What to do next?

The next steps for your grand research journey

Steps to becoming an AI safety researcher

Thank you to Julia Persson for compiling this guide

Getting started in technical alignment research might take some time, and it could vary from 6 to 24 months, depending on your background and how much time you dedicate. Here are some examples of things you could spend time on.

Other useful posts:

Guidelines for your personal career

  • Spend a minority of time reading alignment forum / lesswrong that you find interesting. Start building an inside model. WARNING: While this is good to do, its very easy to spend too much time on this. A little bit goes a long way. Spend the majority of your time DOING stuff, not reading.
  • If you have some basic ML skills I recommend the monthly Apart Research hackathons to get started doing small projects.
  • General skillbuilding is great if you enjoy it. Doing supervised research or internship can be a good use of your time even if its non-alignment related.
  • Take care of yourself. Spend as much time on these things as you find fun/interesting/meaningful and can afford and no more :)