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EA Forum Podcast (Curated & popular)
EA Forum Podcast (Curated & popular)
EA Forum Team

Audio narrations from the Effective Altruism Forum, including curated posts and posts with 125+ karma. If you'd like more episodes, subscribe to the... more

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Episodes

“Killing the moths” by Bella

This post was partly inspired by, and shares some themes with, this Joe Carlsmith post. My post (unsurprisingly) expresses... more

25 Mar 2024 · 8 minutes
“Unflattering aspects of Effective Altruism” by NunoSempere

I've been writing a few posts critical of EA over at my blog. They might be of interest to... more

25 Mar 2024 · 1 minute
“Updates on Community Health Survey Results” by David_Moss, Jamie Elsey, Willem Sleegers

Satisfaction with the EA community Reported satisfaction, from 1 (Very dissatisfied) to 10 (Very satisfied), in December 2023/January... more

25 Mar 2024 · 22 minutes
“The current limiting factor for new charities” by Joey, CE

TLDR: we think the limiting factor for new charities has shifted from founder talent to early stage funding being... more

21 Mar 2024 · 2 minutes
“The Lack of EA in US Private Foundations” by Kyle Smith

I've written before about trying to bring US private foundations into EA as major funders. I got some helpful... more

21 Mar 2024 · 3 minutes
“The Scale of Fetal Suffering in Late-Term Abortions” by Ariel Simnegar

This is a draft amnesty post. Summary. It seems plausible that fetuses can suffer from 12 weeks of... more

20 Mar 2024 · 5 minutes
“EA ‘Worldviews’ Need Rethinking” by Richard Y Chappell

I like Open Phil's worldview diversification. But I don't think their current roster of worldviews does a good job... more

19 Mar 2024 · 5 minutes
“We Did It! - Victory for Octopus in Washington State” by Tessa @ ALI

In 2022, Aquatic Life Institute (ALI) led the charge in Banding Together to Ban Octopus Farming. In 2024, we... more

18 Mar 2024 · 6 minutes
“Maternal Health Initiative is Shutting Down” by Ben Williamson, Sarah Eustis-Guthrie

Maternal Health Initiative (MHI) was founded out of Charity Entrepreneurship (AIM)'s 2022 Incubation Program and has since piloted two... more

16 Mar 2024 · 37 minutes
[Linkpost] “What are the biggest misconceptions about biosecurity and pandemic risk?” by 80000_Hours

by Anemone Franz and Tessa Alexanian 80,000 Hours ranks preventing catastrophic pandemics as one of the most pressing problems... more

15 Mar 2024 · 25 minutes
[Linkpost] “New video: You’re richer than you realise” by GraceAdams, Giving What We Can

This might be one of the best pieces of introductory content to the concepts of effective giving that GWWC... more

13 Mar 2024 · 1 minute
[Linkpost] “Results from an Adversarial Collaboration on AI Risk (FRI)” by Forecasting Research Institute, Jhrosenberg, AvitalM, Molly Hickman, rosehadshar

Authors of linked report: Josh Rosenberg, Ezra Karger, Avital Morris, Molly Hickman, Rose Hadshar, Zachary Jacobs, Philip Tetlock[1] Today,... more

12 Mar 2024 · 19 minutes
“AI things that are perhaps as important as human-controlled AI (Chi version)” by Chi

Topic of the post: I list potential things to work on other than keeping AI under human control. Motivation... more

06 Mar 2024 · 42 minutes
“This is why we can’t have nice laws” by LewisBollard

Note: This post was crossposted from the Open Philanthropy Farm Animal Welfare Research Newsletter by the Forum team, with... more

28 Feb 2024 · 10 minutes
“How we started our own EA charity (and why we decided to wrap up)” by KvPelt, Ren Ryba

This post shares our journey in starting an Effective Altruism (EA) charity/project focused on Mediterranean fish welfare, the challenges... more

26 Feb 2024 · 25 minutes
[Linkpost] “‘No-one in my org puts money in their pension’” by tobyj

Epistemic status: the stories here are all as true as possible from memory, but my memory is so so.An... more

16 Feb 2024 · 15 minutes
[Linkpost] “Social science research we’d like to see on global health and wellbeing [Open Philanthropy]” by Aaron Gertler, Open Philanthropy

Open Philanthropy strives to help others as much as we can with the resources available to us. To find... more

15 Feb 2024 · 33 minutes
[Linkpost] “My cover story in Jacobin on AI capitalism and the x-risk debates” by Garrison

Google cofounder Larry Page thinks superintelligent AI is “just the next step in evolution.” In fact, Page, who's worth... more

12 Feb 2024 · 10 minutes
“On being an EA for decades” by Michelle_Hutchinson

A friend sent me on a lovely trip down memory lane last week. She forwarded me an email chain... more

12 Feb 2024 · 9 minutes
“Things to check about a job or internship” by Julia_Wise

A lot of great projects have started in informal ways: a startup in someone's garage, or a scrappy project... more

12 Feb 2024 · 14 minutes
“My Donations 2023 - Marcus Abramovitch” by MarcusAbramovitch

Summary $8003.98 Charity Entrepreneurship $5000 Insect Institute $5000 Shrimp Welfare Project $5000 Rethink Priorities $5000 Animal Ethics $1000... more

11 Feb 2024 · 8 minutes
[Linkpost] “Sam Altman’s Chip Ambitions Undercut OpenAI’s Safety Strategy” by Garrison

If you enjoy this, please consider subscribing to my Substack. Sam Altman has said he thinks that developing artificial... more

10 Feb 2024 · 6 minutes
“Mathilde Danès (1994-2024)” by Elisa Autric, update

It is with great sadness that we share with you the passing of our fellow community member and beloved... more

08 Feb 2024 · 2 minutes
“Tragic Beliefs” by tobytrem

I'm posting this as part of the Forum's Benjamin Lay Day celebration — consider writing a reflection of your... more

08 Feb 2024 · 8 minutes
“Ambitious Impact (AIM) - a new brand for Charity Entrepreneurship and our extended ecosystem!” by CE, Joey

TLDR: Given Charity Entrepreneurship's recent scaling, we are changing our brand to call our extended ecosystem “Ambitious Impact (AIM).”... more

08 Feb 2024 · 6 minutes
“Celebrating Benjamin Lay (died on this day 265 years ago)” by Lizka

Quaker abolitionist Benjamin Lay died exactly 265 years ago today (on February 8, 1759). I’m using the anniversary of... more

08 Feb 2024 · 14 minutes
“GWWC Pledge featured in new book from Head of TED, Chris Anderson” by Giving What We Can

Chris Anderson, Head of TED, has just released a new book called Infectious Generosity, which has a whole chapter... more

25 Jan 2024 · 1 minute
“5 possibly impactful career paths for researchers” by CE, Joey

Charity Entrepreneurship is running a second edition of our Research Training Program (RTP) – a program designed to equip... more

23 Jan 2024 · 10 minutes
“Rates of Criminality Amongst Giving Pledge Signatories” by Ben_West

I investigate the rates of criminal misconduct amongst people who have taken The Giving Pledge (roughly: ~200 [non-EA] billionaires who... more

22 Jan 2024 · 9 minutes
“On the abolition of man” by Joe_Carlsmith

(Cross-posted from my website. Podcast version here, or search for "Joe Carlsmith Audio" on your podcast app. This essay... more

18 Jan 2024 · 1 hour, 12 minutes
“Report on the Desirability of Science Given New Biotech Risks” by Matt Clancy

Should we seek to make our scientific institutions more effective? On the one hand, rising material prosperity has so... more

17 Jan 2024 · 6 minutes
“EA Wins 2023” by Shakeel Hashim

Crossposted from Twitter. As the year comes to an end, we want to highlight and celebrate some of the... more

15 Jan 2024 · 6 minutes
“Survey of 2,778 AI authors: six parts in pictures” by Katja_Grace

Crossposted from AI Impacts blog The 2023 Expert Survey on Progress in AI is out, this time with 2778... more

