[AI 2040] Transparency Plan

Over the next few weeks we'll cross post some of AI 2040 supplements to LessWrong for discussion; let us know if there are particular ones you think are especially useful to cross post and we'll prioritize those. AGI projects face key decisions around transparency : who gets to see algorithmic secrets, who gets real time access to the datacenters sufficient to be confident in what they are doing, who gets to be aware of ongoing experiments and training runs, and with what latency. This document outlines our current thinking on transparency in the context of Plan A. First, we discuss baseline transparency desiderata—aspects of transparency proposals that are core to Plan A. A fundamental component of Plan A is a trustless US/China deal to ensure that AI development is safe, which necessitates a minimal amount of US/China transparency, sufficient to verify that the other is following the agreement. Second, we give an overview of possible transparency regimes which can satisfy these desiderata. Third, we give an in depth explanation of our favorite proposal, “total research transparency”. In this proposal, almost all algorithmic secrets, experiments, and training runs would be visible to the public immediately. Finally, we give an analysis of the tradeoffs between the different proposals outlined, and the reasons why transparency is beneficial. The main reason we recommend Total Research Transparency is because it would improve government and corporate decisionmaking during Pla…