A blogger reflects on his two-decade relationship with the effective altruism and rationalist community, which grew from a blog into an influential institutional force shaping AI policy. He describes their connection as 'friendship with footnotes'—maintaining personal bonds while disagreeing fundamentally with their ideas and declining to publicly defend their positions. The author signals he will now examine this relationship more seriously given EA's increased consequentiality.
An article arguing that AI safety discourse is deeply influenced by Eliezer Yudkowsky and a community rooted in what the author characterizes as cultish structures, with connections traced through key figures at OpenAI and Anthropic who cite or were mentored by Yudkowsky. The author contends that AI safety terminology and policy discussions remain shaped by Yudkowsky's ideas despite efforts to distance the field from its origins.