alignment with human intentions, even if it were much more intelligent than us.

In the profile we cover:

The main reasons for and against thinking that the future risks posed by artificial intelligence are a highly pressing problem to work on.
How to use your career to reduce the risks posed by artificial intelligence.

Read our full profile on the risks posed by artificial intelligence.

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Smoking in the developing world

Problem profile by Robert Wiblin · Published April 2016

Smoking takes an enormous toll on human health – accounting for about 6% of all ill-health globally according to the best estimates. This is more than HIV and malaria combined. Despite this, smoking is on the rise in many developing countries as people become richer and can afford to buy cigarettes.

There appears to be a range of policies which have been shown to reduce smoking rates, which are usually not applied in developing countries. The most natural ways to tackle the problem through your career include becoming a health policy expert, or advocacy through journalism, think tanks and politics. This is a particularly promising cause for people living in a developing country with high smoking rates.

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The case for and against using your career to combat smoking

Blog post by Peter McIntyre · Published April 6th, 2016

We’ve released a new problem profile on reducing tobacco use in the developing world.

Smoking takes an enormous toll on human health – accounting for about 6% of all ill-health globally according to the best estimates. This is more than HIV and malaria combined. Smoking continues to rise in many developing countries as people become richer and can afford to buy cigarettes.

There are ways to lower smoking rates that have been shown to work elsewhere, such as informing people who are unaware about how much smoking damages their health, as well as simply increasing the price of cigarettes through taxes. These are little used in developing countries, suggesting there is a major opportunity to improve human health by applying the World Health Organization’s recommended anti-tobacco programs.

In the profile we cover:

The main reasons for and against thinking that smoking in the developing world is a highly pressing problem to work on.
How to use your career to reduce the health damage caused by smoking.

Read our profile on tobacco control in the developing world.

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Why and how to work on cause prioritisation research

Blog post by Robert Wiblin · Published April 5th, 2016

We’ve released a new problem profile on global priorities research based on our investigation of the area in 2014.

Governments, charities, intergovernmental organisations, and social enterprises spend large amounts of money to improve the world but there is currently little research to guide them on what priorities they should focus on at the highest level.

Global priorities research seeks to use new methods to determine in which causes funding to improve the world can have the biggest impact, and make a convincing case about this to people in a position to redirect large amounts of money.

In the profile we cover:

The main reasons for and against thinking that global priorities research is a highly pressing topic to work on.
How to use your career to make progress in this research area.

Read our profile on global priorities research.

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Is global health the most pressing problem to work on?

Blog post by Robert Wiblin · Published April 4th, 2016

Every year around ten million people in poorer countries die of illnesses that can be very cheaply prevented or managed, including malaria, HIV, tuberculosis and diarrhoea.

In many cases these diseases or their impacts can be largely eliminated with cheap technologies that are known to work and have existed for decades. Over the last 60 years, death rates from several of these diseases have been more than halved, suggesting particularly clear ways to make progress.

In our full ‘problem profile on health in poor countries’ we cover:

The main reasons for and against thinking that this is the most pressing problem to work on.
How to use your career to combat diseases of poverty.

Read our profile on health in poor countries.

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Global health

Problem profile by Robert Wiblin · Published April 2016

Every year around 10 million people in poorer countries die of illnesses that can be very cheaply prevented or managed, including malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, and diarrhoea.

Only around $100 per capita is spent annually on the healthcare of people living in low-income countries (adjusted for purchasing power). To put this in context: annual health spending in the EU is over $4,500 per capita, in the UK it’s about $5,000 per capita, and in the US it’s nearly $11,000.

As a result, there remain many opportunities to scale up treatments that are known to prevent or cure common health conditions in low-income countries.

Options for working on the problem include serving as a donor to effective projects, working as an economist in intergovernmental organisations (such as the World Bank or World Health Organization), or starting or working in a nonprofit that scales up proven treatments.

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Why and how to use your career to work on biosecurity

Blog post by Roman Duda · Published April 3rd, 2016

We’ve released a new profile on biosecurity.

Natural pandemics and new scientifically engineered pathogens could potentially kill millions or even billions of people. Moreover, future progress in synthetic biology is likely to increase the risk and severity of pandemics from engineered pathogens.

But there are promising paths to reducing these risks through regulating potentially dangerous research, improving early detection systems and developing better international emergency response plans.

In the profile we cover:

The main reasons for and against thinking that biosecurity is a highly pressing problem.
How to use your career to work on reducing the risks from pandemics.

Read our profile on biosecurity.

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Why and how to use your career to end factory farming

Blog post by Roman Duda · Published April 3rd, 2016

We’ve released a new problem profile on factory farming.

50,000,000,000 animals are raised and slaughtered in factory farms globally each year. Most experience extreme levels of suffering over the course of their lives. But there are promising paths to improving the conditions of factory farmed animals and to reducing meat consumption.

In the profile we cover:

The main reasons for and against thinking that factory farming is a highly pressing problem.
How to use your career to work on ending factory farming.

Read our profile on factory farming.

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We’ll pay you up to £1,000 to write a career review for us

Blog post by Robert Wiblin · Published March 30th, 2016

Update: Unfortunately, due to staff limitations we cannot accept any more freelance career reviews.

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You can earn £1,000 by writing a review of a career path that’s sufficiently good for us to publish it on our site. At the same time you’ll help tens of thousands of people choose a career path with more social impact.

We are willing to pay £1,000 if you send us something that’s as good as, or better, than what we could have done ourselves, and only needs minor revisions; £300 if it’s usable but requires significant input from us; and £150 if it’s a helpful input into one of our reviews.

Before you start, send an email to [email protected] to confirm the title you’ll work on.

Some example reviews that we think have an appropriate level of detail to target include Economics PhD, Journalism, and Marketing.

An outstanding career profile is Medical Careers. Here’s a list of all our career profiles (including some ones in an old format and some that are both much longer and shorter than the 3 above).

To help you get started see our list of headings we fill out when writing career reviews, and a list of links we often refer to. In most cases you will want to speak to 1-3 people in the relevant career to collect information to include.

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