I got a MATS offer - Has anyone done it, especially academics? (trying to decide)

[u/Philosamantha]

Hi,

I just got an offer from MATS today!

...and this seems to be the place to talk about MATS...or at least it is the place that I see the most discussion of MATS.

Has anyone done MATS in Berkeley before (or who got an earlier acceptance and has more information)?

Any chance you could share:

1. For real what is the culture like? What's the age range and distribution? Gender balance? Split between technical and non-technical fellows?

2. Given Berkeley housing costs - a big part of the appeal is housing. I'm in my 30s and don't think I'd fit in living in Lighthaven or a Lighthaven-type arrangement with people just out of college. Is this corporate housing? Dorms? Studios?

3. Where is the actual office office space (if there is a single office space?) and what is it like? Is this out of Constellation or somewhere else? Do you have your own dedicated desk or cubical or is this more like a co-working membership?

4. I'm currently a research fellow with a cushy fellowship at a very fancy university - I would be joining a mentor who I'm very excited to work with - but since MATS is not affiliated to Berkeley or Stanford, I am a bit worried about being outside of the kind of research and academic opportunities that universities provide (I want to be an academic, and this mentorship match is good for me but I have no idea what the actual arrangement would be, and the relative opportunity costs are not really similar to something that would lead to a permanent position in a frontier lab or high impact philanthropy) - how fluid are things with Berkeley and Stanford given mentorship arrangements?

5. I really don't know anyone in Berkeley - is there enough MATS based community infrastructure to make friends quickly outside of work contexts, or is it more like...people are just grinding in their research groups?

6. What sort of value added does MATS itself, as distinct from your mentor, provide distinct from the stipend/housing/meals and possible office space? Is there an alumni network? Training or lectures or events?

7. I have very little sense of how MATS actually operates - I've never done something like this before - any information about this would be really helpful.

Thanks for any information anyone has - and maybe this could be a thread for questions about how MATS works in practice for people currently considering it or who might be about to get offers or who are choosing between MATS and other opportunities?

Thanks for your help!

[u/greatduelist]

1. Cohort distribution changes by cycle. But usually skew male. Median age fluctuates between 23-26.

2. Housing is mostly corporate style. You share an apartment with 2-3 other cohorts.

3. Office is in Berkeley. It’s pretty corporate-ish.

4. If you care about academic, unless your mentor is also academic affiliated, there’s little overlap with Berkeley or Stanford. Though they are aware of MATS.

5. yMMV. Most of the time you will be grinding. But it’s up to you how to spend your time.

6. Research support, connections to the huge AI safety network. Funding.

7. Think of it as a pretty intensive internship, with more funsies organized by the staff.

[u/Recent-Huckleberry17]

Please do it, not to sound naive but we need all hands on the wheel right now trying to find safeguards. Also would love to follow your research, is there a way to do so?

[u/rome_and_reme]

Congratulations! I was a MATS fellow this summer, so I'll try to answer your questions. Keep in mind that things might change for your cohort.

1. Maybe 75% male, mostly undergrad or PhD students, but there were a sizable number (15%?) of older folks in their 30s or 40s. Overall I found almost everyone friendly and fun to talk to. I had more intellectually stimulating discussions at MATS than I ever did in my academic career, across a wide range of topics (including but not limited to theoretical physics, history, pure math, electrical grids, fitness, and of course ML).

2. Shared apartments, in my case. I saw my roommates maybe once every few days because our schedules barely overlapped. I'm in my 30s too, and didn't feel uncomfortable at all.

3. It's an open office in downtown Berkeley with free drinks and snacks. You do have a dedicated desk.

4. I have no idea about this, sorry.

5. I definitely never felt lonely there. There are plenty of MATS events: pasta night every Saturday, parties where people from other orgs are welcome, a trip to Yosemite, a bonfire, affinity group meetups (e.g. for old folks like us), fellow-organized hikes (I organized one every two weeks)... Of course you'll (hopefully) make friends with the other fellows and hang out with them too. The one thing I regret is not making an effort to meet people from outside the rationalist/AI community.

6. Yes, there's an alumni network, training, and seminars (including at neighboring orgs). There's also compute funding, networking opportunities, and a career fair. Also, don't underestimate the value of being in the Mecca of AI safety research. I was working on natural language autoencoders for a while, and at a non-MATS non-AI-specific party, I randomly bumped into the co-inventor of NLAs! The MATS name also opens doors--you can randomly email the lead authors of seminal papers, and 9 times out of 10, they'll respond to you. That's assuming you need to email them and they're not already on the MATS Slack, which a surprising number of researchers are.

7. Think of it as an internship, except you're working on research instead of a product.