The Counterfactual's science poll #1

Kicking off the first poll of 2024.

As I wrote in my last post, I’m trying something new with The Counterfactual. Each month, paying subscribers will be able to vote for which research topic they’d like me to pursue next. I’ll provide a set of options (along with short descriptions for each option), and subscribers can choose which one sounds most interesting; they can also suggest topics in the comments, which I’ll comb through and translate into options for future polls. I see this as a kind of “citizen science”: involving more (and different) people in the process of selecting which research projects get funded.

In terms of the topics themselves: most of them will be empirical research projects—i.e., I’ll set out to answer a concrete question using data—and most of those will likely involve Large Language Models (LLMs) specifically. They’ll also mostly be bite-sized: things I can realistically accomplish, on the side, in the span of a month. I’m open to longer-term projects too (e.g., ≥2 months), but they might have to replace some number of the monthly projects. Finally, some of the topics will be research reviews: my attempt to synthesize what’s known on a particular topic.

If you’re interested in getting involved, you can subscribe below! The poll itself will be available to paid subscribers only.