Jen Baik, a 28-year-old woman, just quit her six-figure job at Google to work on AI safety. The product operations manager walked away from her role at Google Meet and left behind unvested equity that could have paid for a house one day. She’s now moving from New York to San Francisco to live in an intentional community and focus on effective altruism. Her parents begged her to stay, but she made the leap anyway.
Baik spent two years at the company, where she encountered some of the best people she’d ever worked with. The job seemed perfect on paper—massage rooms, unlimited food, and other perks that made it feel like Disneyland every day. But something was missing. She felt increasingly uncomfortable growing money while knowing about suffering in the world. “At some point, you get sick of Disneyland,” she says.
Why She Left Everything Behind
Baik read Scott Alexander’s “AI 2027” last year, and it changed everything. The essay posits a scenario where artificial superintelligence could disempower humanity. She also followed Tristan Harris’ arguments about how AI might cause worse harms than social media ever did. These ideas sprang up in her mind and wouldn’t give her peace.
“I think AI is going to change everything,” Baik explains. She tried switching to AI-related roles inside Google, but the transfer process was too competitive. After several attempts, she realized she could make a greater change by leaving the company entirely. The decision was one of the hardest decisions she’d ever made, but she didn’t want her life to follow the default path anymore.
From Tech Strategy to Mission-Driven Work
Growing up, Baik wanted to become a therapist, teacher, or work at a nonprofit. Those goals shifted after college when she needed to pay off her student loans and build a safety net for her parents. She started her career in consulting at Accenture, working on tech strategy. The work was challenging and interesting, and it gave her the financial stability she needed.
When effective altruism came into the picture, everything clicked. Baik became co-lead of a grassroots club at Google where she coordinated discussions, wrote a newsletter, and encouraged employees to make use of the $400 the company gives for holiday donations. This analytically driven approach to understanding how to help others and alleviate suffering became central to her vision. She wished she could take less and give to someone who needed it more, despite the fact she lived such a comfortable lifestyle.
What Her Next Chapter Looks Like
Baik’s next chapter involves living in an intentional community in San Francisco—something she’s lived in before and even started on her own. She describes it as a “found family” where people cook for one another, serendipitous conversations arise, and shared values create deep collaboration. It’s a way of living that compounds meaningful connections together.
She plans to offer support to Charity Entrepreneurship, which incubates evidence-backed charities, and will apply to the BlueDot Impact AI safety program. Her focus is on “inner work” and being in the trenches of learning about the AI revolution. She wants to be part of working toward pathways that lead to human flourishing and autonomy, not the disempowerment that AI safety experts worry about.
The Financial Reality
Leaving a six-figure job wasn’t easy, especially with unvested equity still on the table. Baik has enough savings for a runway of about a year, with longer-term savings as another lever if she needed it. She’s naturally frugal, and wealth accumulation has never been a goal for her. “Spending-wise, I don’t expect my lifestyle to change much without income,” she says.
Her friends had mixed reactions. Some were jealous of her courage to take a chance. Others thought she was crazy for walking away from such a coveted position at a tech company. Her parents were even more direct, begging her to stay at Google. Friends warned her about the tough job market. But Baik gave myself permission to pursue what really mattered, even though it meant leaving behind substantial compensation and financial security.
A Magical Job That Felt Jarring
The first two years at Google were “magical in a way I could never imagined,” Baik says. She got to collaborate with colleagues and co-workers who were among the best people in their fields. The collaboration was interesting, the challenges pushed her to grow, and the perks were really extraordinary. But being on the “outskirts of the suffering” happening in the world while she enjoyed massage rooms and other perks became increasingly jarring.
She describes how comfortable her life was in the workforce, despite knowing that many others lacked resources. What seemed perfect from the outside started to feel hollow. Time passed, and the disconnect between her mission-driven values and her daily work grew. She originally got into effective altruism through a global health and development lens, but AI safety became urgent after her reading shifted her perspective.
Working Toward Human Flourishing
“Without the rise of AI, I probably would’ve stayed at Google,” Baik admits. But the technology developments and arguments from thinkers like Scott Alexander and Tristan Harris made her see a different future. She felt she needed to be part of the movement working toward solutions, not just watching from inside a company focused on growing its products.
Baik believes the AI revolution will change how we live, and she wants to help shape pathways toward human flourishing rather than potential harms. Her transition from employee to effective altruist focused on AI safety represents a difficult decision that many in the tech workforce might understand but few would actually make. The decision to quit came down to values—aligned values that mattered more than equity or compensation ever could.
