Manifund's Surplus proposes Triplebyte, database, and megaconference for AI safety hiring
A call for scalable talent discovery and open-access events to address the AI safety hiring bottleneck.
Amid a surge in AI safety funding, the top bottleneck has become hiring qualified people. To address this, Manifund's Surplus incubator has outlined three concrete schemes. First, a "Triplebyte for AI safety jobs" would conduct a single technical interview per candidate and share results across multiple organizations, reducing the O(MN) coordination problem to O(M+N). Second, a comprehensive public database of every AI safety person — scraping LinkedIn, socials, and personal websites, with user-editable profiles — would serve as a better LinkedIn for the community, aiding recruiting, conference speaker selection, and even voter canvassing.
Third, the proposal calls for a large, open-access megaconference (2,000–4,000 attendees) focused on introducing newcomers to AI safety ideas and connecting them with hiring organizations. Unlike EAG, which has rejected many applicants, this event would be ungated, self-funding through admissions and sponsorships, and could be organized in roughly three months (similar to previous events like Manifest and Curve). These three initiatives together aim to transform a chaotic, fragmented hiring landscape into a streamlined pipeline for AI safety talent.
- Triplebyte-style service cuts interview overhead from O(MN) to O(M+N) by having one interview per candidate shared across many AI safety orgs.
- A public queryable database of every AI safety person (better LinkedIn) would scrape social profiles and allow edits, aiding recruiting and outreach.
- Open-access megaconference for 2,000–4,000 people with career fairs, ungated and self-funding, to attract newcomers and fill hiring gaps.
Why It Matters
These schemes could dramatically streamline AI safety hiring and broaden the talent pipeline to match soaring funding.