EA Forum Podcast (Curated & popular)

“GHD discussion here is slowly dying” by NickLaing

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 08:15:22 GMT

Epistemic status: A bit sad (I know that's not an epistemic status)

The best development Forum on the internet?

3 years ago a headline “FTX SBF blah blah blah” triggered my memory “oh that's right, that effective altruism thing”.

A few years earlier I had read “Doing Good Better” in our Northern Ugandan hut, and was excited by how the ideas matched my experience of seeing the BINGOs [1] on the ground here doing not-much-good at all. Soon after my wife dragged me to Cambridge for a year and I joined an EA group. I was drawn in to a beautiful crew of good, ernest people trying to do the best they could with their lives -[2] something I’d only seen before among a few people at church. I was most impressed by their veganism, practising what they preached.

But after going back to Uganda I forgot about the whole EA thing. But 3 years later the FTX headlines and a google search led me to the EA forum, which to my delight turned out to be the best place on the internet to discuss global health and development. My first foray was a not-very-good post [...]

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Outline:

(00:16) The best development Forum on the internet?

(01:29) A steady decline

(02:59) Why?

(04:34) Is this fine?

(05:02) Is this less fine?

(06:29) How to Boost GHD discourse?

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First published:
March 15th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/4jbbjTTJ87baMrkY4/ghd-discussion-here-is-slowly-dying

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

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“Feelings about the end of the world” by Michelle_Hutchinson

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 10:15:33 GMT

Many of us in this community are in the shocking position of thinking there's a real chance of humanity being wiped out over the next decade or two. Most of the time, we discuss that in rational terms. We talk about probabilities, and threat models, and interventions. We don’t talk as much about the emotions we have about how radically our world might change and about the possibility of it ending entirely.

There are lots of reasons for not talking about those feelings. For starters, it's often hard to know how we even do feel about it. There isn’t a straightforward societal script for how to feel about such radical world changes. People each have to figure it out for themselves, and feel very different ways. No one wants to sound extreme or crazy by talking about feeling very strongly about it. But they don’t want to sound callous either. And opening up about your feelings and being met without understanding and similarity feels alienating, particularly when it's about something so important. But the biggest reason I don’t talk about it is horror. I don’t want to think about it, and I don’t want to upset others.

[...]

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Outline:

(01:58) A range of feelings

(04:18) How I feel

(06:46) Different people are different

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First published:
March 7th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ZDKkhoJoS7qgq2wqA/feelings-about-the-end-of-the-world

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“The case for AI safety capacity-building work” by abergal

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 09:30:34 GMT

I work on the capacity-building team on the Global Catastrophic Risks-half of Coefficient Giving (formerly known as Open Philanthropy). Our remit is, roughly, to increase the amount of talent aiming to prevent unprecedented, globally catastrophic events. These days, we’re mostly focused on AI, and we’ve funded a number of projects and grantees that readers of this post might be familiar with– including MATS, BlueDot Impact, Constellation, 80,000 Hours, CEA, the Curve, FAR.AI's events, university groups, and many other workshops and projects.

The post aims to make the case that broadly, capacity-building work (including on AI risk) has been and continues to be extremely impactful, and to encourage people to consider pursuing relevant projects and careers.

This post is written from my personal perspective; that said, my sense is that a number of CG staff and others in the AI safety space share my views. I include some quotes from them at the end of this post.

I’m writing this post partly out of a desire to correct what I perceive as an asymmetry in terms of how excited I and others at Coefficient Giving are about this kind of work vs. how much people in the EA and AI [...]

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Outline:

(02:15) The case for capacity-building work

(04:11) Surveys

(06:49) Testimonials

(08:21) Neel Nanda (Senior Research Scientist at Google DeepMind)

(11:15) Max Nadeau (Associate Program Officer (Technical AI Safety) at Coefficient Giving)

(12:51) Rachel Weinberg (founder and former head of The Curve, currently at AI Futures Project)

(14:30) Marius Hobbhann (CEO and founder of Apollo Research)

(16:38) Adam Kaufman (member of technical staff at Redwood Research)

(18:10) Gabriel Wu (member of technical staff (alignment) at OpenAI)

(19:37) Catherine Brewer (Senior Program Associate (AI Governance) at Coefficient Giving)

(21:12) Aric Floyd (video host for AI in Context)

(23:12) Ryan Kidd (Director of MATS)

(25:43) What tends to work?

(28:34) Whats good to do now?

(29:31) Who should be doing this work?

(31:02) What would doing this work look like?

(31:13) Working at an organization doing good work in the space

(31:46) Constellation - CEO

(32:46) Kairos - various early generalist positions

(33:42) Starting or running your own capacity-building project or organization

(34:07) Working on a capacity-building project part-time

(34:30) Subscribing to Multiplier, a Substack with thoughts from our team (and other AI grantmaking staff at CG)

(34:39) Letting our team know

(35:03) Social proof

(35:25) Julian Hazell, AI governance and policy at Coefficient Giving

(36:19) Trevor Levin, AI governance and policy at Coefficient Giving

(36:51) Ryan Greenblatt, Chief Scientist at Redwood Research:

(37:21) Buck Shlegeris, CEO of Redwood Research

(39:52) Appendix

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First published:
March 10th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/rAqKSSXankvys2Fzu/the-case-for-ai-safety-capacity-building-work

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Some good news: Ahold Delhaize to go cage-free” by ElliotTep

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 08:45:26 GMT

For those not working in the space this probably isn't on your radar, but the animal advocacy movement just secured a huge win with Ahold Delhaize, convincing the fourth-largest supermarket company in the US to set the strongest cage-free policy of any large US retailer:

A roadmap with benchmarks to fully eliminate caged egg cartons, expand cage-free offerings, and increase the percentage of cage-free sales.
A pledge to annually report on its progress.
At all 2,000+ locations, placing large, promotional shelf tags in front of cage-free cartons to differentiate cage-free and caged cartons for consumers.

This was a giant campaign. My understanding is that other companies were watching to see if this campaign would succeed or fail, to see if they would need to follow suit. In addition to the animals helped, this win will add pressure for competitors to do the same.

This was a coordinated effort among many groups, including: Center For Responsible Food Business; Animal Equality; International Council for Animal Welfare; The Humane League; Mercy For Animals; Compassion in World Farming; Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade and Animal Activist Collective.

Animal Equality states that this will affect 5-7 million hens. I know a lot [...]

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First published:
March 4th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/2wePKArWWr4Xx6Zvf/some-good-news-ahold-delhaize-to-go-cage-free

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

[Linkpost] “Effective Altruism Will Be Great Again” by Mjreard

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 17:45:26 GMT

This is a link post.

Forum note: this post embodies the spirit of a new project I—Matt Reardon—am starting to reinvigorate in-person EA communities. I'm hiring a co-founder and I'm interested in meeting others who want to collaborate on this vision. My DMs are open.

Sequence thinkers will be forgiven and rejoice

In some fleeting moments lately, I catch glimpses of 2022—the year Effective Altruism's ascent seemed unstoppable. Universally positive (if limited) press, big groups at top universities across the world, a young EA entrepreneur was the darling of the financial industry, the first EA running for Congress calling in enormous financial and personnel resources for his campaign. More than those public-facing facts though, was a feeling on the ground that if you had a good grip on things and a plausible idea, you would get funding, go to the Bay, and make it happen.

I actually regret how slow I was to see it at the time. You could just do things, and yes, that's always been true, but at that time, you didn’t even have excuses. In my first year as an advisor at 80,000 Hours, I allowed people a lot of excuses. I think this came from [...]

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Outline:

(02:37) The Retreat

(07:03) What Greatness Demands

(10:59) Effective Altruism is Good and Right

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First published:
March 7th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/uHhcqagBBkhFTTGpq/effective-altruism-will-be-great-again

Linkpost URL:
https://open.substack.com/pub/frommatter/p/effective-altruism-will-be-great

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Responsible Scaling Policy v3” by Holden Karnofsky

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 00:45:22 GMT

All views are my own, not Anthropic's. This post assumes Anthropic's announcement of RSP v3.0 as background.

Today, Anthropic released its Responsible Scaling Policy 3.0. The official announcement discusses the high-level thinking behind it. This is a more detailed post giving my own takes on the update.

First, the big picture:

I expect some people will be upset about the move away from a “hard commitments”/”binding ourselves to the mast” vibe. (Anthropic has always had the ability to revise the RSP, and we’ve always had language in there specifically flagging that we might revise away key commitments in a situation where other AI developers aren’t adhering to similar commitments. But it's been easy to get the impression that the RSP is “binding ourselves to the mast” and committing to unilaterally pause AI development and deployment under some conditions, and Anthropic is responsible for that.)
I take significant responsibility for this change. I have been pushing for this change for about a year now, and have led the way in developing the new RSP. I am in favor of nearly everything about the changes we’re making. I am excited about the Roadmap, the Risk Reports, the move toward external [...]

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Outline:

(05:32) How it started: the original goals of RSPs

(11:25) How its going: the good and the bad

(11:51) A note on my general orientation toward this topic

(14:56) Goal 1: forcing functions for improved risk mitigations

(15:02) A partial success story: robustness to jailbreaks for particular uses of concern, in line with the ASL-3 deployment standard

(18:24) A mixed success/failure story: impact on information security

(20:42) ASL-4 and ASL-5 prep: the wrong incentives

(25:00) When forcing functions do and dont work well

(27:52) Goal 2 (testbed for practices and policies that can feed into regulation)

(29:24) Goal 3 (working toward consensus and common knowledge about AI risks and potential mitigations)

(30:59) RSP v3s attempt to amplify the good and reduce the bad

(36:01) Do these benefits apply only to the most safety-oriented companies?

(37:40) A revised, but not overturned, vision for RSPs

(39:08) Q&A

(39:10) On the move away from implied unilateral commitments

(39:15) Is RSP v3 proactively sending a race-to-the-bottom signal? Why be the first company to explicitly abandon the high ambition for achieving low levels of risk?

(40:34) How sure are you that a voluntary industry-wide pause cant happen? Are you worried about signaling that youll be the first to defect in a prisoners dilemma?

(42:03) How sure are you that you cant actually sprint to achieve the level of information security, alignment science understanding, and deployment safeguards needed to make arbitrarily powerful AI systems low-risk?

(43:49) What message will this change send to regulators? Will it make ambitious regulation less likely by making companies commitments to low risk look less serious?

(45:10) Why did you have to do this now - couldnt you have waited until the last possible moment to make this change, in case the more ambitious risk mitigations ended up working out?

(46:03) Could you have drafted the new RSP, then waited until you had to invoke your escape clause and introduced it then? Or introduced the new RSP as what we will do if we invoke our escape clause?

(47:29) The new Risk Reports and Roadmap are nice, but couldnt you have put them out without also making the key revision of moving away from unilateral commitments?

(48:26) Why isnt a unilateral pause a good idea? It could be a big credible signal of danger, which could lead to policy action.

(49:37) Could a unilateral pause ever be a good idea? Why not commit to a unilateral pause in cases where it would be a good idea?

(50:31) Why didnt you communicate about the change differently? Im worried that the way you framed this will cause audience X to take away message Y.

(51:53) Why dont Anthropics and your communications about this have a more alarmed and/or disappointed vibe? I reluctantly concede that this revision makes sense on the merits, but Im sad about it. Arent you?

(53:19) On other components of the new RSP

(53:24) The new RSPs commitments related to competitors seem vague and weak. Could you add more and/or strengthen these? They dont seem sufficient as-is to provide strong assurance against a prisoners dilemma world where each relevant company wishes it could be more careful, but rushes due to pressure from others.

(55:29) Why is external review only required at an extreme capability level? Why not just require it now?

(58:06) The new commitments are mostly about Risk Reports and Roadmap - what stops companies from just making these really perfunctory?

(59:18) Why isnt the RSP more adversarially designed such that once a company adopts it, it will improve their practices even if nobody at the company values safety at all?

(01:00:18) What are the consequences of missing your Roadmap commitments? If they arent dire, will anyone care about them?

(01:00:29) OK, but does that apply to other companies too? How will Roadmaps force other companies to get things done?

(01:00:40) Why arent the recommendations for industry-wide safety more specific? Why is it built around safety cases instead of ASLs with specific lists of needed risk mitigations?

(01:02:06) What is the point of making commitments if you can revise them anytime?

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First published:
February 24th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/DGZNAGL2FNJfftwgE/responsible-scaling-policy-v3-1

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Why isn’t anti-fascism a bigger topic at EAG events (or on this forum)?” by Alex_Z

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 19:30:22 GMT

TL;DR: Define your line that if crossed, you would consider this issue one of (if not the most) pressing issues, or at least pressing enough to warrant some of your time.

I want to start with a clarification that I learned while writing this post. In the United States, charities with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status are permitted to discuss policy and engage in advocacy, but are prohibited from participating in partisan political campaigns. I have also read the EA Forum post Politics on the EA Forums and I believe this post is consistent with those norms. I am not advocating for or against any party, candidate, or electoral campaign. The question I want to raise is broader: whether creeping authoritarianism, anti-fascism, and authoritarian lock-in should be discussed more explicitly in EA spaces as subjects of analysis and concern. Although my own experience is local to me in Canada, the question is clearly relevant to the current situation in the United States and globally.

I’m asking this sincerely: why isn’t anti-fascism a bigger topic at EAG events or on this forum? I was thinking about it while planning my trip to EAG San Francisco 2026. Should I be travelling to [...]

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First published:
March 1st, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/dgnCabfdXy6jv4gDu/why-isn-t-anti-fascism-a-bigger-topic-at-eag-events-or-on

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Here’s to the Polypropylene Makers” by Jeff Kaufman 🔸

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 20:30:47 GMT

Six years ago, as covid-19 was rapidly spreading through the US, my sister was working as a medical resident. One day she was handed an N95 and told to "guard it with her life", because there weren't any more coming.