14 Jan 2024 · 4 minutes
“Zach Robinson will be CEA’s next CEO” by Ben_West, Eli Rose, ClaireZabel, lincolnq, Michelle_Hutchinson, MaxDalton, Oscar Howie

We, on behalf of the EV US and EV UK boards, are very glad to share that Zach Robinson... more

14 Jan 2024 · 1 minute
“Double the donation: EA inadequacy found?” by Neil Warren

I'm only 30% sure [Edit Jan 7: 90% sure] that this is actually an inadequacy made by those whose... more

13 Jan 2024 · 2 minutes
“Economic Growth - Donation suggestions and ideas” by DavidNash

There was a recent post about economic growth & effective altruism by Karthik Tadepalli. He pointed out that a... more

12 Jan 2024 · 15 minutes
“Are Far-UVC Interventions Overhyped? [Founders Pledge]” by christian.r, Rosie_Bettle

Much attention recently has focused on far-UVC light, part of the spectrum of germicidal UV (GUV), and its promise... more

12 Jan 2024 · 1 hour, 58 minutes
[Podcast AMA] Rob Mather, Founder and CEO of the Against Malaria Foundation

This podcast is an Ask Me Anything with Rob Mather, Founder and CEO of the Against Malaria Foundation, hosted by... more

08 Jan 2024 ·
“MIRI 2024 Mission and Strategy Update” by Malo

As we announced back in October, I have taken on the senior leadership role at MIRI as its CEO.... more

05 Jan 2024 · 14 minutes
[Linkpost] “Practically A Book Review: Appendix to ‘Nonlinear’s Evidence: Debunking False and Misleading Claims’” by Rafael Harth

A summary of the Nonlinear situation from a third-person perspective, by Ozy Brennan. I find it to be thoughtful,... more

03 Jan 2024 · 51 minutes
“Altruism sharpens altruism” by Joey

I think many EAs have a unique view about how one altruistic action affects the next altruistic action, something... more

26 Dec 2023 · 5 minutes
[Linkpost] “A year of wins for farmed animals” by Vasco Grilo

This is a crosspost for A year of wins for farmed animals, published by Lewis Bollard on 14 December... more

24 Dec 2023 · 7 minutes
“Winners in the Forum’s Donation Election (2023)” by Lizka

TL;DR: We ran a Donation Election in which 341 Forum users[1] voted on how we should allocate the Donation... more

24 Dec 2023 · 14 minutes
[Linkpost] “Attention on Existential Risk from AI Likely Hasn’t Distracted from Current Harms from AI” by Erich_Grunewald

Summary. In the past year, public fora have seen growing concern about existential risk (henceforth, x-risk) from AI. The... more

21 Dec 2023 · 29 minutes
“The privilege of native English speakers in reaching high-status, influential positions in EA” by Alix Pham

Huge thanks to Konrad Seifert, Marcel Steimke, Ysaline Bourgine, Milena Canzler, Alex Rahl-Kaplan, Marieke de Visscher, and Guillaume Vorreux... more

20 Dec 2023 · 7 minutes
“What is the current most representative EA AI x-risk argument?” by Matthew_Barnett

I tend to disagree with most EAs about existential risk from AI. Unfortunately, my disagreements are all over the... more

20 Dec 2023 · 8 minutes
“Effective Aspersions: How the Nonlinear Investigation Went Wrong” by TracingWoodgrains

The New York Times Picture a scene: the New York Times is releasing an article on Effective Altruism (EA)... more

19 Dec 2023 · 54 minutes
“Bringing about animal-inclusive AI” by Max Taylor

I’ve been working in animal advocacy for two years and have an amateur interest in AI.... more

18 Dec 2023 · 31 minutes
“GWWC is spinning out of EV” by Luke Freeman

Giving What We Can (GWWC) is embarking on an exciting new chapter: after years of support, we will be... more

13 Dec 2023 · 5 minutes
“EV updates: FTX settlement and the future of EV” by Zachary Robinson

We’re announcing two updates today that we believe will strengthen the effective altruism ecosystem. FTX updates  First, we’re pleased... more

13 Dec 2023 · 4 minutes
“Nonlinear’s Evidence: Debunking False and Misleading Claims” by Kat Woods

Recently, Ben Pace wrote a well-intentioned blog post mostly based on complaints from 2 (of 21) Nonlinear employees who... more

12 Dec 2023 · 59 minutes
“PEPFAR, one of the most life-saving global health programs, is at risk” by salonium

Summary: International funding and coordination to tackle HIV/AIDS and support health systems in lower- and middle-income countries, is at... more

10 Dec 2023 · 5 minutes
“PhD on Moral Progress - Bibliography Review” by Rafael Ruiz

Epistemic Status: I've researched this broad topic for a couple of years. I've read about 30+ books and 100+... more

10 Dec 2023 · 1 hour, 20 minutes
“Early findings from the world’s largest UBI study” by GiveDirectly

Summary of findings 2 years in: A monthly universal basic income (UBI) empowered recipients and did not create... more

06 Dec 2023 · 11 minutes
“EA thoughts from Israel-Hamas war” by ezrah

I'm Ezra, CEO of EA Israel, but am writing this in a personal capacity. My goal in writing this is... more

06 Dec 2023 · 14 minutes
“EA Infrastructure Fund’s Plan to Focus on Principles-First EA” by Linch, calebp, Tom Barnes

Summary.EA Infrastructure Fund (EAIF)[1] has historically had a somewhat scattershot focus within “EA meta.” This makes it difficult for us to... more

06 Dec 2023 · 16 minutes
“Effective Giving Incubation - apply to CE & GWWC’s new program!” by CE, Giving What We Can, Jacintha Baas, Federico Speziali, Luke Moore

Charity Entrepreneurship in collaboration with Giving What We Can is opening a new program to launch 4-6 new Effective Giving... more

05 Dec 2023 · 8 minutes
“What do we really know about growth in LMICs? (Part 1: sectoral transformation)” by Karthik Tadepalli

To EAs, "development economics" evokes the image of RCTs on psychotherapy or deworming. That is, after all, the closest interaction... more

02 Dec 2023 · 16 minutes
[Linkpost] “Doing Good Effectively is Unusual” by Richard Y Chappell

tl;dr: It actually seems pretty rare for people to care about the general good as such (i.e., optimizing cause-agnostic impartial... more

01 Dec 2023 · 12 minutes
“Effektiv Spenden’s Impact Evaluation 2019-2023 (exec. summary)” by Sebastian Schienle, Sebastian Schwiecker, Anne Schulze

effektiv-spenden.org is an effective giving platform in Germany and Switzerland that was founded in 2019. To reflect on our past... more

01 Dec 2023 · 6 minutes
[Linkpost] “In Continued Defense Of Effective Altruism — Scott Alexander” by Pablo

In Continued Defense Of Effective Altruism — Scott Alexander

29 Nov 2023 ·
“How I feel about my GWWC Pledge” by Michael Townsend

I took the GWWC Pledge in 2018, while I was an undergraduate student. I only have a hazy recollection of... more

29 Nov 2023 · 8 minutes
“EA is good, actually” by Amy Labenz

The last year has been toughThe last year has been tough for EA. FTX blew up in the most spectacular... more

28 Nov 2023 · 7 minutes
“AMF – Reflecting on 2023 and looking ahead to 2024” by RobM

Rob Mather, CEO, AMF, 25 November 20232023 has been a very busy year for AMF, more on 2024 later.ImpactAMF's team... more

24 Nov 2023 · 10 minutes
“The passing of Sebastian Lodemann” by ClaireB, amanda

With immense sadness, we want to let the community know about the passing of Sebastian Lodemann, who lost his life... more

23 Nov 2023 · 2 minutes
“A Thanksgiving gratitude post to EA” by Joy Bittner

Despite the complicated and imperfect origins of American Thanksgiving, what's worth preserving is the moment it offers for society to... more

