I want to switch to work on larger global problems that are also technically challenging. So far I’ve recognized following job profiles-
Combatting climate change:
* Reducing the power consumption of data centers. Data centers consume ~2% of global electricity consumption and are estimated to consume up to 8% by 2030 due to the ML boom. Example roles: Site efficiency teams in Big 4.
* Building systems to support autonomous vehicles. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation account for about 29 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, making it the largest contributor to U.S. GHG emissions. Autonomous vehicles are projected to reduce per-mile greenhouse gas emissions by up to 94%. Example roles: system performance teams at getcruise.com, tri.global
I am wondering if there are other software engineering/research roles I should apply to. Roles that combat global challenges and are also technically interesting.
I've recently found a post on the Effective Altruism forum encouraging people to consider starting a computer security career to help mitigate the AI risk:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ZJiCfwTy5dC4CoxqA/...
There are a number of companies like us popping up. Bear Flag Robotics in California is another example.
thomas at seedotrun.com if interested.
If you are familiar with ICS security / systems, you can literally see the incinerators with dashboards of “humans per hour” and things like that.
Anyone with data wrangling skills (BigQuery, DataPrep, stuff like that), setting up cloud infra, or even just really good hard-code internetting research skills would be appreciated.
001-alias-aw@outlook.com
I actually wouldn’t have minded posting my real name, but it seemed somehow like it would take away from my post unless I used a cool anonymous (but not really) alias.
There's (some) work in conservation (meaning ecological habitats and stuff) if you care about biodiversity, but it mostly requires GIS skills.
A lot of "global problems" (like cancer) are also local problems (like different environmental exposures or individual genetic profiles). It's hard even while working at a global problem to have a solution with global impact. This cannot be understated.
There are some decently big problems in mining (where mining certain compounds has become exponentially harder) and the industry does not typically have a lot of software talent already. However, it can be quite difficult to get into depending on your geographical location.
Have you considered working for the government?
We're looking for people who have Rust/C++ or Pytorch/Tensorflow experience.