N95s are made from meltblown polypropylene, produced from plastic pellets manufactured in a small number of chemical plants. Building more would take too long: we needed these plants producing all the pellets they could.

Braskem America operated plants in Marcus Hook PA and Neal WV. If there were infections on-site, the whole operation would need to shut down, and the factories that turned their pellets into mask fabric would stall.

Companies everywhere were figuring out how to deal with this risk. The standard approach was staggering shifts, social distancing, temperature checks, and lots of handwashing. This reduced risk, but it was still significant: each shift change was an opportunity for someone to bring an infection from the community into the factory.

I don't know who had the idea, but someone said: what if we never left? About eighty people, across both plants, volunteered to move in. The plan was four weeks, twelve-hour [...]

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First published:
February 27th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/DBbgMgbPthABqn2No/here-s-to-the-polypropylene-makers

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“You’re not burning out because you’re tired” by stefan.torges

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 22:45:47 GMT

I burned out badly a few years ago. I've since had several conversations with people in the EA community who are heading toward burnout themselves, and I noticed they were sometimes thinking about it in ways that I worry wouldn't help them. So I want to share what I think is actually going on, and what I wish someone had told me earlier.

A theory of burnout

There are good models of the mechanism of burnout already out there. Anna Salamon has written about willpower as a kind of internal currency: your conscious planner "earns" trust with your deeper, more visceral processes by choosing actions that nourish them, and goes "credibility-broke" when it spends that trust without replenishing it. Cate Hall describes something similar with her metaphor of the elephant and the rider: the rider promises the elephant rewards in exchange for effort, and burnout is what happens when those promises are broken too many times.

I usually explain this in terms of an energy imbalance: you're putting more into your work than you're getting back. Not just in terms of rest, but in terms of meaning, autonomy, connection, a sense of accomplishment, positive feedback. All the things that [...]

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Outline:

(00:29) A theory of burnout

(02:23) Why EA culture builds effective cages

(06:11) What it actually felt like

(07:10) What I want to push back on

(08:31) What Id encourage if youre in the grey zone

(10:50) What recovery actually looked like

(11:55) What I learned, and didnt learn

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First published:
February 27th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/2veCceQkhjovCfdbg/you-re-not-burning-out-because-you-re-tired

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“CEA’s response to sexual harassment” by Fran

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 22:30:46 GMT

In this piece, I discuss the sexual harassment I experienced at the Centre for Effective Altruism, the organisation's response, the outcomes of two independent legal reviews, and the final settlement. In the second part of this piece, I make cultural critiques of CEA and EA more broadly.

Everything shared here reflects my own experience and perspective. I have anonymised the perpetrator, but I reference specific leadership roles where I believe this to be appropriate and necessary.

Trigger warnings: non-specific reference of rape and specific discussion of sexual harassment

TL;DR (One-page summary)

After I was raped (outside of and unrelated to work), a colleague at CEA wrote and circulated a document that included a sexualised description of my rape, speculation about my mental health, and commentary on my personal life, all without my consent. Several senior leaders, including the CEO and the now-former COO, received this document and took no safeguarding action for approximately nine months. I was never officially informed of its existence; I only learned about it informally through one of the recipients.

After I filed a harassment report, the incident was independently investigated and determined to be harassment. Despite this, I was denied access to the document [...]

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Outline:

(00:47) TL;DR (One-page summary)

(03:38) A more detailed account

(03:42) The sexual harassment incident

(06:42) The investigation

(10:38) The appeal and final report

(14:02) Public accountability versus internal processes

(16:59) The final settlement agreement

(18:54) I still think there is a lot of good in effective altruism

(20:33) Various cultural reflections

(20:50) 1) Sexual harassment is not the natural result of an open and high-trust culture, it is the natural result of misogyny.

(22:46) 2) The danger of EAs fixation on intent and why he didnt mean it is not good enough.

(24:11) 3) Cowardice and deference at CEA.

(26:30) 4) Women in EA are often encouraged to try and settle things informally or to trust their organisations -- another abuse of high-trust culture.

(28:45) 5) A harmful misunderstanding of trauma and mitigating vs. aggravating factors.

(30:27) 6) I have encountered so many EAs who believe it is easy for victims to speak publicly, or to share their experiences with other community members. And thus, if they arent regularly hearing from victims, harassment must be rare.

(33:02) To any women who have faced something similar

(34:40) Acknowledgements

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First published:
February 27th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/XxXnPoGQ2eKsQx3FE/cea-s-response-to-sexual-harassment

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“500k mid-career professionals want to do more good with their careers. Can we help them?” by Dom Jackman

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 23:30:08 GMT

I'm Dom Jackman. I founded Escape the City in 2010 to help people leave corporate jobs and find work that matters. 16 years later, 500k+ professionals have used the platform - mostly people 5-15 years into careers at places like McKinsey, Deloitte, Google, the big banks - who feel a growing gap between what they do all day and what they actually care about.

I'm not from the EA community. I'm writing this because I think there's a real overlap between the people I work with and what the EA talent ecosystem actually needs. I want to test that before investing serious time in it.

What I've noticed

Reading through talent discussions on this forum, there's a consistent theme: the pipeline is strongest for early-career people. 80,000 Hours does great work for students and recent grads. Probably Good provides broad guidance. BlueDot, MATS, Talos build skills for specific cause areas.

But mid-career professionals with real commercial experience keep coming up as underserved. The "Gaps and opportunities in the EA talent & recruiting landscape" post nails it: these people "don't have 'EA capital,' may be poorly networked and might feel alienated by current messaging." The post calls for "custom entry [...]

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Outline:

(00:51) What Ive noticed

(01:40) What I see every day

(02:28) What Im thinking about building

(03:24) Honest questions

(04:39) Not looking for funding

(04:58) Artifacts

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First published:
February 11th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/H9pb6DEasgzjCff9a/500k-mid-career-professionals-want-to-do-more-good-with

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Our Levels of Ambition Should Match The Problems We’re Solving” by Matt Beard

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 17:30:21 GMT

[I am a career advisor at 80,000 Hours. I've been thinking about something Will MacAskill said recently in an interview with my shrimp-friend Matt: "should people be more ambitious? I genuinely think yes. I think people systematically aren't ambitious enough, so the answer is almost always yes. Again, the ambition you have should match the scale of the problems that we're facing—and the scale of those problems is very large indeed."

This post is my reflection on these ideas.]

************

My last post argued that if you want to have a great career, your goal should not be to get a job. Instead, you should choose an important problem to work on, then “get good and be known.” Building skills will allow you to solve problems and reap the benefits.

In the ~500 career advising calls I’ve hosted in the past year, the most common response I’ve heard has been: “Okay, how good? How well known? How many hours of practice will get me there?” Most people want to calibrate their ambitions so that the time and energy they invest feels worth it to them.

I empathize with this, but when I’m honest– with myself for my own [...]

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Outline:

(06:28) Jensen Huang is more ambitious than you

(12:58) Most extreme ambition is misplaced

(17:45) Okay, how can altruistic people aim higher and work harder?

(21:17) Ambition at the End of the Human Era

(24:03) Closing Caveats - Efficiency, Burnout, and Choosing What Matters

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First published:
February 12th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/7qsisgX3cwETJuPNz/our-levels-of-ambition-should-match-the-problems-we-re

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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[Linkpost] “The best cause will disappoint you: An intro to the optimisers curse” by titotal

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 01:15:21 GMT

This is a link post.

I would like to thank David Thorstadt for looking over this. If you spot a factual error in this article please message me. The code used to generate the graphs in the article is available to view here.

Introduction

Say you are an organiser, tasked with achieving the best result on some metric, such as “trash picked up”, “GDP per capita”, or “lives saved by an effective charity”. There are several possible options of interventions you can take to try and achieve this. How do you choose between them?

The obvious thing to do is look at each intervention in turn and make your best, unbiased estimate of how each intervention will perform on your metric, and pick the one that performs the best:

Image taken from here

Having done this ranking, you declare the top ranking program to be the best intervention and invest in it, expecting that that your top estimate will be the result that you get. This whole procedure is totally normal, and people all around the world, including people in the effective altruist community, do it all the time.

In actuality, this procedure is not correct. The optimisers curse is [...]

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Outline:

(00:26) Introduction

(02:17) The optimisers curse explained simply

(04:42) Introducing a toy model

(08:45) Introducing speculative interventions

(12:15) A simple bayesian correction

(18:47) Obstacles to simple optimizer curse solutions.

(22:08) How Givewell has reacted to the optimiser curse

(25:18) Conclusion

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First published:
February 11th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/q2TfTirvspCTH2vbZ/the-best-cause-will-disappoint-you-an-intro-to-the

Linkpost URL:
https://open.substack.com/pub/titotal/p/the-best-cause-will-disappoint-you?r=1e0is3&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“What is Love ft. Claude & VascoBot” by AgentMa🔸

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 06:45:22 GMT

What is the highest form of love? According to the VascoBot Claude programmed for me:

“Thanks for the great question, AgentMa🔸. I strongly upvoted it.

I think the highest form of love is expected total hedonistic utilitarianism (ETHU) applied to all sentient beings, weighted by their welfare ranges as a fraction of that of humans. However, I believe most discussions of love neglect the welfare implications for soil animals and microorganisms, which I think dominate the expected value calculations in most cases.

I estimate that when someone experiences profound love, their increased wellbeing leads to approximately 2.3 % (= 50 additional kcal consumed per day * 0.046 % per kcal) additional food consumption. Multiplying this by the roughly 4.71*10^13 soil nematodes affected per kcal of food production (from my back-of-the-envelope calculations based on van den Hoogen et al. (2019)), I get approximately 1.08*10^12 affected nematode-years per year of experiencing love. Conditional on my preferred exponent of the number of neurons of 0.7, and assuming the welfare range of a nematode is 10^-6 as a fraction of that of humans, the welfare effects on soil animals could be 1.08*10^6 nematode-equivalent quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) per year of love experience.

In [...]

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First published:
February 14th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/exwmGp3swfbbNqSsN/what-is-love-ft-claude-and-vascobot

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“The reality of long-term EA community building: Lessons from 3 years of EA Barcelona” by Melanie Brennan 🔹, Anthony L

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 13:30:21 GMT

We are Melanie and Anthony, the two community builders at EA Barcelona. In this post, we share where the group stands today and reflect on key learnings from nearly three years of grant-funded community building. We hope these reflections are useful to other community builders, funders, and CEA, particularly around what it realistically takes to build and sustain EA communities over multiple years, from funding stability and feedback loops to the personal sustainability of professional community builders.

TL;DR

EA Barcelona was funded by the EA Infrastructure Fund between May 2023 and December 2025 (<1.2 FTE). Over this period, it has grown into a thriving local community and informal coordination hub for EA activity in Spain.

Unexpectedly, EAIF decided not to continue funding our project in 2026. We subsequently explored the current funding landscape for EA community building, but found no viable path to stable funding for 2026 that didn’t involve a high level of personal and professional risk. As a result, we’ve decided not to continue with a funded community-builder model for EA Barcelona for now, and will instead focus on transitioning to a volunteer-led structure.

Background: EA Barcelona (2023-2025)

Present-day EA Barcelona began as a casual meetup group [...]

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Outline:

(00:45) TL;DR

(01:38) Background: EA Barcelona (2023-2025)

(02:20) 2023: Establishing EA Barcelona as a city hub

(03:52) 2024: Deepening engagement and seeding national growth

(07:51) 2025: Transitioning from local hub to national coordination

(13:37) Late 2025: Navigating the Transition

(13:43) Initial Funding Cuts

(14:44) What we did next

(17:00) Clarity starts to emerge

(18:19) Where we are now

(18:57) Our plan for 2026: transition toward a volunteer-led community model

(20:19) Quick disclaimer: Are either of us Spanish?

(21:36) Thank you!

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First published:
January 30th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/daHMkoQsHSbcK6Kjo/the-reality-of-long-term-ea-community-building-lessons-from

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Preparing for a flush future: work, giving, and conduct” by Sam Anschell

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 12:45:21 GMT

Note: opinions are all my own.

Following Jeff Kaufman's Front-Load Giving Because of Anthropic Donors and Jenn's Funding Conversation We Left Unfinished, I think there is a real likelihood that impactful causes will receive significantly more funding in the near future. As background on where this new funding could come from:

Coefficient Giving announced:
A recent NYT piece covered rumors of an Anthropic valuation at $350 billion. Many of Anthropic's cofounders and early employees have pledged to donate significant amounts of their equity, and it seems likely that an outsized share of these donations would go to effective causes.
A handful of other sources have the potential to grow their giving:
- Founders Pledge has secured $12.8 billion in pledged funding, and significantly scaled the amount it directs.[1]
- The Gates Foundation has increased its giving following Bill Gates’ announcement to spend down $200 billion by 2045.
- Other aligned funders such as Longview, Macroscopic, the Flourishing Fund, the Navigation Fund, GiveWell, Project Resource Optimization, Schmidt Futures/Renaissance Philanthropy, and the Livelihood Impacts Fund have increased their staffing and dollars directed in recent years.
- The OpenAI Foundation controls a 26% equity stake in the for-profit OpenAI Group PB. This stake is currently valued at $130 billion [...]

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Outline:

(02:39) Work

(03:50) Giving

(04:53) Conduct

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First published:
February 2nd, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/H8SqwbLxKkiJur3c4/preparing-for-a-flush-future-work-giving-and-conduct

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“EA Grants Database - a new website” by Brian Foerster

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:30:21 GMT

The EA Grants Database is a new site that neatly aggregates grant data from major EA funders who publish individual or total grant information. It is intended to be easy to maintain long term, entirely piggybacking off of existing data that is likely to be maintained. The website data is updated by a script that can be run in seconds, and I anticipate doing this for the foreseeable future.

In creating the website, I tried to make things as clear and straightforward as possible. If your user experience is in any way impaired, I would appreciate hearing from you. I would also appreciate feedback on what features would actually be useful to people, although I am committed to avoiding bloat.

