My experiences at EAGlobal 2023

I had the good fortune of participating in EAGlobal 2023 (24-26 Feb) in the United States Bay Area, and here's a short summary of my time there. If you're interested in participating next time a conference comes by (EAGx Nordics perhaps?), or are just curious on what these events are about, then hopefully I can answer a few questions here. But it's likely that some questions will remain unanswered, so just catch me on Telegram (@jojelpyy) for further questions.

The event was a three-day conference at a single location in the middle of Oakland. The venue was completely reserved for us, and maybe a dozen halls were fitted for talks, office hours, speed-meetings (with an emphasis on like minded people meeting, such as academics) and vegan banquets. The place was open and bustling throughout the event.

There was one new feature for me though, and that was they encouraged the utilisation of the SwapCard -app for booking 1-on-1 meetings. Repeatedly so, as it seemed to be the number one activity there was according to earlier feedback. And I have to agree it was pretty useful, although some common sense needs to be applied in novel activities like this. For example, the famous AI safety figurehead Eliezer Yudkowsky had to write separately that attendees shouldn’t try to arrange 1-on-1s with him, and should instead try to find him in the hallways and just strike up a conversation.

There were a lot of various topics from energy politics to animal welfare and charities, but I mostly hung out with the AI safety peeps. And there the LLM scene was represented in a major fashion. Most of the groups present had an agenda in LLM interpretability in one fashion or another, and so did many individuals too. Trying to figure out what's inside the models, and how to get them to behave reliably in practical environments was at the forefront of current research.

For me the event was a great opportunity to synchronise with the current discourse on AI safety. I did manage to book a few 1-on-1 (and happily noticed some people booking with me, too!), and had a number of other discussions on the hallways and speed-meeting events. I still have a list of extra reading and contacts I have to catch up on.

Thank you for EA Finland for sponsoring the trip, and Santeri T for facilitating everything :)