23 Nov 2023 · 7 minutes
“GWWC’s evaluations of evaluators” by Sjir Hoeijmakers, Giving What We Can, Michael Townsend, Alana HF

The Giving What We Can research team is excited to share the results of our first round of evaluations of... more

22 Nov 2023 · 11 minutes
“Rethink Priorities needs your support. Here’s what we’d do with it.” by Peter Wildeford

In honor of “Marginal Funding Week” for 2023 Giving Season on the EA Forum, I’d like to tell you what... more

21 Nov 2023 · 37 minutes
“The EA Animal Welfare Fund (Once Again) Has Significant Room For More Funding” by kierangreig, Neil_Dullaghan, KarolinaSarek, Zoë Sigle

Just as~2 years ago, the EA Animal Welfare Fund has significant room for more funding. This could be a pretty... more

20 Nov 2023 · 9 minutes
“Open Phil Should Allocate Most Neartermist Funding to Animal Welfare” by Ariel Simnegar

Thanks to Michael St. Jules for his comments.Key TakeawaysThe evidence that animal welfare dominates in neartermism is strong.Open Philanthropy (OP)... more

19 Nov 2023 · 28 minutes
[Linkpost] “Sam Altman fired from OpenAI” by Larks

The board of directors of OpenAI, Inc, the 501(c)(3) that acts as the overall governing body for all OpenAI activities,... more

17 Nov 2023 · 2 minutes
“Spiro - New TB charity raising seed funds” by Habiba Banu

Summary We (Habiba Banu and Roxanne Heston) have launched Spiro, a new TB screening and prevention charity focused on children. Our... more

17 Nov 2023 · 10 minutes
“New report: ‘Scheming AIs: Will AIs fake alignment during training in order to get power?’” by Joe_Carlsmith

(Cross-posted from my website) I’ve written a report about whether advanced AIs will fake alignment during training in order to get... more

15 Nov 2023 · 55 minutes
[Linkpost] “Kids or No Kids” by KidsOrNoKids

This post summarizes how my partner and I decided whether to have children or not. We spent hundreds of hours... more

12 Nov 2023 · 22 minutes
“A robust earning to give ecosystem is better for EA organizations and the community” by abrahamrowe

(Written in a personal capacity, and not representing either my current employer or former one)In 2016, I founded Utility Farm,... more

11 Nov 2023 · 16 minutes
“Takes from staff at orgs with leadership that went off the rails” by Julia_Wise

I spoke with some people who worked or served on the board at organizations that had a leadership transition after... more

09 Nov 2023 · 13 minutes
“Announcing Athena - Women in AI Alignment Research” by Claire Short

Athena is a new research mentorship program fostering diversity of ideas in AI safety research. We aim to get more... more

08 Nov 2023 · 5 minutes
“10 years of Earning to Give” by AGB

General note: The bulk of this post was written a couple of months ago, but I am releasing it now... more

07 Nov 2023 · 16 minutes
“State of the East and Southeast Asian EAcosystem” by Elmerei Cuevas, jiayang, Obeyesekere, Dion, Yi-Yang, Saad Siddiqui, BrianTan, Jaynell Chang, onenastassja, Alethea Faye Cendaña

This write-up is a compilation of organisations and projects aligned / adjacent to the effective altruism movement in East Asia... more

06 Nov 2023 · 17 minutes
“Clean water - the incredible 30% mortality reducer we can’t explain” by NickLaing

TLDR: The best research we have shows that clean water may provide a 30% mortality reduction to children under 5.... more

04 Nov 2023 · 10 minutes
“Rethink Priorities’ Cross-Cause Cost-Effectiveness Model: Introduction and Overview” by Derek Shiller, bcbernardo, Chase Carter, Agustín Covarrubias, Marcus_A_Davis, MichaelDickens, Laura Duffy, Peter Wildeford

This post is a part of Rethink Priorities’ Worldview Investigations Team's CURVE Sequence: “Causes and Uncertainty: Rethinking Value in Expectation.”... more

03 Nov 2023 · 26 minutes
[Linkpost] “How Long Do Policy Changes Matter? New Paper” by zdgroff

A key question for many interventions' impact is how long the intervention changes some output counterfactually, or how long the... more

02 Nov 2023 · 9 minutes
“Are 1-in-5 Americans familiar with EA?” by David_Moss

YouGov recently reported the results of a survey (n=1000) suggesting that about “one in five (22%) Americans are familiar with... more

02 Nov 2023 · 3 minutes
“Alvea’s Story, Wins, and Challenges [Unofficial]” by kyle_fish

IntroA few months ago, the other (former) Alvea executives and I made the difficult decision to wind Alvea down and... more

01 Nov 2023 · 17 minutes
[Linkpost] “Alvea Wind Down Announcement [Official]” by kyle_fish, greghima, cateycat

After careful consideration, we made the difficult decision to wind Alvea down and return our remaining funds to investors. This... more

01 Nov 2023 · 3 minutes
[Linkpost] “President Biden Issues Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence” by Tristan Williams

Released today (10/30/23) this is crazy, perhaps the most sweeping action taken by government on AI yet. Below, I've segmented... more

30 Oct 2023 · 6 minutes
“We’re Not Ready: thoughts on ‘pausing’ and responsible scaling policies” by Holden Karnofsky

Views are my own, not Open Philanthropy's. I am married to the President of Anthropic and have a financial interest... more

27 Oct 2023 · 11 minutes
“Impact Evaluation in EA” by callum

SummaryGiven EA's history and values, I’d have expected for impact evaluation to be a distinguishing feature of the movement. In... more

26 Oct 2023 · 9 minutes
“How bad would human extinction be?” by arvomm

Figure 1  (see full caption below)This post is a part of Rethink Priorities' Worldview Investigations Team's CURVE Sequence: "Causes and... more

26 Oct 2023 · 36 minutes
“Thoughts on responsible scaling policies and regulation” by Paul_Christiano

I am excited about AI developers implementing responsible scaling policies; I’ve recently been spending time refining this idea and advocating... more

24 Oct 2023 · 11 minutes
[Linkpost] “Pausing AI might be good policy, but it’s bad politics” by Stephen Clare

NIMBYs don’t call themselves NIMBYs. They call themselves affordable housing advocates or community representatives or environmental campaigners. They’re usually not... more

23 Oct 2023 · 3 minutes
“Presenting: 2023 Incubated Charities (Round 2) - Charity Entrepreneurship” by CE

After launching our first batch of 2023 charities in April, we are now thrilled to announce the launch of four... more

19 Oct 2023 · 11 minutes
“How has FTX’s collapse impacted EA?” by AnonymousEAForumAccount

Summary of Findings It has been almost a year since FTX went bankrupt on November 11, 2022. Some of the ways... more

17 Oct 2023 · 32 minutes
“The Risks and Rewards of Prioritizing Animals of Uncertain Sentience” by Bob Fischer

This post is a part of Rethink Priorities’ Worldview Investigations Team's CURVE Sequence: “Causes and Uncertainty: Rethinking Value in Expectation.”... more

16 Oct 2023 · 48 minutes
“Cash and FX management for EA organizations” by JueYan

I’m a grantmaker who previously spent a decade as a professional investor. I’ve recently helped some Open Phil, GiveWell, and... more

14 Oct 2023 · 12 minutes
“Chuck Feeney (1931–2023)” by finm

Philanthropist Chuck Feeney died on October 9, at 92. He founded one of the largest private charitable foundations in history,... more

11 Oct 2023 · 10 minutes
[Linkpost] “Pause For Thought: The AI Pause Debate” by Scott Alexander

Crosspost from Astral Codex Ten. I.Last month, Ben West of the Center for Effective Altruism hosted a debate among long-termists,... more

10 Oct 2023 · 26 minutes
“Our planned allocation to GiveWell’s recommendations for the next few years” by Alexander_Berger, Open Philanthropy

Last year, we committed $350 million to GiveWell's evidence-backed, cost-effective recommendations in global health and development.This year, we’re committing $300M... more