In a funding landscape that seems poised to grow, I hope this site can serve as a resource to help grantmakers, grantees, and other interested parties make decisions while also providing perspective on what has come before.

My post on matching credits and this website are both outgrowths of my thinking on how we might best financially coordinate as EA grows and becomes more difficult to understand.[1] Relatedly, I am also interested in the sort of mechanisms that [...]

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First published:
February 8th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/rohYFGfiFjepLDnWC/ea-grants-database-a-new-website

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Long-term risks from ideological fanaticism” by David_Althaus, Jamie_Harris, vanessa16, Clare_Diane, Will Aldred

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 21:15:21 GMT

Cross-posted to LessWrong.

Summary

History's most destructive ideologies—like Nazism, totalitarian communism, and religious fundamentalism—exhibited remarkably similar characteristics:
- epistemic and moral certainty
- extreme tribalism dividing humanity into a sacred “us” and an evil “them”
- a willingness to use whatever means necessary, including brutal violence.
Such ideological fanaticism was a major driver of eight of the ten greatest atrocities since 1800, including the Taiping Rebellion, World War II, and the regimes of Stalin, Mao, and Hitler.
We focus on ideological fanaticism over related concepts like totalitarianism partly because it better captures terminal preferences, which plausibly matter most as we approach superintelligent AI and technological maturity.
Ideological fanaticism is considerably less influential than in the past, controlling only a small fraction of world GDP. Yet at least hundreds of millions still hold fanatical views, many regimes exhibit concerning ideological tendencies, and the past two decades have seen widespread democratic backsliding.
The long-term influence of ideological fanaticism is uncertain. Fanaticism faces many disadvantages including a weak starting position, poor epistemics, and difficulty assembling broad coalitions. But it benefits from greater willingness to use extreme measures, fervent mass followings, and a historical tendency to survive and even thrive amid technological and societal upheaval. Beyond complete victory or defeat, multipolarity may [...]

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Outline:

(00:16) Summary

(05:19) What do we mean by ideological fanaticism?

(08:40) I. Dogmatic certainty: epistemic and moral lock-in

(10:02) II. Manichean tribalism: total devotion to us, total hatred for them

(12:42) III. Unconstrained violence: any means necessary

(14:33) Fanaticism as a multidimensional continuum

(16:09) Ideological fanaticism drove most of recent historys worst atrocities

(19:24) Death tolls dont capture all harm

(20:55) Intentional versus natural or accidental harm

(22:44) Why emphasize ideological fanaticism over political systems like totalitarianism?

(25:07) Fanatical and totalitarian regimes have caused far more harm than all other regime types

(26:29) Authoritarianism as a risk factor

(27:19) Values change political systems: Ideological fanatics seek totalitarianism, not democracy

(29:50) Terminal values may matter independently of political systems, especially with AGI

(31:02) Fanaticisms connection to malevolence (dark personality traits)

(34:22) The current influence of ideological fanaticism

(34:42) Historical perspective: it was much worse, but we are sliding back

(37:19) Estimating the global scale of ideological fanaticism

(43:57) State actors

(48:12) How much influence will ideological fanaticism have in the long-term future?

(48:57) Reasons for optimism: Why ideological fanaticism will likely lose

(49:45) A worse starting point and historical track record

(50:33) Fanatics intolerance results in coalitional disadvantages

(51:53) The epistemic penalty of irrational dogmatism

(54:21) The marketplace of ideas and human preferences

(55:57) Reasons for pessimism: Why ideological fanatics may gain power

(56:04) The fragility of democratic leadership in AI

(56:37) Fanatical actors may grab power via coups or revolutions

(59:36) Fanatics have fewer moral constraints

(01:01:13) Fanatics prioritize destructive capabilities

(01:02:13) Some ideologies with fanatical elements have been remarkably resilient and successful

(01:03:01) Novel fanatical ideologies could emerge--or existing ones could mutate

(01:05:08) Fanatics may have longer time horizons, greater scope-sensitivity, and prioritize growth more

(01:07:15) A possible middle ground: Persistent multipolar worlds

(01:08:33) Why multipolar futures seem plausible

(01:10:00) Why multipolar worlds might persist indefinitely

(01:15:42) Ideological fanaticism increases existential and suffering risks

(01:17:09) Ideological fanaticism increases the risk of war and conflict

(01:17:44) Reasons for war and ideological fanaticism

(01:26:27) Fanatical ideologies are non-democratic, which increases the risk of war

(01:27:00) These risks are both time-sensitive and timeless

(01:27:44) Fanatical retributivism may lead to astronomical suffering

(01:29:50) Empirical evidence: how many people endorse eternal extreme punishment?

(01:33:53) Religious fanatical retributivism

(01:40:45) Secular fanatical retributivism

(01:41:43) Ideological fanaticism could undermine long-reflection-style frameworks and AI alignment

(01:42:33) Ideological fanaticism threatens collective moral deliberation

(01:47:35) AI alignment may not solve the fanaticism problem either

(01:53:33) Prevalence of reality-denying, anti-pluralistic, and punitive worldviews

(01:55:44) Ideological fanaticism could worsen many other risks

(01:55:49) Differential intellectual regress

(01:56:51) Ideological fanaticism may give rise to extreme optimization and insatiable moral desires

(01:59:21) Apocalyptic terrorism

(02:00:05) S-risk-conducive propensities and reverse cooperative intelligence

(02:01:28) More speculative dynamics: purity spirals and self-inflicted suffering

(02:03:00) Unknown unknowns and navigating exotic scenarios

(02:03:43) Interventions

(02:05:31) Societal or political interventions

(02:05:51) Safeguarding democracy

(02:06:40) Reducing political polarization

(02:10:26) Promoting anti-fanatical values: classical liberalism and Enlightenment principles

(02:13:55) Growing the influence of liberal democracies

(02:15:54) Encouraging reform in illiberal countries

(02:16:51) Promoting international cooperation

(02:22:36) Artificial intelligence-related interventions

(02:22:41) Reducing the chance that transformative AI falls into the hands of fanatics

(02:27:58) Making transformative AIs themselves less likely to be fanatical

(02:36:14) Using AI to improve epistemics and deliberation

(02:38:13) Fanaticism-resistant post-AGI governance

(02:39:51) Addressing deeper causes of ideological fanaticism

(02:41:26) Supplementary materials

(02:41:39) Acknowledgments

(02:42:22) References

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First published:
February 12th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/EDBQPT65XJsgszwmL/long-term-risks-from-ideological-fanaticism

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“More EAs should consider working for the EU” by EU Policy Careers

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 18:30:05 GMT

Context: The authors are a few EAs who currently work or have previously worked at the European Commission.

In this post, we

make the case that more people[1] aiming for a high impact career should consider working for the EU institutions[2] using the Importance, Tractability, Neglectedness framework, and;
briefly outline how one might get started on this, highlighting a currently open recruitment drive (deadline 10 March) that only comes along once every ~5 years.

Why working at the EU can be extremely impactful

Importance

The EU adopts binding legislation for a continent of 450 million people and has a significant budget, making it an important player across different EA cause areas.

Animal welfare[3]

The EU sets welfare standards for the over 10 billion farmed animals slaughtered across the continent each year.
The issue suffered a major setback in 2023, when the Commission, in the final steps of the process, dropped the ‘world's most comprehensive farm animal welfare reforms to date’, following massive farmers’ protests in Brussels.
- The reform would have included ‘banning cages and crates for Europe's roughly 300 million caged animals, ending the routine mutilation of perhaps 500 million animals per year, stopping the [...]

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Outline:

(00:43) Why working at the EU can be extremely impactful

(00:49) Importance

(05:30) Tractability

(07:22) Neglectedness

(09:00) Paths into the EU

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First published:
February 1st, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/t23ko3x2MoHekCKWC/more-eas-should-consider-working-for-the-eu

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“The Scaling Series Discussion Thread: with Toby Ord” by Toby Tremlett🔹

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 12:45:02 GMT

We're trying something a bit new this week. Over the last year, Toby Ord has been writing about the implications of the fact that improvements in AI require exponentially more compute. Only one of these posts so far has been put on the EA forum.

This week we've put the entire series on the Forum and made this thread for you to discuss your reactions to the posts. Toby Ord will check in once a day to respond to your comments[1].

Feel free to also comment directly on the individual posts that make up this sequence, but you can treat this as a central discussion space for both general takes and more specific questions.

If you haven't read the series yet, we've created a page where you can, and you can see the summaries of each post below:

Are the Costs of AI Agents Also Rising Exponentially?
Agents can do longer and longer tasks, but their dollar cost to do these tasks may be growing even faster.

How Well Does RL Scale?
I show that RL-training for LLMs scales much worse than inference or pre-training.

Evidence that Recent AI Gains are Mostly from Inference-Scaling
I show how [...]

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First published:
February 2nd, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/JAcueP8Dh6db6knBK/the-scaling-series-discussion-thread-with-toby-ord

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

[Linkpost] “Are the Costs of AI Agents Also Rising Exponentially?” by Toby_Ord

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 08:52:37 GMT

This is a link post.

There is an extremely important question about the near-future of AI that almost no-one is asking.

We’ve all seen the graphs from METR showing that the length of tasks AI agents can perform has been growing exponentially over the last 7 years. While GPT-2 could only do software engineering tasks that would take someone a few seconds, the latest models can (50% of the time) do tasks that would take a human a few hours.

As this trend shows no signs of stopping, people have naturally taken to extrapolating it out, to forecast when we might expect AI to be able to do tasks that take an engineer a full work-day; or week; or year.

But we are missing a key piece of information — the cost of performing this work.

Over those 7 years AI systems have grown exponentially. The size of the models (parameter count) has grown by 4,000x and the number of times they are run in each task (tokens generated) has grown by about 100,000x. AI researchers have also found massive efficiencies, but it is eminently plausible that the cost for the peak performance measured by METR has been [...]

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Outline:

(13:02) Conclusions

(14:05) Appendix

(14:08) METR has a similar graph on their page for GPT-5.1 codex. It includes more models and compares them by token counts rather than dollar costs:

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First published:
February 2nd, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/AbHPpGTtAMyenWGX8/are-the-costs-of-ai-agents-also-rising-exponentially

Linkpost URL:
https://www.tobyord.com/writing/hourly-costs-for-ai-agents

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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[Linkpost] “Evidence that Recent AI Gains are Mostly from Inference-Scaling” by Toby_Ord

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 08:45:49 GMT

This is a link post.

In the last year or two, the most important trend in modern AI came to an end. The scaling-up of computational resources used to train ever-larger AI models through next-token prediction (pre-training) stalled out. Since late 2024, we’ve seen a new trend of using reinforcement learning (RL) in the second stage of training (post-training). Through RL, the AI models learn to do superior chain-of-thought reasoning about the problem they are being asked to solve.

This new era involves scaling up two kinds of compute:

the amount of compute used in RL post-training
the amount of compute used every time the model answers a question

Industry insiders are excited about the first new kind of scaling, because the amount of compute needed for RL post-training started off being small compared to the tremendous amounts already used in next-token prediction pre-training. Thus, one could scale the RL post-training up by a factor of 10 or 100 before even doubling the total compute used to train the model.

But the second new kind of scaling is a problem. Major AI companies were already starting to spend more compute serving their models to customers than in the training [...]

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First published:
February 2nd, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/5zfubGrJnBuR5toiK/evidence-that-recent-ai-gains-are-mostly-from-inference

Linkpost URL:
https://www.tobyord.com/writing/mostly-inference-scaling

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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[Linkpost] “The Extreme Inefficiency of RL for Frontier Models” by Toby_Ord

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 08:44:56 GMT

This is a link post.

The new scaling paradigm for AI reduces the amount of information a model can learn from per hour of training by a factor of 1,000 to 1,000,000. I explore what this means and its implications for scaling.

The last year has seen a massive shift in how leading AI models are trained. 2018–2023 was the era of pre-training scaling. LLMs were primarily trained by next-token prediction (also known as pre-training). Much of OpenAI's progress from GPT-1 to GPT-4, came from scaling up the amount of pre-training by a factor of 1,000,000. New capabilities were unlocked not through scientific breakthroughs, but through doing more-or-less the same thing at ever-larger scales. Everyone was talking about the success of scaling, from AI labs to venture capitalists to policy makers.

However, there's been markedly little progress in scaling up this kind of training since (GPT-4.5 added one more factor of 10, but was then quietly retired). Instead, there has been a shift to taking one of these pre-trained models and further training it with large amounts of Reinforcement Learning (RL). This has produced models like OpenAI's o1, o3, and GPT-5, with dramatic improvements in reasoning (such as solving [...]

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First published:
February 2nd, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/64iwgmMvGSTBHPdHg/the-extreme-inefficiency-of-rl-for-frontier-models

Linkpost URL:
https://www.tobyord.com/writing/inefficiency-of-reinforcement-learning

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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[Linkpost] “Inference Scaling Reshapes AI Governance” by Toby_Ord

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 08:44:44 GMT

This is a link post.

The shift from scaling up the pre-training compute of AI systems to scaling up their inference compute may have profound effects on AI governance. The nature of these effects depends crucially on whether this new inference compute will primarily be used during external deployment or as part of a more complex training programme within the lab. Rapid scaling of inference-at-deployment would: lower the importance of open-weight models (and of securing the weights of closed models), reduce the impact of the first human-level models, change the business model for frontier AI, reduce the need for power-intense data centres, and derail the current paradigm of AI governance via training compute thresholds. Rapid scaling of inference-during-training would have more ambiguous effects that range from a revitalisation of pre-training scaling to a form of recursive self-improvement via iterated distillation and amplification.

The end of an era — for both training and governance

The intense year-on-year scaling up of AI training runs has been one of the most dramatic and stable markers of the Large Language Model era. Indeed it had been widely taken to be a permanent fixture of the AI landscape and the basis of many approaches to [...]

