Co-Authors: @Carson Jones, @McKennaFitzgerald, @Ryan Kidd

MATS tracks the evolving landscape of AI safety[1] to ensure that our program continues to meet the talent needs of safety orgs. As the field has grown, it's become increasingly necessary to adopt a more formal approach to this monitoring, since relying on a few individuals to intuitively understand the dynamics of such a vast ecosystem could lead to significant missteps.[2]

In the winter and spring of 2024, we conducted 29 interviews, ranging in length from 30 to 120 minutes, with key figures in AI safety, including senior researchers, organization leaders, social scientists, strategists, funders, and policy experts. This report synthesizes the key insights from these discussions. The overarching perspectives presented here are not attributed to any specific individual or organization; they represent a collective, distilled consensus that our team believes is both valuable and responsible to share. Our aim is [...]

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Outline:

(01:23) Needs by Organization Type

(01:30) Archetypes

(02:24) Connectors / Iterators / Amplifiers

(05:35) Needs by Organization Type (Expanded)

(09:12) Impact, Tractability, and Neglectedness (ITN)

(11:37) ITN Within AIS Field-building

(14:41) So How Do You Make an AI Safety Professional?

(15:27) The Development of a Connector

(18:28) The Development of an Iterator

(19:51) The Development of an Amplifier

(21:31) So What is MATS Doing?

(27:08) Acknowledgements

The original text contained 4 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.