Jonathan / Vals

Background

Born & raised on a farm in southern France, british parents, 2 older brothers & 1 older sister.

Studied Math, Physics, Engineering, Networks & Telecommunications.

Worked in software engineering then transitioned to AI Safety.

Foreground

I write, advise and teach about AI Safety, notably threat models and strategy.

I help friends & strangers have good lives, by being cool and building community.

I”m mostly in Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Toulouse, and the US west coast (Bay Area, and Portland/Seattle).

What they say about me

“a very smart mathy person who has also done a lot of meditation and life coaching” - [ a very smart mathy parson ]

Too kind, but captures things that stand out about me. I only have a few years experience in these domains, but often seem like I have much more.

“autistic” - [ person I met in southeast asia ]

I like for some things to be precise (legibility ≠ precision, ie. an ambiguous complex poem can yet be precise). I do care about truthiness, but even moreso about Winning.

“fuck you” - [ friend who trusts me to recognize their jokes in text ]

I love you too.

“I will spend 53 hours on a train with this man in a dire attempt to absorb 1/10th of his wisdom. I do not expect to succeed” [ same friend ]

On my end, I was trying to absorb 1/10th of her energy. I think we both got a lot of what we wanted!

“profoundly positive force, pushing me to become better and more ambitious” [ my first girlfriend ]

“What kind of guy is remembered by his gf for raising her ambition!?” you ask. Well, seems I have a type.

Explore