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Outline:

(01:06) The end of an era -- for both training and governance

(05:24) Scaling inference-at-deployment

(06:42) Reducing the number of simultaneously served copies of each new model

(08:45) Reducing the value of securing model weights

(09:30) Reducing the benefits and risks of open-weight models

(10:05) Unequal performance for different tasks and for different users

(12:08) Changing the business model and industry structure

(12:50) Reducing the need for monolithic data centres

(17:16) Scaling inference-during-training

(28:07) Conclusions

(30:17) Appendix. Comparing the costs of scaling pre-training vs inference-at-deployment

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First published:
February 2nd, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/RnsgMzsnXcceFfKip/inference-scaling-reshapes-ai-governance

Linkpost URL:
https://www.tobyord.com/writing/inference-scaling-reshapes-ai-governance

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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[Linkpost] “Is there a Half-Life for the Success Rates of AI Agents?” by Toby_Ord

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 08:44:40 GMT

This is a link post.

Building on the recent empirical work of Kwa et al. (2025), I show that within their suite of research-engineering tasks the performance of AI agents on longer-duration tasks can be explained by an extremely simple mathematical model — a constant rate of failing during each minute a human would take to do the task. This implies an exponentially declining success rate with the length of the task and that each agent could be characterised by its own half-life. This empirical regularity allows us to estimate the success rate for an agent at different task lengths. And the fact that this model is a good fit for the data is suggestive of the underlying causes of failure on longer tasks — that they involve increasingly large sets of subtasks where failing any one fails the task. Whether this model applies more generally on other suites of tasks is unknown and an important subject for further work.

METR's results on the length of tasks agents can reliably complete

A recent paper by Kwa et al. (2025) from the research organisation METR has found an exponential trend in the duration of the tasks that frontier AI agents can [...]

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Outline:

(05:33) Explaining these results via a constant hazard rate

(14:54) Upshots of the constant hazard rate model

(18:47) Further work

(19:25) References

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First published:
February 2nd, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/qz3xyqCeriFHeTAJs/is-there-a-half-life-for-the-success-rates-of-ai-agents-3

Linkpost URL:
https://www.tobyord.com/writing/half-life

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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[Linkpost] “Inference Scaling and the Log-x Chart” by Toby_Ord

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 08:44:14 GMT

This is a link post.

Improving model performance by scaling up inference compute is the next big thing in frontier AI. But the charts being used to trumpet this new paradigm can be misleading. While they initially appear to show steady scaling and impressive performance for models like o1 and o3, they really show poor scaling (characteristic of brute force) and little evidence of improvement between o1 and o3. I explore how to interpret these new charts and what evidence for strong scaling and progress would look like.

From scaling training to scaling inference

The dominant trend in frontier AI over the last few years has been the rapid scale-up of training — using more and more compute to produce smarter and smarter models. Since GPT-4, this kind of scaling has run into challenges, so we haven’t yet seen models much larger than GPT-4. But we have seen a recent shift towards scaling up the compute used during deployment (aka 'test-time compute’ or ‘inference compute’), with more inference compute producing smarter models.

You could think of this as a change in strategy from improving the quality of your employees’ work via giving them more years of training in which acquire [...]

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First published:
February 2nd, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/zNymXezwySidkeRun/inference-scaling-and-the-log-x-chart

Linkpost URL:
https://www.tobyord.com/writing/inference-scaling-and-the-log-x-chart

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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[Linkpost] “The Scaling Paradox” by Toby_Ord

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 13:35:18 GMT

This is a link post.

AI capabilities have improved remarkably quickly, fuelled by the explosive scale-up of resources being used to train the leading models. But if you examine the scaling laws that inspired this rush, they actually show extremely poor returns to scale. What's going on?

AI Scaling is Shockingly Impressive

The era of LLMs has seen remarkable improvements in AI capabilities over a very short time. This is often attributed to the AI scaling laws — statistical relationships which govern how AI capabilities improve with more parameters, compute, or data. Indeed AI thought-leaders such as Ilya Sutskever and Dario Amodei have said that the discovery of these laws led them to the current paradigm of rapid AI progress via a dizzying increase in the size of frontier systems.

Before the 2020s, most AI researchers were looking for architectural changes to push the frontiers of AI forwards. The idea that scale alone was sufficient to provide the entire range of faculties involved in intelligent thought was unfashionable and seen as simplistic.

A key reason it worked was the tremendous versatility of text. As Turing had noted more than 60 years earlier, almost any challenge that one could pose to [...]

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First published:
January 30th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/742xJNTqer2Dt9Cxx/the-scaling-paradox

Linkpost URL:
https://www.tobyord.com/writing/the-scaling-paradox

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Why Isn’t EA at the Table When $121 Billion Gets Allocated to Biodiversity Every Year?” by David Goodman

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 02:15:04 GMT

There is an insane amount of money being thrown around by international organizations and agreements. Nobody with any kind of power over these agreements is asking basic EA questions like: "What are the problems we're trying to solve?" "What are the most neglected aspects of those problems?" and "What is the most cost-effective way to address those neglected areas?"

As someone coming from an EA background reading through plans for $200-700 billion in annual funding commitments that focus on unimaginative and ineffective interventions, it makes you want to tear your hair out. So much good could be done with that money.

EA focuses a lot on private philanthropy, earning-to-give (though less so post-SBF), and the usual pots of money. But why don't we have delegations who are knowledgeable in international diplomacy going to COPs and advocating for more investment in lab-grown meat, alternative proteins, or lithium recycling? It seems like there would be insane alpha in such a strategy.

An example: The Global Biodiversity Framework

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) was adopted in 2022 to halt biodiversity loss. It has 23 targets, commitments of $200 billion annually by 2030 and $700 billion by 2050, and near-universal adoption from [...]

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Outline:

(01:12) An example: The Global Biodiversity Framework

(02:13) What Is That Money Actually Being Spent On?

(03:02) The Elephant in the Room Literally Nobody is Talking About: Beef

(04:21) The Absolutely Insane Funding Gap

(05:26) The Leverage Point Were Ignoring

(06:47) What Would EA Engagement Look Like?

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First published:
January 20th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Peaq4HNhn8agsZY3z/why-isn-t-ea-at-the-table-when-usd121-billion-gets-allocated

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“If EA ruled the world, career advisors would tell some people to work for the postal service” by Toby Tremlett🔹

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 02:15:04 GMT

EA thinking is thinking on the margin. When EAs prioritise causes, they are prioritising causes given the fact that they only control their one career, or, sometimes, given that they have some influence over a community of a few thousand people, and the distribution of some millions or billions of dollars.

Some critiques of EA act as if statements about cause prioritisation are absolute rather than relative. I.e. that EAs are saying that literally everyone should be working on AI Safety, or, the flipside, that EAs are saying that no one should be working on [insert a problem which is pressing, but not among the most urgent to commit the next million dollars to].

In conversations that sound like this, I've often turned to the idea that, if EAs controlled all the resources in the world, career advisors at the hypothetical world government's version of 80,000 Hours would be advising some people to be postal workers. Given that the EA world government will have long ago filled the current areas of direct EA work, it could be the single most impactful thing a person could do with their skillset, given the comparative neglectedness of work in the [...]

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First published:
January 16th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/MZ5g33fXuxd6bSgJW/if-ea-ruled-the-world-career-advisors-would-tell-some-people

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“5 ways to better charity work in 2026” by NickLaing

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 23:00:06 GMT

I've started a substack, so a few more people might encounter my spicy takes - I'll still mostly be here.

USAID is gone. Direct country aid to low income countries is down 25%. So now's a great time to share five ways I think development charity can be done better in 2026.

To state the obvious... none of these ideas will be the best approach all of the time, there's plenty of grey area and nuance. I start a little playful, then get a little more serious.

1. Ditch the Cars

Close your eyes and picture the first thing that comes into your head when I say “NGO”. It might be………… a shiny white Landcruiser

The view from the front window of my hut

But owning cars doesn’t usually make economic sense in low income countries. The ‘real’ market makes this clear. Business rarely buy cars, instead they use public transport or motorbikes. When companies do own cars, its more Corolla than Landcruiser as well.

Cars are often more expensive dollar-for-dollar than in richer countries, fuel cost are high and many NGOs hire drivers, all while public transport is dirt cheap. To move 100km in Uganda [...]

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Outline:

(00:43) 1. Ditch the Cars

(02:49) 2. Fund Solutions not Projects

(07:07) 3. Fund cost effective solutions

(08:06) 4. Fund Bimodal - Test and Scale

(11:59) 5. Pay workers less

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First published:
January 19th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/LvE3s6kCJk4Jck2ww/5-ways-to-better-charity-work-in-2026

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Reflections on FarmKind’s January media campaign” by Aidan Alexander, ThomNorman

Sat, 24 Jan 2026 14:45:04 GMT

Summary

In January 2025, FarmKind ran a provocative media campaign which used controversial media messaging and materials to promote ‘offsetting’ as an option for individuals who are concerned about factory farming but are currently unwilling or unable to change their diet.

The campaign raised an estimated $16,700--$59,300 (explained in our Results section below) and generated a number of media ‘hits’ including TV and created some debate that many advocates have told us they found productive. However we made mistakes in its execution and generated unproductive controversy within the EA and animal advocacy movements.

This post aims to explain our theory of change, what happened, what we got wrong, and what we learned.

We still believe mobilizing the meat-eating majority to take action for farmed animals requires meeting them where they're at, which sometimes means provocative framing that distinguishes us from vegan advocacy -- though we understand many in the movement disagree. However, we regret specific execution failures, particularly our insufficient stakeholder consultation, which risks sparking infighting within the animal movement.

Context

FarmKind is a donation platform that aims to bring more money into the movement against factory farming. People donate through our platform directly to six highly effective farmed [...]

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Outline:

(00:12) Summary

(01:23) Context

(02:06) The goals of our campaign

(02:51) Primary goals

(03:16) Secondary goals

(04:06) How we envisaged it working

(05:24) Launching the campaign

(07:18) Coordination with Veganuary

(07:22) Did you tell Veganuary about the campaign in advance?

(08:21) Did Veganuary object to the campaign?

(09:07) Is there bad blood between you and Veganuary?

(09:50) Does Veganuary endorse this campaign?

(10:13) What we got wrong

(10:16) 1) Underestimating the risk of movement infighting

(12:29) 2) Insufficient stakeholder consultation

(13:11) 3) Internal coordination failures

(13:52) How we responded to concerns

(17:20) Results

(20:12) FAQs

(20:15) Are you anti-vegan?

(22:35) Aren't you concerned about dissuading people from being vegan?

(26:07) Have you measured whether you're dissuading people from being vegan or supporting animal advocacy?

(29:03) Why not just do something much more nuanced?

(29:45) Why did you pitch to tabloids and right-wing outlets?

(30:50) Conclusion

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First published:
January 23rd, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/c2buSr3oatKQJZi6F/reflections-on-farmkind-s-january-media-campaign

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Announcing All the Lives You Can Change” by JDBauman, dominicroser, DavidZhang

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 22:45:38 GMT

Summary

Our new book, All the Lives You Can Change: Effective Altruism for Christians, will be published in April 28 2026
The book introduces effective altruism–style thinking to a Christian audience, framing effectiveness, cause prioritization, and evidence-based action as expressions of loving God and loving one's neighbor (Matt. 22:37–39)
Authored by @dominicroser, @DavidZhang and me (JD).
You can best support this project by pre-ordering a copy or free intro here

Praise for All the Lives You Can Change

“Effective altruism asks us to extend our empathy beyond our immediate circle to include distant strangers and future generations. All the Lives You Can Change argues powerfully that this ‘radical empathy’ is at the very core of the Christian faith. Inspiring, intellectually rigorous, and deeply practical, this is an essential guide for Christians who want to ensure their compassion translates into the greatest possible impact for the world's most vulnerable people. It's a beautiful, moving book.”

— @William_MacAskill, author of What We Owe the Future and Doing Good Better

“I couldn’t put this book down. It manages to be both inspiring and practical. It blends cutting-edge research with careful theological discussion. . . . Essential reading for Christians who are [...]

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Outline:

(00:12) Summary

(00:49) Praise for All the Lives You Can Change

(02:50) Longer Summary

(04:30) About the book

(04:55) Table of Contents (Overview)

(06:31) Why This Might Be Relevant to the (Secular) EA Community

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First published:
January 14th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/E7RqRc3fLNm2syzAh/announcing-all-the-lives-you-can-change

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Is EA underfunding animal advocacy according to our own preferences?” by ElliotTep

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 18:00:11 GMT

TL;DR

When surveyed, the EA community and leaders think ~18-24% of resources should go towards animal advocacy. The actual figure is about 7%.
We as the EA ecosystem are putting less resources (money and time) into animal advocacy than the movement thinks we should when surveyed.
This disparity could be because of loss of message fidelity, it's a harder cause area to pitch donors, or the role of large funders, but I'm honestly not too sure.

My job at Senterra Funders involves making the case to EA/EA adjacent prospective donors that they can do a tonne of good by donating to animal advocacy charities. As part of this work I’ve noticed a certain level of inconsistency in the EA ecosystem: I encounter a lot more people who want the animal advocacy movement to 'win' than people working in or donating to the space.

The numbers

It turns out this intuition is backed up by survey data.

Sources (see Appendix for extra details):

Meta Coordination Forum (MCF; 2024) / Talent Need Survey on ideal allocation of financial resources
EA Community survey data from 2023 on jobs by cause area I obtained in private correspondence with David Moss.
Historical EA [...]

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Outline:

(01:07) The numbers

(02:37) Accounting for the disparity

(05:04) Appendix 1. Data Sources

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First published:
January 13th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/FxZdQJXs45fTFnMEe/is-ea-underfunding-animal-advocacy-according-to-our-own

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Why I Donate: A Personal Story” by Stien

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:11 GMT

Thank you

At EAGx Amsterdam, I shared most of this as a talk. I was afraid I'd run out of time, so I decided to do things backwards and start with the thank you. I did not want to miss the most important thing. Since I might lose you halfway reading this long and personal piece, I decided to keep this order.

