What progress have you made since your last update?

Almost all of the books were distributed, only 3 copies "The Scaling Era" are left.

@ms

Hello, thanks for reaching out!

- We have a lot more copies of HPMOR and hundreds of copies of Human Compatible and The Precipice, and can send those to you if you want to give them to high-potential people.

That's great! I have contacts of people who organize science/math olympiads in Kazakhstan. I can share them or collaborate in book giveaways if you want.

- How well can you handle logistics in Kazakhstan?

It should be pretty easy, parcel delivery within Kazakhstan is quite cheap.

- Is the cost of If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies <$30 per copy, including delivery to Kazakhstan? Where do you order the books from?

It is 33 USD per copy including delivery. I order books from amazon and use third-party services to deliver them from USA to Kazakhstan.

- How well does the target audience speak English vs. Russian? The rights to If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies in Russian are bought by Corpus, and it's likely to be published in Russian next year. The price per copy will probably be ~3-5x cheaper (and we'll buy 2k+ copies and will likely have a discount). IDK how expensive it would be to move copies from Russia to Kazakhstan, but likely under $20 per copy, so it might make sense to wait for the Russian version.

Most profs for whom the books were intended don't speak Russian. Nonetheless, university students here generally speak both Russian and English. IMO saving the 761 USD until the Russian translation is released is not worth the cost of delay. I think waiting for the Russian book release makes sense only for large scale book giveaways.

- What's a good way to get in touch/coordinate?

We can get in touch in linkedin, we have connected in there.

- Do you have reasons to expect The Scaling Era or The Alignment Problem to move people much?

I have read through "The Alignment Problem". It is quite good but it does not focus on short timelines. Given that Dwarkesh is a good communicator and believe in the possiblity of a superintelligence coming within 5 years, I think "The Scaling Era" should be good too.

What progress have you made since your last update?

I have managed to buy these books using some nice discounts:

13 copies of If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares. (27.9 dollars each, 362.7 dollars in total)

4 copies of The Scaling Era: An Oral History of AI, 2019-2025 by Dwarkesh Patel and Gavin Leech (30.9 dollars each, 123.69 dollars in total)

4 copies of The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values by Brian Christian (17.67 dollars each, 70.68 dollars in total)

1 copy of Introduction to AI Safety, Ethics, and Society by Dan Hendrycks (81.97 dollars)

Total book purchase cost: 638.95 US dollars.

The shipping to Kazakhstan is estimated to cost around 116 US dollars.

I expect to spend around 754.95 USD in total.

What are your next steps?

Wait until books arrive, pay the import fees, give the books to professors, MS/PhD students, and heads of labs

Is there anything others could help you with?