What specialist knowledge is valuable?

Many highly specific areas of knowledge seem applicable to solving the world’s most pressing problems, especially risks posed by biotechnology and artificial intelligence.

In particular we’d highlight:

• Subfields of biology relevant to pandemic prevention. Working on many of the possible technical solutions to reduce the risk of pandemics will require expertise in parts of biology. We’d particularly highlight synthetic biology, mathematical biology, virology, immunology, pharmacology, and vaccinology. This expertise can also be helpful for pursuing a biorisk-focused policy career. (Read more about careers to prevent catastrophic pandemics.)
• AI hardware. Specialised hardware is a crucial input into the development of frontier AI systems. As a result, we expect that expertise in AI hardware is going to become increasingly important to the governance of AI systems. (Read more about becoming an expert in AI hardware).
• Engineering — by which we mean physical rather than software engineering. Many possible solutions to the world’s most pressing problems need engineers to develop and deploy new technology. For example, developing better personal protective equipment (PPE) to defend against pathogens or building far-UVC technology which could effectively disinfect air indoors are engineering projects that could help reduce the risk of catastrophic pandemics. (Read more about how engineering can be high impact.)
• Economics knowledge can be applied to a huge range of impactful roles if combined with another skill set. Economics research is crucial for conducting global priorities research and improving decision making in large institutions. And a knowledge of economics can also support you in building political and bureaucratic skills — economics is particularly important for policy design and governance research.
• Other areas we sometimes recommend include history, knowledge of China, and law.

Of course, whatever skill set you focus on, you’ll likely need to build some specialist knowledge — for example, if you focus on a politics and bureaucracy skill set you’ll need to gain specialist knowledge in the area of policy you’re working in. Similarly, if you build a programming skill set, you could consider gaining specialist knowledge in machine learning or information security. The idea of the above list is just to highlight areas we think seem particularly valuable that you might not otherwise consider learning about.

How should you get started building specialist knowledge?

Each area is very different, so it’s hard to give any specific advice that applies to all of them.

Besides the articles on specific areas linked above, we’d suggest checking out:

• Whether to go to grad school
• How to find a career that fits you best
• How to be more successful in any job, especially the sections on learning how to learn and how to master a field and make creative contributions

All our career reviews relevant to building specialist knowledge

• Biorisk research, strategy, and policy
• Expert in AI hardware
• Investigate a potentially pressing but unexplored global issue
• Data collection for AI alignment
• Engineering
• Economics PhDs
• Law school in the US