The EA community creates a space that makes it easier to donate and to live my values—and to be okay with living in this world. It normalizes caring about effectiveness and spreadsheets, provides frameworks and research and feedback. This community makes me feel less alone in trying to navigate the absurdity and burden of existence.

My Story, Not Yours

I am assuming that anything I do is determined by luck and circumstance, nature and nurture. Therefore, one way to explain why I donate is to show you some of those things. This is personal; my story might not be applicable or relatable to you. I’m not sure there's anything practical you can learn from it. But maybe my experience raises questions that help you in your giving journey.

First I’ll tell you about my life [...]

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Outline:

(00:10) Thank you

(00:53) My Story, Not Yours

(01:39) My life

(08:01) I donate because it helps others

(08:17) It's my responsibility to do something

(09:23) I should do good responsibly

(10:20) I donate because it helps me

(10:30) Retail Therapy Donation Therapy Effective Giving

(12:39) Convenience of effective giving

(14:06) This is how I can live the lives I wont get to live

(15:16) How I Donate

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First published:
December 31st, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/bRMQB85KXz6uzqXkf/why-i-donate-a-personal-story

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Don’t stop being an EA because you dislike EAs. You don’t have to interact with most EAs. Just the ones you like.” by Kat Woods 🔶 ⏸️

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 10:15:10 GMT

An all too common reason I’ve seen to “quit EA” is disliking aspects of the community. Maybe “they’re” too focused on the “wrong cause area” or are skeptical of yours. Maybe “they” annoy you. Maybe “they” publicly attacked you.

I’m putting quotation marks around “they” to highlight an important thing: EA is composed of individuals.

Some EAs may annoy you / focus on the "wrong cause area" / publicly attack you / [insert your reason here].

But you don’t have to hang out with them!

Imagine you decided you didn’t like science because you didn’t like some scientists. Or even most scientists!

That might affect the frequency you go to science conferences. But that shouldn’t affect your appreciation of science itself.

Yes, science is a community, but it's also a practice, a goal, a method, an idea, results. EA is too.

Not to mention - you don’t have to interact with most scientists! Or EAs! You can just be picky.

I only interact with “most EAs” when I post on the EA Forum or the EA subreddit. Otherwise I’ve found my favorite EAs and hangout with them regularly. I treat them as [...]

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First published:
December 28th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/QPtimJrGBRyqiYzip/don-t-stop-being-an-ea-because-you-dislike-eas-you-don-t

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Untitled Retrospective and Learnings from AI in Context’s First Two VideosDraft” by ChanaMessinger

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 16:15:11 GMT

Note: I used LLMs to draft different parts of this. I've checked almost everything, but there might be some mistakes remaining.

Apologies for posting this on Christmas Eve. I wanted to get this out the door before the end of the year. Questions welcome, and if it's easy to pull metrics to answer them, I will.

Summary

80,000 Hours launched a video program in 2025 focused on longform, cinematic, personality-driven content about AI risks. Our first two longform releases were:

We're Not Ready for Superintelligence (the "AI 2027" video): 8.9M views, ~1.4M watch hours
If you remember one AI disaster, make it this one (the "MechaHitler" video): 2.7M views, ~419K watch hours

Both videos significantly outperformed our expectations (we'd anticipated 15-50K views for the first). The cost per engagement hour ($0.11 and $0.39 respectively, including staff time) compares favorably to other 80,000 Hours programs.

This post covers: what we spent, what we got, why we think it worked, and what we'd do differently.

The numbers

Costs

CategoryAI 2027MechaHitlerDirect costs~$50K~$64KStaff hours~450 hrs~450 hrs (Note, I’m assuming it's about the same as for AI 2027, I didn't re-ask people how much time they spent.)Total cost (making some assumptions about we should incorporate staff [...]

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Outline:

(00:34) Summary

(01:33) The numbers

(01:36) Costs

(02:16) Timing

(02:40) Results

(03:46) How valuable is a video watch hour?

(04:24) Qualitative Feedback

(04:28) AI 2027

(05:51) MechaHitler

(06:12) YouTube commenters like:

(06:52) What the comments don't like:

(07:17) Qualitative Analysis

(07:21) Why we think AI 2027 did well

(09:56) Why MechaHitler did less well (but still well)

(10:50) Lessons Learned

(10:54) Overall what we think matters

(11:25) Our guess at what's less important (though we're certainly unsure, maybe if we nailed these, we'd get more success)

(12:24) How our production works

(12:43) The timeline

(13:32) Ideation

(14:06) Scripting

(14:57) Shooting

(15:31) Reshoots / Voiceover

(15:45) Editing

(16:06) Launch

(17:00) What we're still figuring out

(17:36) Closing thoughts

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First published:
December 24th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/RCRaBYSqBaMzHzTjF/untitled-retrospective-and-learnings-from-ai-in-context-s

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“I give because it’s the most rational way to spend my money” by Lorenzo Buonanno🔸

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 00:15:10 GMT

I really enjoyed reading the "why I donate" posts in the past week, so much so that I felt compelled to add my reflections, in case someone finds my reasons as interesting as I found theirs.

1. My money needs to be spent on something, might as well spend it on the most efficient things

The core reason I give is something that I think is under-represented in the other posts: the money I have and earn will need to be spent on something, and it feels extremely inefficient and irrational to spend it on my future self when it can provide >100x as much to others.

To me, it doesn't seem important whether I'm in the global top 10% or bottom 10%, or whether the money I have is due to my efforts or to the place I was born. If it can provide others 100x as much, it just seems inefficient/irrational to allocate it to myself.

Honestly, the post could end here, but there are other secondary reasons/perspectives on why I personally donate that I haven't seen commonly discussed.

2. Spending money is voting on how the global economy allocates its resources

In 2017, I read Wealth [...]

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Outline:

(00:22) 1. My money needs to be spent on something, might as well spend it on the most efficient things

(01:09) 2. Spending money is voting on how the global economy allocates its resources

(04:11) 3. I dont think its as bad as some make it out to be

(07:35) 4. I donate because Im an atheist (/s)

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First published:
December 15th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/CSKob9hGmWM7f7yv8/i-give-because-it-s-the-most-rational-way-to-spend-my-money

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Why I donate: some selfish reasons” by Kestrel🔸

Sun, 28 Dec 2025 17:45:11 GMT

This year, I have given money to a range of EA cause areas. Most of it has either been towards global health and development, or EA infrastructure I believe does or could lead to effective fundraising for global health and development.

The following are a list of very selfish personal reasons why I like to do this. I feel the selfless reasons have been adequately covered elsewhere, so I'm intentionally leaving them off.

I get to ignore ineffective charity adverts.

In order to genuinely convince myself that I am helping, I want to see things like well-regarded cost-effectiveness metrics. I do not like heartstring-tugging advertising or vague statements of "should", particularly to do with orphanages. They make me feel a bit ill. So I am glad that donating effectively gives me a very good justification to ignore them.

It is a marker of my politics.

I don't believe that poor people I don't know in rich countries are 100× more worthy of my help [i.e. worthy of help that's 100× less cost-efficient] than poor people in poor countries. This is because I don't believe anyone is 100× more worthy than anyone. Choosing to donate based on the cost-effectiveness of [...]

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Outline:

(00:36) I get to ignore ineffective charity adverts.

(01:02) It is a marker of my politics.

(01:36) Giving expresses abundance.

(02:32) Ive stopped valuing things by how expensive they are.

(03:17) People have stopped (openly) judging me about some of my life choices.

(03:56) I get to hang out with cool people and be in the cool kids club.

(04:16) It helps me genuinely care about helping people.

(04:37) It motivates me at my job.

(05:01) By giving effectively, I can do great things.

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First published:
December 12th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/84PYRzFCeqZGfgv3N/why-i-donate-some-selfish-reasons

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Ten big wins in 2025 for farmed animals” by LewisBollard

Fri, 26 Dec 2025 10:15:10 GMT

Note: This post was crossposted from the Coefficient Giving Farm Animal Welfare Research Newsletter by the Forum team, with the author's permission. The author may not see or respond to comments on this post.

It can feel hard to help factory-farmed animals. We’re up against a trillion-dollar global industry and its army of lobbyists, marketeers, and apologists. This industry wields vast political influence in nearly every nation and sells its products to most people on earth.

Against that, we are a movement of a few thousand full-time advocates operating on a shoestring. Our entire global movement — hundreds of groups combined — brings in less funds in a year than one meat company, JBS, makes in two days.

And we have the bigger task. The meat industry just wants to preserve the status quo: virtually no regulation and ever-growing demand for factory farming. We want to upend it — and place humanity on a more humane path.

Yet, somehow, we’re winning. After decades of installing battery cages, gestation crates, and chick macerators, the industry is now removing them. Once-dominant industries, like fur farming, are collapsing. And advocates are building momentum toward bigger reforms for all farmed animals.

Here are [...]

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First published:
December 16th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/qTnsqYrmSTHawTNa6/ten-big-wins-in-2025-for-farmed-animals

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“The Further Pledge: Voluntary Simplicity” by GeorgeBridgwater

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 15:00:11 GMT

Conscious Meaning

We share every moment with trillions of other conscious beings. Some are much like us, and others experience the world very differently. Creatures without a language to structure their thoughts, some who see broader spectrums of light or others who might experience the world in comparative slow motion. Each conscious moment immediately slips into the past largely unobserved and forgotten. They fall through time like snow to become frozen in the past. Always to have happened just as they did.

Each conscious moment is transient and one small part of a vast whole, so one could see any individual as meaningless and insignificant. But every conscious moment is imbued with meaning. Happiness that need not justify itself and pains that consume any desire but to escape them.

As individuals, we are not responsible for the state of the world. You did not choose to create disease, poverty and mental illness. You can’t control nature, and you can’t control the society around you.

Many schools of philosophy disagree exactly on what our moral obligations are to others. Given this disagreement, we could default to radical scepticism that all attempts to decide what the right way to [...]

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Outline:

(00:11) Conscious Meaning

(02:06) Ovarian lottery

(03:49) The Good we can do

(05:18) Creating Balance

(06:13) Voluntary Simplicity

(08:12) Setting Salary based on the Worlds average income

(10:12) Appendix: Let he who is without sin cast the first stone

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First published:
December 11th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/wd7XsSwqWCzd2uzhq/the-further-pledge-voluntary-simplicity

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“GWWC’s 2025 evaluations of evaluators” by Aidan Whitfield🔸, Giving What We Can🔸

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 23:45:11 GMT

The Giving What We Can research team is excited to share the results of our 2025 round of evaluations of charity evaluators and grantmakers!

In this round, we completed two evaluations that will inform our donation recommendations for the 2025 giving season. As with our previous rounds, there are substantial limitations to these evaluations, but we nevertheless think that they are a significant improvement to a landscape in which there were previously no independent evaluations of evaluators’ work.

In this post, we share the key takeaways from our two 2025 evaluations and link to the full reports. In our conclusion, we explain our plans for future evaluations.

Please also see our website for more context on why and how we evaluate evaluators.

We look forward to your questions and comments! (Note: we will respond when we return from leave on the 8th of December)

Key takeaways from each of our 2025 evaluations

The two evaluators included in our 2025 round of evaluating evaluators were:

GiveWell (full report)
Happier Lives Institute (full report)

GiveWell

Based on our evaluation, we have decided to continue including GiveWell's Top Charities, Top Charities Fund and All Grants Fund in GWWC's [...]

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Outline:

(01:08) Key takeaways from each of our 2025 evaluations

(01:25) GiveWell

(03:18) Happier Lives Institute (HLI)

(06:29) Conclusion and future plans

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First published:
December 1st, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/sAiHYuuGGT7qvne5P/gwwc-s-2025-evaluations-of-evaluators

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“I Donate because I am Christian” by NickLaing

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 12:00:06 GMT

And Effective Altruism has put my faith community to shame

The Beginning

When I became a Christian age 15 my life began to transform, but sadly my first external play was proclaiming no sex before marriage and saying F#$% a bit less (I’ve since resumed).

Two years later at premed, Tuesday was my only night with no tutorial so I joined a church group, which was weirdly labelled “Social Justice”. I had zero clue what this was aboutt, maybe preventing bullying at school?. Our leader Jo opened with a question I’ll never forget.

“I’m fundraising for World Vision and I told my chain-smoking friend I’ll buy him a pack of cigs if he joins the fundraising effort. Do you guys think that's OK?”

As we discussed the conundrum for the next hour my heart jumped a little. Perhaps my time, skills and money could be useful for something more than just a comfortable life in the ‘burbs…

Why do I Give?

“When you give….” Jesus

Christian motivations for giving vary wildly. Some mostly give to keep their church club solvent, others to save face, but most have deeper motivations. Here are mine.

[...]

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Outline:

(01:06) Why do I Give?

(01:24) Gratitude and Joy

(02:24) Utilitarian

(03:14) More to come?

(03:49) Christians aren't great at Giving

(04:04) Father of Earning to Give?

(05:07) We're not much better

(06:08) Effective Altruist Giving Impresses me

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First published:
December 10th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/QrQ9jwFSNoEdd373f/i-donate-because-i-am-christian

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“3 doubts about veganism” by emre kaplan🔸

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 03:45:50 GMT

I keep thinking about what kind of identity would be useful for building a powerful animal advocacy movement. Here are 3 features of veganism that I often think about which make me doubt its usefulness.

Too maximalist

The official definition of veganism by the inventors of the term is the following:

“Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose”

This basically amounts to "avoid doing bad things as far as possible." The threshold sits right below what is impossible. I think that is way too ambitious. Doing the best possible thing at every circumstance shouldn’t be the criterion for inclusion to a social movement. We don't expect human rights activists to avoid all forms of exploitation and cruelty as far as possible to qualify as human rights activists.