06 Oct 2023 · 15 minutes
“Potentially actionable opportunity: eliminating the New World screwworm (flesh-devouring maggots that affect a billion animals each year)” by Forumite

In the latest episode of the 80,000 Hours podcast, Kevin Esvelt talks about the New World screwworm. He claims that... more

06 Oct 2023 · 7 minutes
“Party Politics for Animal Advocacy: Part 1: Animal-focused minor political parties” by Animal Ask, Ren Springlea

Key PointsAnimal parties are minor (niche) political parties with a single-issue focus on animals.Animal parties can win seats in elections... more

06 Oct 2023 · 1 hour, 58 minutes
“Observations on the funding landscape of EA and AI safety” by Vilhelm Skoglund, Jona

Epistemic status: Hot takes for discussion. These observations are a side product of another strategy project, rather than a systematic... more

02 Oct 2023 · 28 minutes
“Violence Before Agriculture” by John G. Halstead, Philip Thomson

This is a summary of a report on trends in violence since the dawn of humanity: from the hunter-gatherer period... more

02 Oct 2023 · 19 minutes
[Linkpost] “Why I’m still going out to bat for the EA movement post FTX” by Gemma Paterson

From the looks of it, next week might be rough for people who care about Effective Altruism. As CEA acting... more

30 Sep 2023 · 11 minutes
“Open Philanthropy is hiring for multiple roles across our Global Catastrophic Risks teams” by Open Philanthropy

It's been another busy year at Open Philanthropy; after nearly doubling the size of our team in 2022, we’ve added... more

29 Sep 2023 · 6 minutes
“Our tofu book has launched!! (Upvote on Amazon)” by George Stiffman

As some of you know, I’m working on growing the US market for Chinese tofus. I believe it could be... more

27 Sep 2023 · 1 minute
[Linkpost] “GWWC’s new community strategy” by Giving What We Can, GraceAdams

I’m extremely excited to announce the launch of our new community strategy that aims to connect our existing community better,... more

26 Sep 2023 · 15 minutes
“Net global welfare may be negative and declining” by kyle_fish

OverviewThe total moral value of the world includes humans as well as all other beings of moral significance. As such,... more

26 Sep 2023 · 13 minutes
“AMA: Andy Weber (U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense from 2009-2014)” by Lizka, Andy Weber

Andy Weber was the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical & Biological Defense Programs from 2009 to 2014.... more

26 Sep 2023 · 1 minute
[Linkpost] “New page on animal welfare on Our World in Data” by EdMathieu

Our team at Our World in Data just launched a new page on animal welfare! There you can find a... more

25 Sep 2023 · 1 minute
“Two Years of Shrimp Welfare Project: Insights and Impact from our Explore Phase” by Aaron Boddy, Andres Jimenez

SummaryShrimp Welfare Project launched in Sep 2021, via the Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program. We aim to reduce the suffering of... more

25 Sep 2023 · 32 minutes
“Monetary and social incentives in longtermist careers” by Vaidehi Agarwalla

In this post I talk about several strong non-epistemic incentives and issues that can influence people to pursue longtermist[1]career paths... more

23 Sep 2023 · 12 minutes
“Debate series: should we push for a pause on the development of AI?” by Ben_West

In March of this year, 30,000 people, including leading AI figures like Yoshua Bengio and Stuart Russell, signed a letter... more

23 Sep 2023 · 3 minutes
“Will MacAskill has stepped down as trustee of EV UK” by lincolnq

Earlier today, Will MacAskill stepped down from the board of Effective Ventures UK[1], having served as a trustee since its... more

21 Sep 2023 · 1 minute
“The Case for AI Safety Advocacy to the Public” by Holly_Elmore

tl;dr: Advocacy to the public is a large and neglected opportunity to advance AI Safety. AI Safety as a field... more

20 Sep 2023 · 24 minutes
“My life would be much harder without the Community Health Team. I think yours might too.” by Daystar Eld

I don't have much time to get into this, but I heard rumblings, saw a post, and wrote a comment,... more

19 Sep 2023 · 3 minutes
“Relationship between EA Community and AI safety” by Tom Barnes

Personal opinion only. Inspired by filling out the Meta coordination forum survey. Epistemic status: Very uncertain, rough speculation. I’d be... more

18 Sep 2023 · 1 minute
[Linkpost] “Map of the biosecurity landscape (list of GCBR-relevant orgs for newcomers)” by Max Görlitz

When talking to newcomers to the field of biosecurity, I often felt annoyed that there wasn't a single introductory resource... more

17 Sep 2023 · 27 minutes
“AI Pause Will Likely Backfire” by nora

Should we lobby governments to impose a moratorium on AI research? Since we don’t enforce pauses on most new technologies,... more

16 Sep 2023 ·
“Mistakes, flukes, and good calls I made in my multiple careers” by Catherine Low

I’m Catherine, and I'm one of the Community Liaisons working in CEA's Community Health and Special Projects Team. This is... more

15 Sep 2023 · 11 minutes
“Shrimp: The animals most commonly used and killed for food production” by Rethink Priorities, Daniela R. Waldhorn, Elisa Autric

Citation: Romero Waldhorn, D., & Autric, E. (2022, December 21). Shrimp: The animals most commonly used and killed for food... more

10 Sep 2023 · 1 hour, 29 minutes
“An Incomplete List of Things I Think EAs Probably Shouldn’t Do” by Rockwell

There has already been ample discussion of what norms and taboos should exist in the EA community, especially over the... more

08 Sep 2023 · 2 minutes
“Sharing Information About Nonlinear” by Ben Pace

Epistemic status: Once I started actively looking into things, much of my information in the post below came about by... more

07 Sep 2023 · 55 minutes
“Nick Beckstead is leaving the Effective Ventures boards” by Eli Rose, lincolnq

On 23rd August, Nick Beckstead stepped down from the boards of Effective Ventures UK and Effective Ventures US.For context, EV... more

06 Sep 2023 · 2 minutes
[Linkpost] “What I would do if I wasn’t at ARC Evals” by Lawrence Chan

In which: I list 9 projects that I would work on if I wasn’t busy working on safety standards at... more

06 Sep 2023 · 25 minutes
“Want to make a difference on policy and governance? Become an expert in something specific and boring” by ASB

I sometimes get a vibe that many people trying to ambitiously do good in the world (including EAs) are misguided... more

05 Sep 2023 · 4 minutes
“Who Is a Good Fit for a Career in Nonprofit Entrepreneurship?” by CE, SteveThompson, Ula Zarosa

TLDR: This post is part of a sequence we’ve prepared for the Career Conversations Week on the EA Forum. This... more

04 Sep 2023 · 11 minutes
“The Lives We Can Save” by Omnizoid

I work as a Resident Assistant at my college. Last year, only a few weeks into me starting, I was... more

03 Sep 2023 · 13 minutes
“Should I patent my cultivated meat method?” by Michelle Hauser

Congrats on having invented something exciting! Usually, the best way to get innovative new technology into the hands of beneficiaries quickly... more

01 Sep 2023 · 2 minutes
“Learning from our mistakes: how HLI plans to improve” by PeterBrietbart, MichaelPlant

Hi folks, in this post we’d like to describe our views as the Chair (Peter) and Director (Michael) of HLI... more

01 Sep 2023 · 8 minutes
[Classic post] “In defence of epistemic modesty” by Gregory Lewis

This piece defends a strong form of epistemic modesty: that, in most cases, one should pay scarcely any attention to... more

31 Aug 2023 · 53 minutes
“Progress report on CEA’s search for a new CEO” by MaxDalton

Progress report on CEA’s search for a new CEOI[1] wanted to give an update on the Centre for Effective Altruism... more

31 Aug 2023 · 13 minutes
“Preliminary Analysis of Intervention to Reduce Lead Exposure from Adulterated Turmeric in Bangladesh Shows Cost Benefit of about US$1 per DALY” by Kate Porterfield

Pure Earth is a GiveWell Grantee dedicated to reducing lead exposure in low- and middle-income countries. In collaboration with Stanford... more

