Project summary

I will publish 52 video explainers and podcasts about AI Alignment in a year.

What are this project's goals and how will you achieve them?

Goal is to publish one video explainer or podcast about AI Alignment a week for a year (52 videos total). I will achieve this goal by:

1. preparing interviews, recording & editing them and publishing the transcripts

2. reading AI Alignment papers, writing scripts, recording, editing and then uploading explainers

How will this funding be used?

Funding will be used to pay for my salary (including taxes).

For full funding amount ($40,000):

• Produce 52 videos

• Travel budget for in-person interviews

• Budget for outsourcing assistance

For amounts higher than minimum funding ($500):

• Will produce videos proportionally to how much funding I get

  • eg. if I get 50% of the full funding I'll produce 52 / 2 = 26 videos

• Primarily remote interviews

Who is on your team and what's your track record on similar projects?

I am the only person on the team (cf. my website).

I am on track to publishing approximately 43 video explainers and podcasts in 2024 (published 5 in the past 6 weeks), building on 49 video explainers and podcasts in 2023.

Track record on podcasts:

• Guests have included prominent alignment researchers such as Evan Hubinger, Collin Burns, Neel Nanda, Victoria Krakovna, David Krueger.

• Most episodes generate 500-1k plays (meaning a download or someone listening to >1m).

• Three popular episodes: Joscha Bach (3k plays, 35k views), Robert Miles (1.3k plays, 35k views), and Connor Leahy (1.2k plays, 16k views)

Track record on video explainers :

• Published 5 video explainers to date (1-5k views each)

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails? (premortem)

1. I underestimate the time needed per video for quality/impact, forcing me to reduce volume goals

2. My time is overcommitted to other personal and life priorities that limit video creation

What other funding are you or your project getting?

I get ~$100 / month from Patreon (16 supporters).