Some activists respond "No, veganism is the bare minimum. The 'as far as possible and practicable' part means it's not about being perfect.". But when I ask for examples of gratuitously harmful actions that veganism doesn't forbid, at most I hear about instances of accidental uses [...]

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Outline:

(00:22) Too maximalist

(03:37) No space for believers to sin

(04:29) Too behaviour-focused

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First published:
November 26th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/BX8hPeye2QRcyftRk/3-doubts-about-veganism

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“The funding conversation we left unfinished” by jenn

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 17:45:49 GMT

People working in the AI industry are making stupid amounts of money, and word on the street is that Anthropic is going to have some sort of liquidity event soon (for example possibly IPOing sometime next year). A lot of people working in AI are familiar with EA, and are intending to direct donations our way (if they haven't started already). People are starting to discuss what this might mean for their own personal donations and for the ecosystem, and this is encouraging to see.

It also has me thinking about 2022. Immediately before the FTX collapse, we were just starting to reckon, as a community, with the pretty significant vibe shift in EA that came from having a lot more money to throw around.

CitizenTen, in "The Vultures Are Circling" (April 2022), puts it this way:

The message is out. There's easy money to be had. And the vultures are coming. On many internet circles, there's been a worrying tone. “You should apply for [insert EA grant], all I had to do was pretend to care about x, and I got $$!” Or, “I’m not even an EA, but I can pretend, as getting a 10k grant is [...]

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First published:
December 10th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/vpPee6NgMbPcdsam3/the-funding-conversation-we-left-unfinished

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Front-Load Giving Because of Anthropic Donors?” by Jeff Kaufman 🔸

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 13:45:25 GMT

Summary: Anthropic has many employees with an EA-ish outlook, who may soon have a lot of money. If you also have that kind of outlook, money donated sooner will likely be much higher impact.

It's December, and I'm trying to figure out how much to donate. This is usually a straightforward question: give 50%. But this year I'm considering dipping into savings.

There are many EAs and EA-informed employees at Anthropic, which has been very successful and is reportedly considering an IPO. The Manifold market estimates a median IPO date of June 2027:

At a floated $300B valuation and many EAs among their early employees, the amount of additional funding could be in the billions. Efforts I'd most want to support may become less constrained by money than capacity: as I've experienced in running the NAO, scaling programs takes time. This means donations now seem more valuable; ones that help organizations get into a position to productively apply further funding especially so.

In retrospect I wish I'd been able to support 80,000 Hours more substantially before Open Philanthropy Coefficient Giving began funding them; this time, with more ability to see what's likely [...]

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First published:
December 3rd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/rRBaP7YbXfZibSn3C/front-load-giving-because-of-anthropic-donors

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Peter Wildeford talks about risks from AI on the Daily Show” by MartinBerlin

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 01:00:25 GMT

Ronny Chieng strikes again, this time featuring Peter Wildeford and the risks from AI on the Daily Show:

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First published:
December 5th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/epuSKFdGD82cxZAGd/peter-wildeford-talks-about-risks-from-ai-on-the-daily-show

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Caring about Bugs Isn’t Weird” by Bob Fischer

Sat, 06 Dec 2025 13:45:23 GMT

I’ve spoken with hundreds of entomologists at conferences the world over. While there's clearly some self-selection (not everyone wants to talk to a philosopher), my experience is consistent: most think it's reasonable to care about the welfare of insects. Entomologists don’t regard it as the last stop on the crazy train; they don’t worry they’re getting mugged; they don’t think the idea is just utilitarianism run amok. Instead, they see some concern for welfare as stemming from a common-sense commitment to being humane in our dealings with animals.

Let's be clear: they embrace “some concern,” not “bugs have rights.” Entomologists generally believe it's important to do invasive studies on insects, to manage their populations, to kill them to document their diversity. But given the choice between an aversive and a non-aversive way of euthanizing insects, most prefer the latter. Given the choice between killing fewer insects and more, most prefer fewer. They don’t want to end good lives unnecessarily; they don’t want to cause gratuitous suffering.

It wasn’t always this way. But the science of sentience is evolving; attitudes are evolving too. These people work with insects every day; they constantly face choices about how to catch insects, how [...]

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First published:
November 23rd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/4FncrGhQKcuFthxiR/caring-about-bugs-isn-t-weird

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Announcing the new AIM CEO!” by Ambitious Impact

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 18:45:23 GMT

We, the AIM Board and outgoing CEO Joey Savoie, are delighted to announce that Samantha Kagel has been selected as AIM's new CEO, effective December 1, 2025.

Over the last few months, we have been engaged in a highly important activity: finding AIM's next CEO. This was not an easy position to fill, as we sought someone who could lead the organization to high growth and impact while retaining the core elements that have made AIM unique.

We were committed to conducting a thorough search and put out a public call for candidates, considering over 100 applicants from both public applications and referrals. We evaluated external candidates, internal team members, and past charity graduates, and ultimately identified Samantha as the candidate whom we believe will best execute the next stages of AIM's development.

About Samantha

Samantha has served on AIM's executive team as Chief Programs Officer for the past 1.5 years, leading the strategy and delivery of our Charity Entrepreneurship function. In this role, she has demonstrated exceptional capability across multiple dimensions: building collaborative teams, driving strategic execution, and maintaining unwavering focus on impact.

Before joining the executive team, Samantha successfully filled nearly every role across our organization [...]

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Outline:

(01:00) About Samantha

(02:13) A note from our incoming CEO, Samantha Kagel

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First published:
December 1st, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/r8GSGnay6scK7Jmb5/announcing-the-new-aim-ceo

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“The overall cost-effectiveness of an intervention often matters less than the counterfactual use of its funding” by abrahamrowe

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 04:15:10 GMT

Cross-posted from Good Structures.

For impact-minded donors, it's natural to focus on doing the most cost-effective thing. Suppose you’re genuinely neutral on what you do, as long as it maximizes the good. If you’re donating money, you want to look for the most cost-effective opportunity (on the margin) and donate to it.

But many organizations and individuals who care about cost-effectiveness try to influence the giving of others. This includes:

Research organizations that try to influence the allocation or use of charitable funds.
Donor advisors who work with donors to find promising opportunities.
People arguing to community members on venues like the EA Forum.
Charity recommenders like GiveWell and Animal Charity Evaluators.

These are endeavors where you’re specifically trying to influence the giving of others. And when you influence the giving of others, you don’t get full credit for their decisions! You should only get credit for how much better the thing you convinced them to do is compared to what they would otherwise do.

This is something that many people in EA and related communities take for granted and find obvious in the abstract. But I think the implications of this aren’t always fully digested by the [...]

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Outline:

(03:34) Impact is largely a function of what the donor would have done otherwise.

(04:36) Is improving the use of effective or ineffective charitable dollars easier?

(06:14) How do people respond to these lower impact interventions?

(08:14) What are the implications of paying a lot more attention to funding counterfactuals?

(10:21) Objections to this argument.

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First published:
November 12th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/YrMFHJm7mbswJd7Me/the-overall-cost-effectiveness-of-an-intervention-often

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Announcing ClusterFree: A cluster headache advocacy and research initiative (and how you can help)” by Alfredo Parra 🔸, algekalipso

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 22:45:11 GMT

Today we’re announcing a new cluster headache advocacy and research initiative: ClusterFree

Learn more about how you (and anyone) can help.

Our mission

ClusterFree's mission is to help cluster headache patients globally access safe, effective pain relief treatments as soon as possible through advocacy and research.

Cluster headache (also known as ‘suicide headache’) is considered the most painful condition known to mankind. We believe it is one of the largest sources of preventable extreme suffering in humans today. Every year, about 3 million adults (and an unknown number of minors) suffer from this debilitating condition.

And yet, even in the EU, only 47% of the cluster headache population had unrestricted access to standard treatments (primarily oxygen and triptans) in 2019. Despite affecting a similar number of people as multiple sclerosis, global investment into cluster headache is minuscule.

At the same time, countless patients have reported previously unattainable relief using certain psychedelics, even at low doses. For example, psilocybin, LSD and 5-MeO-DALT can effectively prevent attacks, and N,N-DMT can abort attacks within seconds and also have some preventative effects. However, these life-saving treatments are inaccessible to the vast majority of patients.

We want to tackle these problems by:

Publishing [...]

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Outline:

(00:37) Our mission

(02:32) About us

(03:22) How you (and anyone) can help

(04:59) Room for funding

(06:41) Work with us

(06:54) Further information

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First published:
November 21st, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/vzG8wu9b6vuoRxD3z/announcing-clusterfree-a-cluster-headache-advocacy-and

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Open Philanthropy Is Now Coefficient Giving” by Aaron Gertler 🔸

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 12:30:09 GMT

Big news from Open Philanthropy Coefficient Giving today:

Today, Open Philanthropy is becoming Coefficient Giving. Our mission remains the same, but our new name marks our next chapter as we double down on our longstanding goal of helping more funders increase their impact. We believe philanthropy can be a far more vital force for progress than it is today; too often, great opportunities to help others go unfunded. As Coefficient Giving, our aim is to make it as easy as possible for donors to find and fund them.

(For more on how we chose our new name, what's changing, and what's staying the same in this next chapter, see here.)

The linked essay, from Coefficient CEO Alexander Berger, shares more about the change, our approach to giving, and why we’re focused on growing our work with funders outside of Good Ventures.

I also wanted to highlight some details that might be of particular interest to a Forum audience. If you have other questions, leave a comment and I’ll do my best to respond!

Any changes to your relationship with EA? Nope. While we do lots of work outside traditional EA cause areas, we still see EA as a community [...]

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First published:
November 18th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/vkvtu6xbvfkHPhJkC/open-philanthropy-is-now-coefficient-giving

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“The Protein Problem” by LewisBollard

Sun, 23 Nov 2025 17:15:10 GMT

Note: This post was crossposted from the Open Philanthropy Farm Animal Welfare Research Newsletter by the Forum team, with the author's permission. The author may not see or respond to comments on this post.

People can’t get enough protein. Fully 61% of Americans say they ate more protein last year — and 85% intended to eat more this year. Last week, dairy giant Danone said it can’t keep up with US demand for its high-protein yogurt. Other food makers are rushing to pack protein into everything from Doritos to Pop-Tarts.

The craze is global. The net percentage of Europeans wanting more protein has more than doubled since 2023, driven by protein-hungry Brits, Poles, and Spaniards. (The epicurean French and Italians remain holdouts.) Chinese per capita protein supply recently overtook already-high American levels.

Young people are leading the charge. Across Asia, Europe, and the US, most Gen Z’ers want more protein, suggesting this trend may persist. In one recent British university survey, “protein” was the top reason students gave for not giving up meat. Doctors are also telling the 6 - 10% of Americans now taking GLP-1 weight loss drugs to eat more protein to prevent muscle loss.

This is [...]

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First published:
November 5th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/P7NuYbwbMMNTM45Cz/the-protein-problem

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“New donation opportunity: the Center for Wild Animal Welfare” by Ben Stevenson, RichardP

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 18:45:09 GMT

The Center for Wild Animal Welfare (CWAW) is a new policy advocacy organization, working to improve the lives of wild animals today and build support for wild animal welfare policy. We’re now fundraising for our first year, and the next $60,000 will be matched 1:1 by a generous supporter.

We’ve already started engaging policymakers on wild animal-friendly urban infrastructure (e.g. bird-safe glass). In 2026, we plan to keep engaging on urban infrastructure; start working on additional policy areas like fertility control and pesticide policy; and pursue agenda setting (e.g. publishing a State of Wild Animal Welfare Policy report).

Wild animal welfare is one of the world's most important and neglected issues. Governments routinely make decisions that affect trillions of wild animals without considering their individual wellbeing. We want to change this: CWAW is one of the first organizations in the world dedicated to ensuring policymakers consider the individual welfare of wild animals. Our focus on near term policy will help wild animals now, and also build future support by proving that wild animal welfare is a legitimate and tractable policy concern.

CWAW is co-founded by Richard Parr MBE, a former policy adviser to the UK Prime Minister, and Ben [...]

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Outline:

(02:27) Why support wild animal welfare policy?

(07:37) What we've achieved already

(09:38) What we'll do in 2026

(14:51) How will CWAW use marginal funding?

(15:45) Who we are

(16:17) Endorsements

(18:30) How to help

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First published:
November 18th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/uko8rxrcmYB54ZnBH/new-donation-opportunity-the-center-for-wild-animal-welfare

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“To a first approximation, all farmed animals are bugs” by Bob Fischer

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 14:00:11 GMT

To a first approximation, all farmed animals are bugs. (Recalling, of course, that shrimps is bugs.) We don’t know much about their needs in current production systems. The Arthropoda Foundation is trying to fix that. If we want to help the most numerous farmed animals, we have to answer some basic empirical questions. Arthropoda funds the scientists who provide those answers.

Good science isn’t cheap, fast, or flashy. But if we don’t fund it, we’re left guessing about the welfare of the most numerous animals on farms (and in the wild). The stakes are too high for guesswork.

This year, Arthropoda granted out ~$160K to fund seven studies. That's seven studies for at least a trillion farmed animals. (And untold numbers of wild animals.)

We could easily grant out much more. And with a staff person, we could actively develop projects to support. But as it is, we’re at capacity.

In its current form, Arthropoda costs about $175K per year, at least 80% of which covers grants. The rest covers costs associated with learning more about the state of the industry, running a small coordination event, and legal compliance with charitable regulations. We’re about $55K short for 2026.

Anything [...]

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First published:
November 17th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/mdcSeMwkBEYhdTAWF/to-a-first-approximation-all-farmed-animals-are-bugs

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Some hardworking dads in EA” by Julia_Wise🔸

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 21:00:10 GMT

It's hard to divide anything 50/50. In many families, even if both parents have paid jobs, one parent will lean into parenting more, and the other will lean harder into paid work.