29 Aug 2023 · 11 minutes
[Classic post] “Integrity for consequentialists” by Paul_Christiano

For most people I don't think it's important to have a really precise definition of integrity. But if you really want to... more

28 Aug 2023 · 13 minutes
“How much do EAGs cost (and why)?” by Eli_Nathan

TL;DR: EAGs from 2022–2023 each cost around $2M–$3.6M USD at around $1.5k–2.5k per person per event.These events typically cost a... more

26 Aug 2023 · 10 minutes
“Nuclear winter - Reviewing the evidence, the complexities, and my conclusions” by Michael Hinge

Nuclear winter is a topic that many have heard about, but where significant confusion can occur. I certainly knew little... more

25 Aug 2023 · 1 hour, 1 minute
“Empowering Numbers: FEM since 2021” by hhart, Anna_Christina

∼250,000 new contraceptive users, ∼20 million new listeners and up to ∼60x cost effectivenessTL;DR: In 2021, FEM launched our pilot: a... more

23 Aug 2023 · 21 minutes
“Impact obsession: Feeling like you never do enough good” by David_Althaus, Ewelina_Tur

SummaryImpact obsession is a potentially unhelpful way of relating to doing good which we’ve observed among effective altruists, including ourselves. (More)What do... more

23 Aug 2023 · 1 hour, 5 minutes
“Select examples of adverse selection in longtermist grantmaking” by Linch

Sometimes, there is a reason other grantmakers aren't funding a fairly well-known EA (-adjacent) project. This post is written in... more

23 Aug 2023 · 8 minutes
“An Elephant in the Community Building room.” by Kaleem

These are my own views, and not those of my employer, EVOps, or of CEA who I have contracted for... more

21 Aug 2023 · 10 minutes
[Classic post] “Beware surprising and suspicious convergence” by Gregory Lewis

Imagine this: • > Oliver: … Thus we see that donating to the opera is the best way of promoting... more

21 Aug 2023 · 27 minutes
“Price-, Taste-, and Convenience-Competitive Plant-Based Meat Would Not Currently Replace Meat” by Jacob_Peacock

Plant-based meats, like the Beyond Sausage or Impossible Burger, and cultivated meats have become a source of optimism for reducing... more

18 Aug 2023 · 1 hour, 18 minutes
[Classic post] “Effective Altruism is a Question (not an ideology)” by Helen

What is the definition of Effective Altruism? What claims does it make? What do you have to believe or do,... more

17 Aug 2023 · 6 minutes
[Linkpost] “20 concrete projects for reducing existential risk” by Buhl et al.

This is a blog post, not a research report, meaning it was produced quickly and is not to Rethink Priorities’... more

16 Aug 2023 · 42 minutes
“Why some people disagree with the CAIS statement on AI” by David_Moss, WillemSleegers

SummaryPrevious research from Rethink Priorities found that a majority of the population (59%) agreed with a statement from the Center... more

15 Aug 2023 · 29 minutes
“Two Years Community Building, Ten Lessons (Re)Learned” by Rockwell

Today is my two-year anniversary with EA NYC, where I serve as director. To say I've learned a lot would... more

10 Aug 2023 · 8 minutes
“Update on cause area focus working group” by Bastian_Stern

Prompted by the FTX collapse, the rapid progress in AI, and increased mainstream acceptance of AI risk concerns, there has... more

10 Aug 2023 · 9 minutes
“Best Use of 2 Minutes this Month (U.S.)” by Rockwell

Actions that have a large impact sometimes don't feel like much. To counteract that bias, I'm sharing arguably the best... more

07 Aug 2023 · 3 minutes
[Linkpost] “I saved a kid’s life today” by michel

I'm working writing more, quicker, and not directly for an EA Forum audience. This is a post copied over from... more

07 Aug 2023 · 3 minutes
“Soaking Beans - a cost-effectiveness analysis” by NickLaing

TLDR: On early-stage analysis, persuading people to soak their beans before cooking could  cost-effectively save Sub-saharan Africans a significant amount... more

06 Aug 2023 · 15 minutes
“How can we improve Infohazard Governance in EA Biosecurity?” by Nadia Montazeri

Or: “Why EA biosecurity epistemics are whack”The effective altruism (EA) biosecurity community focuses on reducing the risks associated with global... more

05 Aug 2023 · 8 minutes
[Linkpost] “My favorite AI governance research this year so far” by Zach Stein-Perlman

I collected my favorite public pieces of research on AI strategy, governance, and forecasting from 2023 so far.If you're a... more

04 Aug 2023 · 15 minutes
“University EA Groups Need Fixing” by Dave Banerjee

I recently resigned as Columbia EA President and have stepped away from the EA community. This post aims to explain... more

03 Aug 2023 · 19 minutes
“Problems with free services for EA projects” by Lizka

EA-motivated specialists sometimes offer free or subsidized versions of normally expensive services to EA projects. I think this is often... more

03 Aug 2023 · 18 minutes
“Reflections on my time on the Long-Term Future Fund” by abergal

I'm stepping down as chair of the Long-Term Future Fund. I'm writing this post partially as a loose set of... more

02 Aug 2023 · 13 minutes
“Thoughts on far-UVC after working in the field for 8 months” by Max Görlitz

Views expressed in this article are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer SecureBio.SummaryFar-UVC has great promise,... more

31 Jul 2023 · 23 minutes
[Linkpost] “Partial Transcript of Recent Senate Hearing Discussing AI X-Risk” by Daniel_Eth

On Tuesday, the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law held a hearing on AI. The hearing... more

27 Jul 2023 · 40 minutes
“General support for ‘General EA’” by Arthur Malone

TL;DR: When I say “General EA” I am referring to the cluster including the term “effective altruism,” the idea of... more

26 Jul 2023 · 20 minutes
“Launching the meta charity funding circle (MCF): Apply for funding or join as a donor!” by Joey, Vilhelm Skoglund, Gage Weston

SummaryWe are launching the Meta Charity Funders, a growing network of donors sharing knowledge and discussing funding opportunities in the EA... more

26 Jul 2023 · 4 minutes
“Some thoughts on quadratic funding” by Luis Mota Freitas

SummaryQuadratic funding (QF) is a mechanism that has gained attention as a potential way to improve resource allocation in a... more

26 Jul 2023 · 28 minutes
“Underwater Torture Chambers: The Horror Of Fish Farming” by Omnizoid

Crossposted from my blog.  The horror of fish farmingOne of my professors in college taught a class about effective altruism—a... more

26 Jul 2023 · 17 minutes
[Linkpost] “Shaping Humanity’s Longterm Trajectory” by Toby_Ord

Since writing The Precipice, one of my aims has been to better understand how reducing existential risk compares with other... more

19 Jul 2023 · 3 minutes
“Recovering from Rejection: My piece for the In-Depth EA Program” by Aaron Gertler

Formerly known as "Aaron's Epistemic Stories", which stops working as a title when it's on the Forum and people aren't... more

18 Jul 2023 · 19 minutes
“Nailing the basics – Theories of change” by Aidan Alexander, CE

WHY WRITE A POST ABOUT THEORIES OF CHANGE?As participants in a movement with ‘effective’ in its name, it’s easy to... more

18 Jul 2023 · 26 minutes
[Linkpost] “A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Historical Farmed Animal Welfare Ballot Initiatives” by Laura Duffy

On May 11, 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld a 2018 California law, Proposition 12, which banned... more

17 Jul 2023 · 24 minutes
[Linkpost] “Fatebook: the fastest way to make and track predictions” by Adam Binks, Sage

Announcing Fatebook: a website that makes it extremely low friction to make and track predictions. … --- ... more

14 Jul 2023 · 3 minutes
“Electric Shrimp Stunning: a Potential High-Impact Donation Opportunity” by MHR

Update: Andrés Jiménez Zorrilla (CEO of SWP)  has provided some additional information in the comments. In particular: … The original... more

