Branding AI Safety Groups: A Field Guide

By Agustín Covarrubias 🔸 @ 2024-05-13T17:17 (+44)

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Ulrik Horn @ 2024-05-16T03:23 (+4)

I really like that you have both highlighted the importance of branding as well as made some reflections on how it affects different groups. I also really like the suggestion to think about one's audience. On the part about audience I think one should also think carefully about what one actually needs - jumping straight to interests of your audience without considering what you actually need could introduce bias and ineffectiveness into your outreach. For example, perhaps what you need is someone really good at research management, or interfacing between technical and policy people (probably not the best examples). If you go straight into interests, you might think "oh it's someone hackery that plays D&D on Friday night and should be able to make a 10am meeting on Saturday" (again, probably bad example). But in reality, maybe the people doing best in such positions are more likely to socialize on Fridays and not wake up before 3pm. 

On the same topic I also feel a bit unsure about the "grouping" above of People with a strong interest in CS or ML and People who relate to hacker culture. I loved my CS courses but never related much to hacker culture and know many like me. That said I do know there was some CS hiring algorithm that used engagement with certain Manga websites as a strong predictor of coding skills but I would be quite careful in using such correlations, and again really nailing down the "complete" set of characteristics you need, which might not only include coding skills but also communication, management, etc. I think others have written about and fleshed out in quite a lot of detail the specific needs of AI Safety and would suggest to really engage with the stated needs of the field to make sure your branding aligns with what is predicted to be specific talent gaps going forward.

Agustín Covarrubias @ 2024-05-17T21:26 (+4)

I agree that it's important to consider both needs and interests. Ultimately, a branding strategy should be embedded in a larger theory of change and strategy for your group, and that should determine which audiences you reach out to.
 

Regarding the latter, I agree that an interest in, say, hacker culture, does not adequately describe all people interested in CS. It might actually leave out a bunch of people that you should care about joining our group. At the same time, branding is all about tradeoffs, and you have to pick which things you cater to. Spread too thin, and you risk making the content too unappealing.

Ulrik Horn @ 2024-05-18T02:40 (+2)

Yeah or maybe you could do like with toothpaste: one for white teeth, another for good breath. I think it's the same toothpaste in both tubes.

tzukitchan @ 2024-05-13T17:25 (+2)

glad someone wrote up a post on this! these look like your best guesses, i was wondering if we possibly have any empirical data that can support these claims? 

Agustín Covarrubias @ 2024-05-13T17:31 (+3)

It's hard to give empirical data on this because I don't think we have a good track record of actually collecting it. I would be curious about groups trying things like A/B tests to refine their strategies.

So yeah, most of this is backed by a mix of anecdotes from organizers, marketing know-how, and some of what I learned running my old AI Safety Initiative. This is why I want to emphasize that most of this is to be taken as provisional rather than the final word on the matter.

SummaryBot @ 2024-05-14T13:01 (+1)

Executive summary: AI safety groups should carefully consider their branding strategy to attract target audiences and avoid losing talented individuals by giving the wrong impressions.

Key points:

  1. Branding matters for AI safety groups to communicate clearly and make a compelling case for why others should care about the group.
  2. Groups should identify target audience profiles, tailor their value proposition, and differentiate themselves from other groups.
  3. Common branding strategies include technical-leaning, institutional-leaning, impact-leaning, and broad disciplinary appeal, each with their own tradeoffs.
  4. Groups should regularly seek feedback to refine branding rather than relying solely on intuition.
  5. Practical tips for websites include having a clear description of the group, what it does, and how people can participate on the landing page.

 

 

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