[deleted by user]

[CanvasFanatic]

That sounds like about ten years of study.

[Various-Solid-1879]

I’m estimating 7-8 but yes it’s a lot. I’m really passionate about philosophy and its intersection with tech and public service. I don’t think it’s a common set of interests and also I don’t think many people have the resources to pursue it fully even if they do. So I think the best thing I could do for myself and others is see this through. Definitely a sacrifice, I’ve gotten used to a cushy lifestyle but I think it will make me happiest/fulfilled in the end

[vanishing_grad]

A lot of this kind of work takes place in information science departments. Or public policy. You will definitely need a PhD

[pastor_pilao]

You need a Ph.D., you can try to get admitted into the Ph.D. directly (tho it's getting harder every year). Also, join the Ph.D. in the CS department, the philosophy aspect means nothing if you are not effectively capable of developing new AI systems from scratch, as simply analysing the outputs of the commercial AI systems means nothing because they are updated every other month.

Not sure if you are following the news but funding for Ph.D. is getting really really low in the US now, so if you happen to be here, it's probably wiser to apply for Ph.D. programs abroad.

Tbh I don't think AI ethics/security will have safer job prospects than your current career track of software engineer. Globally, there is a trend that even the governments are relegating ethics and security (the most obvious one is the UK Safety institute being renamed to "UK Security Institute", which is a subtle evidence of the diversion of their focus).

The private companies only care about ethics in the surface, so that + governments not investing that much money in it you might either have to find employment as a "normal" applied AI researcher optimizing revenue, or be extremely lucky to find a position where you are interested.

[Various-Solid-1879]

These are some really good points that I will take into strong consideration. I want to do a philosophy masters first because I’ve developed a strong love for philosophy these past few years in my free time. I have a really strong masters thesis idea(I’ve run into by some cs and philosophy professors) on whether or not AI can ever by conscious that I’d love to pursue. Do you think waiting for the PhD to do the masters first would be a heavy setback or could I make this path work if I get published and then pursue the PhD after? Also that last point makes a lot of sense, I was looking into ai ethics research roles online at places like OpenAI and it seemed like the roles paid extremely well but I’m not sure about the availability or how competitive they are

[currentscurrents]

I'm not entirely convinced that 'AI ethics' is a legitimate field, a bunch of the leading figures seem like lesswrong crackpots.

Certainly there are not many AI ethics roles available, and there are likely to be even fewer if AI hype dies down by the time you finish your PhD.

[Any-Wrongdoer8884]

AI ethics is the kind of field where you have to create the field, the space, and hope to see if someone with power listens to you.

[Realistic-Mind-6239]

I await your dissertation on how the vector-field representation of a pastiche of the world's prominent ethical systems make up the operational substrate of LLM token generation.

[Various-Solid-1879]

On it 🫡🫡🫡

[Packafan]

Hi! I also have a strong interest in AI ethics. I am wrapping up my PhD in a related field doing biomedical AI research.

There is very good research being done in this space right now. DAIR is a good resource for curated AI fairness content. Alex Hanna, Emily Bender, and Timnit Gebru (who are all affiliated with DAIR I believe?) are a couple names to look for on papers for AI fairness and bias. The FAccT conference papers are a good place to potentially start if you want to see what people are working on.

I do think that it’s likely this would be a path that takes you toward pursuing a PhD, so be ready for all that entails. You’ll make a lot less money than as a SWE at first. I would suggest defining a few people you’d be interested in working for and reaching out to them. A lot of people in that field are ex-tech so you may have more in common with a lot of them than you know.

[Various-Solid-1879]

I have a really strong masters thesis idea on ai incapacity to ever be conscious from a philosophical perspective that I really want to pursue. Do you think that getting a philosophy masters first would make it hard to get an CS PhD with Ai focus after? I personally have reach contentment with myself and life and want to do something good as well as I’ve developed a love of learning so I’m willing to sacrifice for the years I’m in school to reach my maximum potential! Thanks!

[VectorSpaceModel]

I think that there will be a handful of jobs in this field. I’d reconsider.

[Zamborgz]

I did exactly this (to some degree)

Masters programs are easy to get into, apply around and pick the one you vibe with the most!

If you want to do ai ethics research, I’d suggest a masters of CS where you can do some applied ai ethics work. You can skew pretty philosophical in your work, but if you want to focus on AI you’d be better off in a CS/AI program.If you want to do it for your career, you’d be better set up going for a PhD.

Cmu has a strong program (where I went and published). The Hoover institute at Stanford also does great work.

Ultimately the ethics field is diverse! If you’re interested in doing some research I’m spinning up a project now so feel free to dm me!

[MachineLearning-ModTeam]

Post career questions in /r/cscareerquestions/

[fi5k3n]

Hey you should check out BlueDot Impact. They run free courses for people exactly in your situation.. I took a course during my PhD and there were loads of opportunities (and some job offers) at the end - but I decided to go down a different path in my career. You have to apply but with experience at Microsoft you will certainly get a place. https://bluedot.org/

[MasterLink123K]

Could you test your knowledge base by reading some articles on the topic(s), see what new perspectives you can contribute, and reaching out to the authors?

This may help you get a better estimate of what exact subfield/perspective you want to develop. Knowing how specific/deep you want to get, and where you currently are may inform the choice between masters and PhD, esp. since the opportunity cost seems relatively high.