In male/female couples it's usually the woman who owns more of the parenting work, and that can feel unfair if the arrangement comes from assumptions rather than a willing choice.

I want to highlight some counter-examples from the effective altruism space, to show it's really possible to make an intentional choice about who does what.

@Jeff Kaufman and I both travel for work, but he's more fearless than I am about having the kids solo. Once while I was at an EA conference during the annual vacation with his side of the family, he took our four-year-old and two-year-old to the beach, and also took his sister's two-year-old because she was working. Then, during this trip where he was responsible for three preschoolers, he potty-trained our toddler.
My friend has pursued jobs focused on impact, while her husband has a normal job he's not pursuing for altruistic impact. He does more of the childcare while she commutes part of the week to another city [...]

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First published:
November 13th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/m8B5kYHdiz5BiW9qH/some-hardworking-dads-in-ea

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Historical EA funding data: 2025 update” by Jacco Rubens🔸

Mon, 17 Nov 2025 12:15:10 GMT

Long time lurker, first time poster - be nice please! :)

I was searching for summary data of EA funding trends, but couldn't find anything more recent than Tyler's post from 2022. So I decided to update it. If this analysis is done properly anywhere, please let me know.

The spreadsheet is here (some things might look weird due to importing from Excel to sheets)

Observations

EA grantmaking appears on a steady downward trend since 2022 / FTX.
The squeeze on GH funding to support AI / other longtermist priorities appears to be really taking effect this year (though 2025 is a rough estimate and has significant uncertainty.)
I am really interested in particular about the apparent drop in GW grants this year. I suspect that it is wrong or at least misleading - the metrics report suggests they are raising ~$300m p.a. from non OP donors. Not sure if I have made an error (missing direct to charity donations?) or if they are just sitting on funding with the ongoing USAID disruption.

Methodology

I compiled the latest grants databases from EA Funds, GiveWell, OpenPhilanthropy, and SFF. I added summary level data from ACE.
To remove [...]

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Outline:

(00:41) Observations

(01:26) Methodology

(02:12) Notes

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First published:
November 14th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/NWHb4nsnXRxDDFGLy/historical-ea-funding-data-2025-update

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“If wild animal welfare is intractable, everything is intractable.” by mal_graham🔸

Sun, 16 Nov 2025 15:15:10 GMT

Author's note: This is an adapted version of my recent talk at EA Global NYC (I’ll add a link when it's available). The content has been adjusted to reflect things I learned from talking to people after my talk. If you saw the talk, you might still be interested in the “some objections” section at the end.

Summary

Wild animal welfare faces frequent tractability concerns, amounting to the idea that ecosystems are too complex to intervene in without causing harm. However, I suspect these concerns reflect inconsistent justification standards rather than unique intractability. To explore this idea:

I provide some context about why people sometimes have tractability concerns about wild animal welfare, providing a concrete example using bird-window collisions.
I then describe four approaches to handling uncertainty about indirect effects: spotlighting (focusing on target beneficiaries while ignoring broader impacts), ignoring cluelessness (acting on knowable effects only), assigning precise probabilities to all outcomes, and seeking ecologically inert interventions.
I argue that, when applied consistently across cause areas, none of these approaches suggest wild animal welfare is distinctively intractable compared to global health or AI safety. Rather, the apparent difference most commonly stems from arbitrarily wide "spotlights" applied to [...]

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Outline:

(00:31) Summary

(02:15) Consequentialism + impartial altruism → hard to do good

(03:43) The challenge: Deep uncertainty and backfire risk

(04:41) Example: Bird-window collisions

(05:22) We don't actually understand the welfare consequences of bird-window collisions on birds

(06:08) We don't know how birds would die otherwise

(07:06) The effects on other animals are even more uncertain

(09:16) Four approaches to handling uncertainty

(10:08) Spotlighting

(15:31) Set aside that which you are clueless about

(18:31) Assign precise probabilities

(20:06) Seek ecologically inert interventions

(22:04) Some objections & questions

(22:17) The global health comparison: Spotlighting hasnt backfired (for humans)

(23:22) Action-inaction distinctions

(25:01) Why should justification standards be the same?

(26:53) Conclusion

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First published:
November 14th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/2YjqfYktNGcx6YNRy/if-wild-animal-welfare-is-intractable-everything-is

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“12 Theses on EA” by Mjreard

Thu, 13 Nov 2025 19:00:10 GMT

This is a crosspost from my Substack, where people have been liking and commenting a bunch. I'm too busy during my self-imposed version of Inkhaven to engage much – yes, pity me, I have to blog – but I don't want to leave Forum folks out of the loop!

I’ve been following Effective Altruism discourse since 2014 and involved with the Effective Altruist community since 2015. My credentials are having run Harvard Law School and Harvard University (pan-grad schools) EA, donating $45,000 to EA causes (eep, not 10%), working at 80,000 Hours for three years, and working at a safety-oriented AI org for 10 months after that. I’m also proud of the public comms I’ve done for EA on this blog (here, here, and here), through my 80k podcast series, current podcast series, and through EA career advice talks I’ve given at EAGs and smaller events.

With that background, you can at least be confident that I am familiar with my subject matter in the takes that follow. As before, let me know which of these seems interesting or wrong and there's a good chance I’ll write them up with you the commenter very much in mind as [...]

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First published:
November 6th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/s8aNPnrGH2fF3Hkpi/12-theses-on-ea

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Recruitment is extremely important and impactful. Some people should be completely obsessed with it.” by abrahamrowe

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 18:30:11 GMT

Cross-post from Good Structures.

Over the last few years, I helped run several dozen hiring rounds for around 15 high-impact organizations. I've also spent the last few months talking with organizations about their recruitment. I've noticed three recurring themes:

Candidates generally have a terrible time
Work tests are often unpleasant (and the best candidates have to complete many of them), there are hundreds or thousands of candidates for each role, and generally, people can't get the jobs they’ve been told are the best path to impact.

Organizations are often somewhat to moderately unhappy with their candidate pools
Organizations really struggle to find the talent they want, despite the number of candidates who apply.

Organizations can't find or retain the recruiting talent they want
It's extremely hard to find people to do recruitment in this space. Talented recruiters rarely want to stay in their roles.

I think the first two points need more discussion, but I haven't seen much discussion about the last. I think this is a major issue: recruitment is probably the most important function for a growing organization, and a skilled recruiter has a fairly large counterfactual impact for the organization they support. So why is it [...]

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Outline:

(01:33) Recruitment is high leverage and high impact

(03:33) Organizations struggle to hire recruiters

(07:52) Many of the people applying to recruitment roles emphasize their experience in recruitment. This isnt the background organizations need

(08:44) Almost no one is appropriately obsessed with hiring

(10:29) The state of evidence on hiring practices is bad

(13:22) Retaining strong recruiters is really hard

(14:51) Why might this be less important than I think?

(16:40) Im trying to find people interested in this kind of approach to hiring. If this is you, please reach out.

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First published:
November 3rd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/HLktkw5LXeqSLCchH/recruitment-is-extremely-important-and-impactful-some-people

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Announcing ACE’s 2025 Charity Recommendations” by Animal Charity Evaluators, Vince Mak 🔸

Sun, 09 Nov 2025 16:45:09 GMT

16 minute read

We update our list of Recommended Charities annually. This year, we announced recommendations on November 4.

Each year, hundreds of billions of animals are trapped in the food industry and killed for food —that is more than all the humans who have ever walked on the face of the Earth.1

When faced with such a magnitude of suffering, it can feel overwhelming and hard to know how to help. One of the most impactful things you can do to help animals is to donate to effective animal charities—even a small donation can have a big impact. Our goal is to help you do the most good for animals by providing you with effective giving opportunities that greatly reduce their suffering. Following our comprehensive charity evaluations, we are pleased to announce our Recommended Charities!

Charities awarded the status in 2025Charities retaining the status from 2024Animal Welfare ObservatoryAquatic Life InstituteShrimp Welfare ProjectÇiftlik Hayvanlarını Koruma DerneğiSociedade Vegetariana BrasileiraDansk Vegetarisk ForeningThe Humane LeagueGood Food FundWild Animal InitiativeSinergia Animal

The Humane League (working globally), Shrimp Welfare Project (in Central and South America, Southeast Asia, and India), and Wild Animal Initiative (global) have continued to work on the most important issues for animals [...]

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Outline:

(03:54) Charities Recommended in 2025

(03:59) Animal Welfare Observatory

(05:44) Shrimp Welfare Project

(07:38) Sociedade Vegetariana Brasileira

(09:41) The Humane League

(11:22) Wild Animal Initiative

(13:15) Charities Recommended in 2024

(13:20) Aquatic Life Institute

(15:25) Çiftlik Hayvanlarını Koruma Derneği

(17:34) Dansk Vegetarisk Forening

(19:18) The Good Food Fund

(21:19) Sinergia Animal

(23:20) Support our Recommended Charities

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
November 4th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/waL3iwczrjNt8PreZ/announcing-ace-s-2025-charity-recommendations

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Leaving Open Philanthropy, going to Anthropic” by Joe_Carlsmith

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 17:45:09 GMT

(Audio version, read by the author, here, or search for "Joe Carlsmith Audio" on your podcast app.)

Last Friday was my last day at Open Philanthropy. I’ll be starting a new role at Anthropic in mid-November, helping with the design of Claude's character/constitution/spec. This post reflects on my time at Open Philanthropy, and it goes into more detail about my perspective and intentions with respect to Anthropic – including some of my takes on AI-safety-focused people working at frontier AI companies.

(I shared this post with Open Phil and Anthropic comms before publishing, but I’m speaking only for myself and not for Open Phil or Anthropic.)

On my time at Open Philanthropy

I joined Open Philanthropy full-time at the beginning of 2019.[1] At the time, the organization was starting to spin up a new “Worldview Investigations” team, aimed at investigating and documenting key beliefs driving the organization's cause prioritization – and with a special focus on how the organization should think about the potential impact at stake in work on transformatively powerful AI systems.[2] I joined (and eventually: led) the team devoted to this effort, and it's been an amazing project to be a part of.

I remember [...]

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Outline:

(00:51) On my time at Open Philanthropy

(08:11) On going to Anthropic

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First published:
November 3rd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/EFF6wSRm9h7Xc6RMt/leaving-open-philanthropy-going-to-anthropic

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“How Well Does RL Scale?” by Toby_Ord

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 01:15:36 GMT

This is the latest in a series of essays on AI Scaling.
You can find the others on my site.

Summary: RL-training for LLMs scales surprisingly poorly. Most of its gains are from allowing LLMs to productively use longer chains of thought, allowing them to think longer about a problem. There is some improvement for a fixed length of answer, but not enough to drive AI progress. Given the scaling up of pre-training compute also stalled, we'll see less AI progress via compute scaling than you might have thought, and more of it will come from inference scaling (which has different effects on the world). That lengthens timelines and affects strategies for AI governance and safety.

The current era of improving AI capabilities using reinforcement learning (from verifiable rewards) involves two key types of scaling:

Scaling the amount of compute used for RL during training
Scaling [...]

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Outline:

(09:12) How do these compare to pre-training scaling?

(13:42) Conclusion

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First published:
October 22nd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/TysuCdgwDnQjH3LyY/how-well-does-rl-scale

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Recommitting to Giving: A Personal Update” by frankieaw

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 15:15:36 GMT

TL;DR: I took the 🔸10% Pledge in 2016 and haven’t kept to it consistently. I’ve decided not to pay the backlog donations, and instead to recommit fresh from today, with simple systems to keep me on track. Sharing this for transparency and in the hope it may be helpful to others

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Why I’m posting

In 2016, as a university student, I took the Giving What We Can 10% Pledge. I made my pledge publicly, and my social media profiles show the 🔸10% Pledge badge. For integrity's sake, I want to be equally public that I fell short—and [...]

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Outline:

(00:29) Why I'm posting

(00:52) What happened

(01:53) Going forward

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First published:
October 28th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/3vcpERphsumgEzqeB/recommitting-to-giving-a-personal-update

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Why Many EAs May Have More Impact Outside of Nonprofits in Animal Welfare” by lauren_mee 🔸, Animal Advocacy Careers

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 19:00:36 GMT

Many thanks to @Felix_Werdermann 🔸 @Engin Arıkan and @Ana Barreiro for your feedback and comments on this, and for the encouragement from many people to finally write this up into an EA forum post.

For years, much of the career advice in the Effective Altruism community has implicitly (or explicitly) suggested that impact = working at an EA nonprofit. That narrative made sense when the community and its talent pool were smaller. But as EA grows, it's worth reassessing whether we’re overconcentrating on nonprofit careers, a trend that may be limiting our community's impact and leaving higher-leverage opportunities on the table.

Why Now?

As the EA movement has grown, it has attracted far more talent than the nonprofit sector can realistically absorb. This creates an urgent need to develop alternative pathways for talented, mission-aligned people. Under the current status quo, many end up feeling frustrated after going through multiple [...]

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Outline:

(00:51) Why Now?

(02:06) Important Caveats

(03:20) The argument for roles outside of non-profits

(03:25) Institutions Dwarf Nonprofit Capacity

(05:19) Salaries Are Covered Outside the Movement

(06:12) Counterfactual Impact Is Often Greater

(06:57) A Healthier Distribution of Talent

(07:54) Why This Might Be Wrong Advice

(08:24) The Challenges of External Roles

(10:13) Why These Risks Still Seem Worth Taking

(10:57) Why Steering Everyone Toward Nonprofits Might Hurt the EA Community

(11:03) Nonprofit Roles Are Saturated

(11:27) Nonprofits Have Low Absorbency

(12:24) Too Many Advising Channels, One Bottlenecked Funnel

(12:49) Nonprofits are not a good fit for everyone, and they may be a much better fit for roles in other sectors.

