Podcast
Off the Clock #8: Leaving Las London with Matt Reardon
- Matt Reardon plans to cease hosting the podcast after the upcoming episode, with potential succession by Connor operating from Halifax, Canada.
- Reardon intends to relocate from London to Korea within approximately two weeks of early October, remaining there for three months before moving to the United States in early 2025, with potential destinations being DC or the Bay Area.
- Upon moving to the US, Reardon plans to formally leave ADK and assume a role running the programs team at the Institute for Law and AI (potentially named "Law AI" or "Lie-eye"), focusing on talent landscape, informational content creation, and recruitment of paid research fellows.
- The new role at the Institute for Law and AI expects to primarily hire lawyers and law students to develop defensible legal frameworks for AI governance, with focus areas including compute governance, international agreements, law-abiding AI, and liability.
- Reardon anticipates the vetoed SB 1047 may serve as a precedent influencing future liability legislation, potentially signaling that causal links between model builders and harm must be tight, though he hopes for a future legislative attempt to pass a new version.
- The Institute for Law and AI aims to build credibility to influence policy and funders, with a long-term goal of eventually hiring research fellows full-time to advance AI safety and catastrophic risk mitigation.
- Reardon plans to prioritize direct work over earning to give, expecting that building projects to a degree of excellence will attract necessary funding and recruit high-resource individuals.
- Reardon plans to reconcile with his ex-partner in Korea, potentially marrying her, and expects to receive unconditional support from her while actively appreciating this dynamic.
- The speaker notes that switching roles incurs substantial organizational investment costs, while staying longer builds valuable institutional knowledge, prompting a need to cultivate new talent to avoid high switching costs.
- Reardon anticipates that the recent company retreat provided high value for strategic syncing but notes the forward-looking strategy discussed may have been too specific, favoring basic building blocks instead.
- Reardon describes his persona as "Work Matt," a curmudgeon reacting to his environment, while noting Connor plays an effort-cultivated bubbly character and Arden plays a pragmatist and radical centrist.
- Reardon identifies as a "high decoupler" capable of separating truth from moral implications, contrasting with those who do not play social deception games, and expects to remain humble legally but confident regarding impact in his new role.
- Reardon expects to miss London and daily interactions with the ADK team despite their continued collaboration, viewing his past manager relationship as a learning experience to apply without emotional baggage in the future.