14 Jul 2023 · 18 minutes
[Linkpost] “Announcing Manifund Regrants” by Austin, Rachel Weinberg

Manifund is launching a new regranting program! We will allocate ~$2 million over the next six months based on the... more

13 Jul 2023 · 8 minutes
“Are education interventions as cost effective as the top health interventions? Five separate lines of evidence for the income effects of better education [Founders Pledge]” by Vadim Albinsky

I would like to thank Lant Pritchett, David Roodman and Matt Lerner for their invaluable comments.You can follow these links to... more

13 Jul 2023 · 1 hour, 1 minute
“Announcing ‘Forecasting Existential Risks: Evidence from a Long-Run Forecasting Tournament’” by Forecasting Research Institute

This is a linkpost for "Forecasting Existential Risks: Evidence from a Long-Run Forecasting Tournament," accessible here: https://forecastingresearch.org/s/XPT.pdfToday, the Forecasting Research Institute (FRI)... more

10 Jul 2023 · 4 minutes
[Linkpost] “The Seeker’s Game – Vignettes from the Bay” by Yulia

IntroductionLast year, one conversation left a lasting impression on me. A friend remarked on the challenges of navigating "corrupting forces"... more

09 Jul 2023 · 32 minutes
[Linkpost] “Some Observations on Alcoholism” by Devin Kalish

This is a tough one to post, it’s also a little off topic for the forum. I went back and... more

08 Jul 2023 · 10 minutes
“Who Was the Funder that Counterfactually Resulted in LEEP Starting?” by Joey et al.

Lead Exposure Elimination Project (LEEP) is an outstanding Charity Entrepreneurship-incubated charity recognized externally for its impactful work by RP, Founders... more

04 Jul 2023 · 2 minutes
“Announcing CE’s new Research Training Program - Apply Now!” by KarolinaSarek et al.

TL;DR: We are excited to announce our Research Training Program. This online program is designed to equip participants with the... more

01 Jul 2023 · 7 minutes
“Munk AI debate: confusions and possible cruxes” by Steven Byrnes

There was a debate on the statement “AI research and development poses an existential threat” (“x-risk” for short), with Max... more

27 Jun 2023 · 14 minutes
“Decision-making and decentralisation in EA” by William_MacAskill

This post is a slightly belated contribution to the Strategy Fortnight. It represents my personal takes only; I’m not speaking on... more

26 Jun 2023 · 47 minutes
“Downsides of Small Organizations in EA” by Ozzie Gooen

Epistemic Status: This is a subject I've been casually thinking about for a while, but I wrote this document fairly... more

24 Jun 2023 · 21 minutes
“EA’s success no one cares about” by Jakub Stencel

StatusWhile this is part of EA Strategy Fortnight, my intention is to focus more on what effective altruism did well,... more

24 Jun 2023 · 17 minutes
“On focusing resources more on particular fields vs. EA per se - considerations and takes ” by Ardenlk

Epistemic status: This post is an edited version of an informal memo I wrote several months ago. I adapted it... more

24 Jun 2023 · 14 minutes
“Four claims about the role of effective giving in the EA community” by Sjir Hoeijmakers

I’m sharing the below as part of the EA Strategy Fortnight.  I think there’s value in discussing what the role of... more

23 Jun 2023 · 14 minutes
“The flow of funding in EA movement building” by Vaidehi Agarwalla

This post is part of EA Strategy Fortnight. You can see other Strategy Fortnight posts here.I’ve been reflecting on the role of... more

23 Jun 2023 · 15 minutes
[Linkpost] “Lab-grown meat is cleared for sale in the United States” by Ben_West

Upside Foods and Good Meat, two companies that make what they call “cultivated chicken,” said Wednesday that they have gotten... more

22 Jun 2023 ·
“Five Years of Rethink Priorities: What We’ve Learned” by Peter Wildeford

The post contains a reflection on our journey as co-founders of Rethink Priorities. We are Peter Wildeford and Marcus A.... more

21 Jun 2023 · 22 minutes
“Rethink Priorities’ Worldview Investigation Team: Introductions and Next Steps” by Bob Fischer

Some months ago, Rethink Priorities announced its interdisciplinary Worldview Investigation Team (WIT). Now, we’re pleased to introduce the team’s members:Bob Fischer... more

21 Jun 2023 · 4 minutes
“My tentative best guess on how EAs and Rationalists sometimes turn crazy” by Habryka

Epistemic status: This is a pretty detailed hypothesis that I think overall doesn’t add up to more than 50% of... more

21 Jun 2023 · 13 minutes
“Why Altruists Can’t Have Nice Things” by lincolnq

Gesturing at a thing to mostly avoid. My personal opinion. This topic has been discussed on the EA Forum before, e.g.... more

21 Jun 2023 · 13 minutes
“Longtermists are perceived as power-seeking” by OllieBase

A short and arguably unfinished blog post that I'm sharing as part of EA strategy fortnight. There's probably a lot... more

21 Jun 2023 · 4 minutes
“Principles for AI Welfare Research” by jeffsebo

Tl;dr: This post, which is part of the EA Strategy Fortnight series, summarizes some of my current views about the... more

19 Jun 2023 · 24 minutes
“We can all help solve funding constraints. What stops us?” by Luke Freeman

This post is a personal reflection that follows my journey to effective altruism, my experiences within it, the concerns I've... more

18 Jun 2023 · 21 minutes
“Third Wave Effective Altruism” by Ben_West

This is a frame that I have found useful and I'm sharing in case others find it useful. EA has arguably... more

17 Jun 2023 · 3 minutes
“EA organizations should have a transparent scope” by Joey

Executive summaryOne of the biggest challenges of being in a community that really cares about counterfactuals is knowing where the... more

14 Jun 2023 · 5 minutes
“Some talent needs in AI governance” by Sam Clarke

I carried out a short project to better understand talent needs in AI governance. This post reports on my findings.How... more

13 Jun 2023 · 18 minutes
“Improving EA Communication Surrounding Disability” by MHR

Epistemic Status: Low-to-medium confidence, informed by my experience with having a disability as an EA. I think the included recommendations... more

13 Jun 2023 · 12 minutes
“Why I spoke to TIME magazine, and My Experience as a Female AI Researcher in Silicon Valley [SA Sequence Intro, Advice, and AMA]” by Lucretia

Crossposted on Medium here.Twitter: @lucreti_aFrom Lore Olympus.Thank you to the supportive EA members who encouraged me to publicly share this... more

11 Jun 2023 · 1 hour, 13 minutes
“How economists got Africa’s AIDS epidemic wrong” by Justin Sandefur

In the 2000s, cost-effectiveness analysis said it was a bad use of money to send antiretroviral drugs to low-income countries—drugs... more

10 Jun 2023 ·
"Cause area report: Antimicrobial Resistance" by Akhil

This post is a summary of some of my work as a field strategy consultant at Schmidt Futures' Act 2... more

08 Jun 2023 · 12 minutes
“EA Strategy Fortnight (June 12-24)” by Ben_West

Tl;dr: I’m kicking off a push for public discussions about EA strategy that will be happening June 12-24. You’ll see... more

07 Jun 2023 · 5 minutes
“I made a news site based on prediction markets” by vandemonian

Introduction“News through prediction markets”The Base Rate Times is a nascent news site that incorporates prediction markets prominently into its coverage.Please... more

07 Jun 2023 · 8 minutes
“Cause area report: Antimicrobial Resistance” by Akhil

This post is a summary of some of my work as a field strategy consultant at Schmidt Futures' Act 2... more

07 Jun 2023 · 8 minutes
“A note of caution about recent AI risk coverage” by Sean_o_h

Epistemic status: some thoughts I wanted to get out quicklyA lot of fantastic work has been done by people in... more

07 Jun 2023 · 7 minutes
“EA and Longtermism: not a crux for saving the world” by ClaireZabel

This is partly based on my experiences working as a Program Officer leading Open Phil’s Longtermist EA Community Growth team,... more

