Proposal Urges Flexible Funding for Roaming AI Governance Experts
It's also increasingly the case that less and less of what I can write down in year X as part of my funding application turns out to have been the most high-value use of my time in year X+2/X+3, no matter how carefully I plan. Everything is changing quickly. Premium on taking the best opportunities. Some flexibility allowed in funding ('in spirit of' rather than the specific elements of plan) worthwhile as long as you have general trust in your grantee's judgement.
Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh@S_OhEigeartaighA thing for a funder with a willingness to trust/do hits- based giving to consider is a fund that provides a few years of stipends and travel budgets for well-informed and well-connected people to go around and 'be useful', not necessarily with a set programme of work within an org. Especially useful could be people e.g. just out of government in a changeover, or who have built processes, and can connect, advise, make things happen. E.g. there's an alternative world where the likes of Nitarshan Rajkumar, Ben Buchanan, Henry De Zoete etc are skipping around helping to make international cooperation happen, get AISIs or similar off the ground places, independently advising governments trying to get to grips with what is happening. If we do expect a lot of unpredictable changes in a short space of time, I think there could be a lot of ROI on people who can act flexibly in this way, without necessarily having a 2 year plan to show a funder. And I think if they're aware it exists, and funders reach out to plausible people, there could be quite a few such useful people. Ex-company people are also such people, though they may be well-enough off not to need funding.