Hi, I'm Leopold Aschenbrenner. I work on the Superalignment team at OpenAI, currently focused on easy-to-hard generalization.
I've also done research on economic growth at Oxford's Global Priorities Institute and received an Emergent Ventures grant for Progress Studies.
I graduated as valedictorian from Columbia at age 19. I originally hail from Germany and now live in beautiful San Francisco, California.
My aspiration is to secure the blessings of liberty for our posterity. I'm interested in a pretty eclectic mix of things, from First Amendment law to German history to topology, though I'm pretty focused on AI these days.
Follow me on Twitter. You can email me here.
Response to Tyler Cowen on AI risk
AGI will effectively be the most powerful weapon man has ever created. Neither “lockdown forever” nor “let ‘er rip” is a productive response; we can chart a smarter path.
Want to win the AGI race? Solve alignment.
Society really cares about safety. Practically speaking, the binding constraint on deploying your AGI could well be your ability to align your AGI. Solving (scalable) alignment might be worth lots of $$$ and key to beating China.
Nobody’s on the ball on AGI alignment
Far fewer people are working on it than you might think, and even the alignment research that is happening is very much not on track. (But it’s a solvable problem, if we get our act together.)
Burkean Longtermism
People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.
My Favorite Chad Jones Papers
Some of the very best, and most beautiful, economic theory on long-run growth.
Europe’s Political Stupor
On the European obsession with America, the dearth of the political on the Continent, and the downsides of homogeneity.
The Risks of Stagnation (Article for Works in Progress)
Human activity and new technologies can be dangerous, threatening the very survival of humanity. Does that mean economic growth is inherently risky?
What I've Been Reading (June 2021)
Religion, faith and the future, level vs. growth effects, the Cuban Missile Crisis, science fiction, and more.
Benjamin Yeoh Interviews Me (Podcast)
Covering what Tyler gets wrong about existential risk, economic growth, declining fertility rates, Germany's "tall poppy syndrome," and more.
The Economics of Decoupling
America’s economic dependence on China creates a security vulnerability. But tariffs are royally ineffective at mitigating this vulnerability. I consider the underlying informational problem.
Against Netflix
Too many great minds waste away their time watching Netflix. Worse, we have made that culturally acceptable. For a TV-temperance movement.
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