04 Jun 2023 · 18 minutes
“Things I Learned by Spending Five Thousand Hours In Non-EA Charities” by jenn

From late 2020 to last month, I worked at grassroots-level non-profits in operational roles. Over that time, I’ve seen surprisingly... more

02 Jun 2023 · 14 minutes
“Obstacles to the Implementation of Indoor Air Quality Improvements” by JesseSmith

1. Tl;drMany reports indicate that indoor air quality (IAQ) interventions are likely to be effective at reducing respiratory disease transmission. However, to date... more

01 Jun 2023 · 14 minutes
“Announcing Apollo Research” by mariushobbhahn

TL;DRWe are a new AI evals research organization called Apollo Research based in London. We think that strategic AI deception – where... more

31 May 2023 · 16 minutes
“Statement on AI Extinction - Signed by AGI Labs, Top Academics, and Many Other Notable Figures” by Center for AI Safety

Today, the AI Extinction Statement was released by the Center for AI Safety, a one-sentence statement jointly signed by a historic coalition... more

30 May 2023 · 1 minute
“KFC Supplier Sued for Cruelty” by alene

Dear EA Forum readers, The EA charity, Legal Impact for Chickens (LIC), just filed our second lawsuit! As many of you know,... more

29 May 2023 · 1 minute
"Tips for people considering starting new incubators" by Joey

Charity Entrepreneurship is frequently contacted by individuals and donors who like our model. Several have expressed interest in seeing the... more

26 May 2023 · 15 minutes
“EAG talks are underrated IMO” by Chi

Underrated is relative.[1] My position is something like "most people should consider going to >1 EAG talk" and not "most... more

25 May 2023 · 3 minutes
“If you find EA conferences emotionally difficult, you’re not alone” by Amber Dawn

I went to EAG London this weekend. I had some interesting chats, wrote some cryptic squiggles in my notebook (“Clockify”... more

25 May 2023 · 6 minutes
EA Forum Weekly Summaries – Episode 25 (May 1-7, 2023)

We've just passed the half-year mark for this project! If you're reading this, please consider taking this 5 minute survey... more

10 May 2023 · 28 minutes
"Predictable updating about AI risk" by Joe Carlsmith

How worried about AI risk will we feel in the future, when we can see advanced machine intelligence up close?... more

09 May 2023 · 1 hour, 3 minutes
EA Forum Weekly Summaries – Episode 24 (April 24-30, 2023)

We've just passed the half-year mark for this project! If you're reading this, please consider taking this 5 minute survey... more

08 May 2023 · 22 minutes
"AGI safety career advice" by Richard Ngo

People often ask me for career advice related to AGI safety. This post summarizes the advice I most commonly give.... more

04 May 2023 · 22 minutes
EA Forum Weekly Summaries – Episode 23 (April 17-23, 2023)

Original article:https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/m2Y6HheC2Q2GLQ3oS/summaries-of-top-forum-posts-17th-23rd-april-2023This podcast has just passed the 6-month mark! Please give us your feedback and suggestions so we can continue... more

02 May 2023 · 14 minutes
"First clean water, now clean air" by Fin Moorhouse

The excellent report from Rethink Priorities was my main source for this. Many of the substantial points I make are... more

02 May 2023 · 33 minutes
"New 80,000 Hours Podcast on high-impact climate philanthropy" by Johannes Ackva

This is a linkpost for a new 80,000 hours episode focused on how to engage in climate from an effective... more

27 Apr 2023 · 3 minutes
EA Forum Weekly Summaries – Episode 22 (Mar. 27 - Apr. 16, 2023)

Original article:https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/o3Gaoizs2So6SpgLH/summaries-of-top-forum-posts-27th-march-to-16th-aprilThis podcast has just passed the 6-month mark! Please give us your feedback and suggestions so we can continue... more

22 Apr 2023 · 21 minutes
"A freshman year during the AI midgame: my approach to the next year" by Buck

I recently spent some time reflecting on my career and my life, for a few reasons:It was my 29th birthday,... more

19 Apr 2023 · 10 minutes
"Want to win the AGI race? Solve alignment." by Leopold Aschenbrenner

This is a linkpost for https://www.forourposterity.com/want-to-win-the-agi-race-solve-alignment/Society really cares about safety. Practically speaking, the binding constraint on deploying your AGI could... more

14 Apr 2023 · 9 minutes
"Nobody’s on the ball on AGI alignment" by Leopold Aschenbrenner

Far fewer people are working on it than you might think, and even the alignment research that is happening is... more

05 Apr 2023 · 17 minutes
"Seeing more whole" by Joe Carlsmith

In my last essay, I looked at two stories (brute preference for systematic-ness, and money-pumps) about why ethical anti-realists should... more

30 Mar 2023 · 52 minutes
EA Forum Weekly Summaries – Episode 21 (March 13-19, 2023)

Original article:https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/idpbfmPjHFCvzj46L/ea-and-lw-forum-weekly-summary-13th-19th-march-2023This is part of a weekly series summarizing the top posts on the EA Forum — you can see... more

30 Mar 2023 · 16 minutes
"How much should governments pay to prevent catastrophes? Longtermism’s limited role" by Elliott Thornley and Carl Shulman

Longtermists have argued that humanity should significantly increase its efforts to prevent catastrophes like nuclear wars, pandemics, and AI disasters.... more

22 Mar 2023 · 1 hour, 16 minutes
"Salt, Sugar, Water, Zinc: How Scientists Learned to Treat the 20th Century’s Biggest Killer of Children" by Matt Reynolds

Oral rehydration therapy is now the standard treatment for dehydration. It’s saved millions of lives, and can be prepared at... more

21 Mar 2023 · 34 minutes
EA Forum Weekly Summaries – Episode 20 (March 6-12, 2023)

Original article:https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/fWGdsWbS6vtC9E7ii/ea-and-lw-forum-weekly-summary-6th-12th-march-2023This is part of a weekly series summarizing the top posts on the EA Forum — you can see... more

14 Mar 2023 · 22 minutes
EA Forum Weekly Summaries – Episode 19 (Feb. 27 - Mar. 5, 2023)

Original article:https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/yCxsz9jk5iau2uvYH/ea-and-lw-forum-weekly-summary-27th-feb-5th-mar-2023This is part of a weekly series summarizing the top posts on the EA Forum — you can see... more

09 Mar 2023 · 19 minutes
"Scoring forecasts from the 2016 “Expert Survey on Progress in AI”" by PatrickL

This document looks at the predictions made by AI experts in The 2016 Expert Survey on Progress in AI, analyses... more

06 Mar 2023 · 19 minutes
"Why I don’t agree with HLI’s estimate of household spillovers from therapy" by James Snowden

I don’t think the existing evidence justifies HLI's estimate of 50% household spillovers. My main disagreements are:Two of the three RCTs... more

03 Mar 2023 · 28 minutes
EA Forum Weekly Summaries – Episode 18 (Feb. 20-26, 2023)

Original article:https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/bEJ6SyrkSF45B2LWZ/ea-and-lw-forum-weekly-summary-20th-26th-feb-2023This is part of a weekly series summarizing the top posts on the EA Forum — you can see... more

03 Mar 2023 · 21 minutes
"Why should ethical anti-realists do ethics?" by Joe Carlsmith

Ethical philosophy often tries to systematize. That is, it seeks general principles that will explain, unify, and revise our more... more

26 Feb 2023 · 53 minutes
EA Forum Weekly Summaries – Episode 17 (Feb. 6-19, 2023)

Original article:https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/fAWotZTEnyycJnuxz/ea-and-lw-forum-weekly-summary-6th-19th-feb-2023This is part of a weekly series summarizing the top posts on the EA Forum — you can see... more

23 Feb 2023 · 16 minutes
"Why I No Longer Prioritize Wild Animal Welfare (edited)" by saulius

This is the story of how I came to see Wild Animal Welfare (WAW) as a less promising cause than... more

18 Feb 2023 · 9 minutes
"CE: Announcing our 2023 Charity Ideas. Apply now!" by Steve Thompson & Charity Entrepreneurship

Apply now to start a nonprofit in Biosecurity or Large-Scale Global HealthIn this post we introduce our top five charity... more

