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Tips for effective lobbying

Anyone can be a lobbyist

You don’t need a degree in AI, you don’t need special training. You can reach out to your representatives and tell them about AI risks. It is their job to listen to their constituents. They are representing you.

So don’t be afraid to reach out to them.

If you are from the US, you can check out our particular US Lobbying Guide .

Find people to help you

  • It can be useful to find people who are skilled at lobbying, who know the political culture in your country.
  • Do not expect to find the perfect person in one go. You have to iterate. Meet with people (even if it’s just a 30min call), ask them if they know who you should talk to. This will go way faster than you might think!
  • Don’t bet all your efforts on one contact. Try multiple approaches, multiple people. If multiple people will mention the same name, it’s probably a good idea to reach out to them.
  • If people are technical / smart, you have a higher chance that they will take this problem seriously.

Communicate clearly about the urgency and the risks

For many people, It’s easy to dismiss AI risk as some sort of science fiction nonsense. This is why it’s important to communicate clearly about what experts are saying. Note that the top three most cited AI researchers

are all warning about x-risk . Check out the surveys and the quotes pages for examples.

Find your ultimate target

  • We need people in power to make the pause happen. We need these political Champions in every country. Finding and convincing that person in your country is your goal.
  • Consider their goals and ambitions. Do they like organizing things? Do they get a kick out of being a thought leader? Do they shy away from controversy? All these things matter.
  • Consider their background. Do they understand catastrophic risks? AI? Global coordination?

Write a letter or email

  • We made an app specifically for this! Check out the Email Builder .
  • Your email needs to be good, but it does not have to be perfect. Don’t work on this for months, or worse - not send it at all.
  • Optional: Consider collecting signatures from people who agree with you. This will make your letter more powerful.Find professors, opinion leaders, people with status to sign it. You should be able to find a couple by simply googling. Ask the people who help you to find more people. The first signature is the hardest. The higher status the first signee is, the easier it will be to grow the list.
  • Optional: Consider publishing the letter. An Open Letter is a powerful tool. It might help speed up the process, but it could also damage you if the government will be in defensive mode instead of taking the lead. Discuss this with the local lobbyists.

During the meeting

Being an alarmist can be tough, and scary. You may fear speaking your mind, and you may fear being dismissed. But we cannot afford to mince words and tone everything down:

  • Be clear about the urgency. This is an emergency.
  • Be clear about the risks. This is an existential risk.
  • Be clear about the solution. We need to work towards a pause on AI training runs. Your government needs to prepare for the summit by forming coalitions with other countries and start working on a global treaty to pause AI training runs .

After the meeting

Keep your contact warm! Send them regulare updates on what’s happening in the AI safety field. The field moves very fast, and this is your oppurtinuty to be their source of information. If you are knowledgeable about this field (which you probaly are compared to lots of people) you can become an advisor / source or knowledge. Ask them to introduce you to other people who might be interested in this topic.

Get to it!

This all probably feels pretty intimidating. You’ve probably never done something like this before. But you can do it! It’s not that hard, it just takes some time, effort and a little courage. And you don’t have to do it alone. We already have a couple of initiatives running in different countries. We’re here to help each other out and fix this problem together. Join the Discord server

and get started.