Technical Alignment Research Accelerator (TARA)

**Main points in favor of this grant**

• ARENA is a great curriculum and Yanni’s adaption to a weekend course seems well-considered.
• I’ve visited several Australian AI safety and EA conferences this year (and for the past 5 years) and I think that the local talent base is quite strong. MATS has accepted ~12 Australian scholars (~4% of all alumni) and they did great!
• Talking with several students and professional software engineers in Australia at recent conferences has convinced me that there is value in a weekend version of the ARENA course for people who want to upskill in AI safety research engineering, but cannot take off work and travel to the UK for a month to do ARENA.
• I’ve been impressed by Yanni’s operations and marketing ability in regards to the AI Safety ANZ Careers Conference 2024 and AI Safety ANZ’s recent seminar/workshop series.
• Australians can get work visas for the UK and USA (E-3) relatively easily, which means they can emigrate to the SF Bay Area and London for AI safety work.

**Donor's main reservations**

• Yanni hasn’t yet found a good TA to run this course, which seems important for this to go well. I expect this to be much easier with funding, however, and I’m confident Yanni can find someone qualified, probably from the pool of MLAB and ARENA alumni.
• As with all training programs that empower ML engineers and researchers, there is some concern that alumni will work on AI capabilities rather than safety. Therefore, it’s important to select for value alignment in applicants, as well as technical skill.

**Process for deciding amount**

I decided to fund the entire project because it’s quite cheap for the scale ($459-596/participant) and I expect I have a stronger and more informed opinion of the Australian talent pool than other funders. Also, I trust Yanni to refund the extra $3419 for room bookings if he is unable to secure free event space.

**Conflicts of interest**

I am an Australian citizen and have personal and professional ties to Australian AI safety and EA communities. Yanni recently invited me to present at the AI Safety ANZ Careers Conference 2024, although I received no financial compensation. I am an Advisor to AI Safety ANZ, Yanni’s organization, though I receive no financial compensation for this role. This year, I presented at the Australian AI Safety Forum 2024 and I have previously presented at EAGxAustralia 2022 and 2023, for which I received travel and accommodation funding.