16 Feb 2023 · 27 minutes
"H5N1 - thread for information sharing, planning, and action" by MathiasKB

Hi everyone,I've been reading up on H5N1 this weekend, and I'm pretty concerned. Right now my hunch is that there... more

13 Feb 2023 · 4 minutes
"Literature review of Transformative Artificial Intelligence timelines" by Jaime Sevilla

This is a linkpost for https://epochai.org/blog/literature-review-of-transformative-artificial-intelligence-timelinesWe summarize and compare several models and forecasts predicting when transformative AI will be developed.HighlightsThe... more

10 Feb 2023 · 10 minutes
EA Forum Weekly Summaries – Episode 16 (Jan. 30 - Feb. 5, 2023)

Original article:https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Qzfew7EBPgdCzsxED/ea-and-lw-forum-weekly-summary-30th-jan-5th-feb-2023This is part of a weekly series summarizing the top posts on the EA Forum — you can see... more

09 Feb 2023 · 21 minutes
"The Capability Approach to Human Welfare" by Ryan C Briggs

This post outlines the capability approach to thinking about human welfare. I think that this approach, while very popular in... more

03 Feb 2023 · 18 minutes
EA Forum Weekly Summaries – Episode 15 (Jan. 23 - 29, 2023)

Original article:https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/hzc26vGa4RLns7TvK/ea-and-lw-forum-weekly-summary-23rd-29th-jan-23This is part of a weekly series summarizing the top posts on the EA Forum — you can see... more

02 Feb 2023 · 20 minutes
EA Forum Weekly Summaries – Episode 14 (Jan. 16 - 22, 2023)

Original article:https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/6Ezg8HgHib9bpWCFr/ea-and-lw-forum-weekly-summary-16th-22nd-jan-23This is part of a weekly series summarizing the top posts on the EA Forum — you can see... more

28 Jan 2023 · 19 minutes
"Rethink Priorities’ Welfare Range Estimates" by Bob Fischer

We offer welfare range estimates for 11 farmed species: pigs, chickens, carp, salmon, octopuses, shrimp, crayfish, crabs, bees, black soldier... more

26 Jan 2023 · 34 minutes
"On Living Without Idols" by Rockwell

For many years, I've actively lived in avoidance of idolizing behavior and in pursuit of a nuanced view of even... more

25 Jan 2023 · 10 minutes
EA Forum Weekly Summaries – Episode 13 (Jan. 9 - 15, 2023)

Original article:https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/DNWpFLrtrJXe4mted/ea-and-lw-forum-summaries-9th-jan-to-15th-jan-23This is part of a weekly series summarizing the top posts on the EA Forum — you can see... more

18 Jan 2023 · 24 minutes
"What you can do to help stop violence against women and girls" by Akhil

I previously wrote an entry for the Open Philanthropy Cause Exploration Prize on why preventing violence against women and girls... more

18 Jan 2023 · 33 minutes
"AGI and the EMH: markets are not expecting aligned or unaligned AI in the next 30 years" by Trevor Chow, Basil Halperin, & J. Zachary Mazlish

In this post, we point out that short AI timelines would cause real interest rates to be high, and would... more

16 Jan 2023 · 1 hour, 8 minutes
EA Forum Weekly Summaries – Episode 12 (Dec. 19, 2022 to Jan. 8, 2023)

Original article:https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/JZuCg7TtfzzaX9bBY/ea-and-lw-forum-summaries-holiday-edition-19th-dec-8th-janThis is part of a weekly series summarizing the top posts on the EA Forum — you can see... more

16 Jan 2023 · 13 minutes
"Why Anima International suspended the campaign to end live fish sales in Poland" by Jakub Stencel & Weronika Zurek

At Anima International, we recently decided to suspend our campaign against live fish sales in Poland indefinitely. After a few... more

11 Jan 2023 · 31 minutes
"StrongMinds should not be a top-rated charity (yet)" by Simon_M

This is a linkpost for https://simonm.substack.com/p/strongminds-should-not-be-a-top-ratedGWWC lists StrongMinds as a “top-rated” charity. Their reason for doing so is because Founders... more

09 Jan 2023 · 15 minutes
"Let’s think about slowing down AI" by Katja Grace

If you fear that someone will build a machine that will seize control of the world and annihilate humanity, then... more

05 Jan 2023 · 1 hour, 14 minutes
"High-level hopes for AI alignment" by Holden Karnofsky

In previous pieces, I argued that there's a real and large risk of AI systems' aiming to defeat all of... more

22 Dec 2022 · 23 minutes
EA Forum Weekly Summaries – Episode 10 (Dec. 5 - 11, 2022)

Original article:https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/8bcPkqdLYG78YbnTh/ea-and-lw-forums-weekly-summary-5th-dec-11th-dec-22This is part of a weekly series summarizing the top posts on the EA Forum — you can see... more

17 Dec 2022 · 24 minutes
"The Welfare Range Table" by Bob Fischer

Key TakeawaysOur objective: estimate the welfare ranges of 11 farmed species.Given hedonism, an individual’s welfare range is the difference between... more

13 Dec 2022 · 21 minutes
"Some observations from an EA-adjacent charitable effort" by Patrick McKenzie

Hiya folks! I'm Patrick McKenzie, better known on the Internets as patio11. (Proof.) Long-time-listener, first-time-caller; I don't think I would... more

12 Dec 2022 · 15 minutes
EA Forum Weekly Summaries – Episode 9 (Nov. 28 - Dec. 4, 2022)

Original article:https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/LdEPDqyZvucQkxhWH/ea-and-lw-forums-weekly-summary-28th-nov-4th-dec-22This is part of a weekly series summarizing the top posts on the EA Forum — you can see... more

09 Dec 2022 · 25 minutes
"Why Neuron Counts Shouldn't Be Used as Proxies for Moral Weight" by Adam Shriver

Key Takeaways:Several influential EAs have suggested using neuron counts as rough proxies for animals’ relative moral weights. We challenge this... more

02 Dec 2022 · 18 minutes
"Notes on effective altruism" by Michael Nielsen

Long and rough notes on Effective Altruism (EA). Written to help me get to the bottom of several questions: what... more

30 Nov 2022 · 55 minutes
"Population ethics without axiology: A framework" by Lukas_Gloor

This post introduces a framework for thinking about population ethics: “population ethics without axiology.” In its last section, I sketch... more

30 Nov 2022 · 1 hour, 13 minutes
"How bad could a war get?" by Stephen Clare & Rani Martin

In “How Likely is World War III?”, Stephen suggested the chance of an extinction-level war occurring sometime this century is... more

30 Nov 2022 · 26 minutes
"Are you really in a race? The cautionary tales of Szilárd and Ellsberg" by Haydn Belfield

In both the 1940s and 1950s, well-meaning and good people – the brightest of their generation – were convinced they... more

30 Nov 2022 · 39 minutes
"My take on What We Owe the Future" by Eli Lifland

What We Owe The Future (WWOTF) by Will MacAskill has recently been released with much fanfare. While I strongly agree... more

29 Nov 2022 · 1 hour, 9 minutes
"Effective altruism in the garden of ends" by tyleralterman

This essay is a reconciliation of moral commitment and the good life. Here is its essence in two paragraphs:Totalized by... more

29 Nov 2022 · 1 hour, 1 minute
"Measuring Good Better" by Michael Plant, GiveWell, Jason Schukraft, Matt Lerner, and Innovations for Poverty Action

Excerpt:At EA Global: San Francisco 2022, the following organisations held a joint session to discuss their different approaches to measuring... more

28 Nov 2022 · 28 minutes
EA Forum Podcast (Curated & popular)
"How bad could a war get?" by Stephen Clare & Rani Martin
EA Forum Podcast (Curated & popular)
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In “How Likely is World War III?”, Stephen suggested the chance of an extinction-level war occurring sometime this century is just under... more