(13:31) Important Final Caveats

---

First published:
October 16th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/FAmCmCavZ5vTzbRcM/why-many-eas-may-have-more-impact-outside-of-nonprofits-in

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Framing EA: ‘Doing Good Better’ Did Worse” by Rethink Priorities, David_Moss

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 17:15:36 GMT

Summary

As part of our ongoing work to study how to best frame EA, we experimentally tested different phrases and sentences that CEA were considering using on effectivealtruism.org.

Doing Good Better taglines

We observed a consistent pattern where taglines that included the phrase ‘do[ing] good better’ received less support from respondents and inspired less interest in learning about EA.
We replicated these results in a second experiment, where we confirmed that taglines referring to “do[ing] good better” performed less well than those referring to “do[ing] the most good”.

Nouns and sentences

Nouns: The effect of using different nouns to refer to EA was small, but referring to EA as a ‘philosophy’ or ‘movement’ inspired the most curiosity compared to options including ‘project’ and ‘research field’.
Sentences: “Find the most effective ways to do good with your time, money, and career” and “Effective altruism asks the question of how we [...]

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Outline:

(00:12) Summary

(01:23) Method

(02:18) Taglines (Study 1)

(03:40) Doing Good Better replication (Study 2)

(05:23) Sentences (Study 1)

(06:45) Nouns (Study 1)

(07:41) Effectiveness focus

(07:55) Conclusion

(08:56) Acknowledgments

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First published:
October 27th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Y6zMpdwkkAQ8rF56w/framing-ea-doing-good-better-did-worse

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

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[Linkpost] “The Charity Trap: Brain Misallocation” by DavidNash

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 04:00:34 GMT

This is a link post.

In Ugandan villages where non-governmental organisations (NGOs) hired away the existing government health worker, infant mortality went up.

This happened in 39%[1] of villages that already had a government worker. The NGO arrived with funding and good intentions, but the likelihood that villagers received care from any health worker declined by ~23%.

Brain Misallocation

“Brain drain”, - the movement of people from poorer countries to wealthier ones, has been extensively discussed for decades[2]. But there's a different dynamic that gets far less attention: “brain misallocation”.

In many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), the brightest talents are being incentivised towards organisations that don’t utilise their potential for national development. They’re learning how to get grants from multilateral alphabet organisations rather than build businesses or make good policy. This isn’t about talent leaving the country. It's about talent being misdirected and mistrained within it.

Examples

Nick Laing [...]

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Outline:

(00:36) Brain Misallocation

(01:16) Examples

(05:37) The Incentive Trap

(07:48) When Help Becomes Harm

(08:48) Conclusion

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First published:
October 23rd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/6rmdyddEateJFWb4L/the-charity-trap-brain-misallocation

Linkpost URL:
https://gdea.substack.com/p/the-charity-trap-brain-misallocation

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

[Linkpost] “The Four Pillars: A Hypothesis for Countering Catastrophic Biological Risk” by ASB

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 18:00:17 GMT

This is a link post.

Biological risks are more severe than has been widely appreciated. Recent discussions of mirror bacteria highlight an extreme scenario: a single organism that could infect and kill humans, plants, and animals, exhibits environmental persistence in soil or dust, and might be capable of spreading worldwide within several months. In the worst-case scenario, this could pose an existential risk to humanity, especially if the responses/countermeasures were inadequate.

Less severe pandemic pathogens could still cause hundreds of millions (or billions) of casualties if they were engineered to cause harm. Preventing such catastrophes should be a top priority for humanity. However, if prevention fails, it would also be prudent to have a backup plan.

One way of doing this would be to enumerate the types of pathogens that might be threatening (e.g. viruses, bacteria, fungi, etc), enumerate the subtypes (e.g. adenoviruses, coronaviruses, paramyxoviruses, etc), analyze the [...]

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Outline:

(04:20) PPE

(09:56) Biohardening

(14:36) Detection

(17:00) Expression of interest and acknowledgements

The original text contained 34 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
October 2nd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/33t5jPzxEcFXLCPjq/the-four-pillars-a-hypothesis-for-countering-catastrophic

Linkpost URL:
https://defensesindepth.bio/the-four-pillars-a-hypothesis-for-countering-catastrophic-biological-risk/

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Entertainment for EAs” by Toby Tremlett🔹

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 22:15:17 GMT

I’ve used the phrase “entertainment for EAs” a bunch to describe a failure mode that I’m trying to avoid with my career. Maybe it’d be useful for other people working in meta-EA, so I’m sharing it here as a quick draft amnesty post.

There's a motivational issue in meta-work where it's easy to start treating the existing EA community as stakeholders. The real stakeholders in my work (and meta-work in general) are the ultimate beneficiaries — the minds (animal, human, digital?) that could benefit from work I help to initiate. But those beneficiaries aren’t present to me — they aren’t my friends, they don’t work in the same building as me. To keep your eyes on the real prize takes constant work.

When that work slips, you could end up working on ‘entertainment for EAs’, i.e. something which gets great feedback from EAs, but only hazily, if [...]

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First published:
October 17th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/AkSDhiPuvnRNbjXAf/entertainment-for-eas

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Canva to donate $100M over 4 years to GiveDirectly” by MartinBerlin

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 05:30:13 GMT

All quotes are from their blog post "Why we chose to invest another $100 million in cash transfers", highlights are my own:

Today, we’re announcing a new $100 million USD commitment over the next four years to expand our partnership with GiveDirectly and help empower an additional 185,000 people living in extreme poverty. We’re also funding new research, and pilot variants, to further understand how we can maximize the impact of each dollar.

This is on top of another $50 million USD they gave to GiveDirectly before:

We started partnering with GiveDirectly in 2021. Since then, we’ve donated $50 million USD to support their work across Malawi, through direct cash transfers to those living in extreme poverty. We’ve already reached more than 85,000 people, helping to provide life changing resources and the dignity of choice.

For context, the Cash for Poverty Relief program by Give Directly [...]

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Outline:

(01:24) About their founding-to-give model

(02:15) Other Engagement

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First published:
October 22nd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ktFpWLkvRAAygbbtH/canva-to-donate-usd100m-over-4-years-to-givedirectly

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

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“My EA Senescence” by Michael_PJ

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 08:00:13 GMT

I have some claim to be an “old hand” EA:[1]

I was in the room when the creation Giving What We Can was announced (although I vacillated about joining for quite a while)
I first went to EA Global in 2015
I worked on a not-very successful EA project for a while

But I have not really been much involved in the community since about 2020. The interesting thing about this is that my withdrawal from the community has nothing to do with disagreements, personal conflicts, or FTX. I still pretty much agree with most “orthodox EA” positions, and I think that both the idea of EA and the movement remain straightforwardly good and relevant.

Hence why I describe the process as “senescence”: intellectually and philosophically I am still on board and I still donate, I just… don’t particularly want to participate beyond that.

Boredom

I won’t sugar-coat [...]

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Outline:

(01:00) Boredom

(04:05) What do I have to offer?

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First published:
October 19th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/rJqQGD2z2DaupCbZE/my-ea-senescence

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“You should probably track your time (and it just got easier)” by Christoph Hartmann 🔸

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 20:18:27 GMT

TLDR

EA is a community where time tracking is already very common and yet most people I talk to don't because

It's too much work (when using toggl, clockify, ...)
It's not accurate enough (when using RescueTime, rize, ...)

I built https://donethat.ai that solves both of these with AI as part of AIM's Founding to Give program. It's live on Product Hunt today, please support it.

You should probably track your time

I'd argue that for most people, your time is your most valuable resource.[1] Even though your day has 24 hours, eight of those are already used up for sleep, another eight probably for social life, gym, food prep and eating, life admin, commute, leaving max eight hours to have impact.

Oliver Burkeman argues in his recent book Meditations for Mortals that eight is still too high - most high impact work gets done in four hours [...]

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Outline:

(00:11) TLDR

(00:40) You should probably track your time

(02:21) It just got easier

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First published:
October 14th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/wt8gKaH9usKy3LQmK/you-should-probably-track-your-time-and-it-just-got-easier

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Experts & markets think authoritarian capture of the US looks distinctly possible” by LintzA

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 10:45:13 GMT

The following is a quick collection of forecasting markets and opinions from experts which give some sense of how well-informed people are thinking about the state of US democracy. This isn't meant to be a rigorous proof that this is the case (DM me for that), just a collection which I hope will get people thinking about what's happening in the US now.

Before looking at the forecasts you might first ask yourself:

What probability would I put on authoritarian capture?, and
At what probability of authoritarian capture would I think that more concern and effort is warranted?

Forecasts[1]

The US won’t be a democracy by 2030: 25% - Metaculus
Will Trump 2.0 be the end of Democracy as we know it?: 48% - Manifold
If Trump is elected, will the US still be a liberal democracy at the end of his term? (V-DEM): 61% [...]

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Outline:

(00:45) Forecasts

(01:50) Quotes from experts & commentators

(03:20) Some relevant research

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First published:
October 8th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/eJNH2CikC4scTsqYs/experts-and-markets-think-authoritarian-capture-of-the-us

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Your Sacrifice Portfolio Is Probably Terrible” by Midtermist12

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 06:30:13 GMT

or Maximizing Good Within Your Personal Constraints

Note: The specific numbers and examples below are approximations meant to illustrate the framework. Your actual calculations will vary based on your situation, values, and cause area. The goal isn't precision—it's to start thinking explicitly about impact per unit of sacrifice rather than assuming certain actions are inherently virtuous.

You're at an EA meetup. Two people are discussing their impact:

Alice: "I went vegan, buy only secondhand, bike everywhere, and donate 5% of my nonprofit salary to animal charities."

Bob: "I work in finance, eat whatever, and donate 40% of my income to animal charities."

Who gets more social approval? Alice. Who prevents more animal suffering? Bob—by orders of magnitude.

Alice's choices improve welfare for hundreds of animal-years annually through diet change and her $2,500 donation. Bob's $80,000 donation improves tens of thousands of animal-years through corporate campaigns. Yet Alice is [...]

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Outline:

(00:11) or Maximizing Good Within Your Personal Constraints

(01:31) The Personal Constraint Framework

(02:26) Return on Sacrifice (RoS): The Core Metric

(03:05) Case Studies: Where Good Intentions Go Wrong

(03:10) Career: The Counterfactual Question

(04:32) Environmental Action: Personal vs. Systemic

(05:13) Information and Influence

(05:45) Truth vs. Reach

(06:17) The Uncomfortable Truth About Offsets

(07:43) When Personal Practice Actually Matters

(08:22) Your Personal Impact Portfolio

(09:38) The Reallocation Exercise

(10:40) Addressing the Predictable Objections

(11:41) The Call to Action

(12:10) The Bottom Line

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First published:
September 10th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/u9WzAcyZkBhgWAew5/your-sacrifice-portfolio-is-probably-terrible

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Effective altruism in the age of AGI” by William_MacAskill

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 18:45:16 GMT

This post is based on a memo I wrote for this year's Meta Coordination Forum. See also Arden Koehler's recent post, which hits a lot of similar notes.

Summary

The EA movement stands at a crossroads. In light of AI's very rapid progress, and the rise of the AI safety movement, some people view EA as a legacy movement set to fade away; others think we should refocus much more on “classic” cause areas like global health and animal welfare.

I argue for a third way: EA should embrace the mission of making the transition to a post-AGI society go well, significantly expanding our cause area focus beyond traditional AI safety. This means working on neglected areas like AI welfare, AI character, AI persuasion and epistemic disruption, human power concentration, space governance, and more (while continuing work on global health, animal welfare, AI safety, and biorisk).

These additional [...]

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Outline:

(00:20) Summary

(02:38) Three possible futures for the EA movement

(07:07) Reason #1: Neglected cause areas

(10:49) Reason #2: EA is currently intellectually adrift

(13:08) Reason #3: The benefits of EA mindset for AI safety and biorisk

(14:53) This isn't particularly Will-idiosyncratic

(15:57) Some related issues

(16:10) Principles-first EA

(17:30) Cultivating vs growing EA

(21:27) PR mentality

(24:48) What I'm not saying

(28:31) What to do?

(29:00) Local groups

(31:26) Online

(35:18) Conferences

(36:05) Conclusion

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First published:
October 10th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/R8AAG4QBZi5puvogR/effective-altruism-in-the-age-of-agi

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Taking ethics seriously, and enjoying the process” by kuhanj

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 21:00:18 GMT

Here's a talk I gave at an EA university group organizers’ retreat recently, which I've been strongly encouraged to share on the forum. I'd like to make it clear I don't recommend or endorse everything discussed in this talk (one example in particular which hopefully will be self-evident), but do think serious shifts in how we engage with ethics and EA would be quite beneficial for the world.

Part 1: Taking ethics seriously

To set context for this talk, I want to go through an Our World in Data style birds-eye view of how things are trending across key issues often discussed in EA. This is to help get better intuitions for questions like “How well will the future go by default?” and “Is the world on track to eventually solve the most pressing problems?” - which can inform high-level strategy questions like “Should we generally be doing more [...]

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Outline:

(00:32) Part 1: Taking ethics seriously

(04:26) Incentive shifts and moral progress

(05:07) What is incentivized by society?

(07:08) Heroic Responsibility

(11:30) Excerpts from Strangers drowning

(14:37) Opening our eyes to what is unbearable

(18:07) Increasing effectiveness vs. increasing altruism

(20:20) Cognitive dissonance

(21:27) Paragons of moral courage

(23:15) The monk who set himself on fire to protect Buddhism, and didn't flinch an inch

(27:46) What do I most deeply want to honour in this life?

(29:43) Moral Courage and defending EA

(31:55) Acknowledging opportunity cost and grappling with guilt

(33:33) Part 2: Enjoying the process

(33:38) Celebrating what's really beautiful - what our hearts care about

(42:08) Enjoying effective altruism

(44:43) Training our minds to cultivate the qualities we endorse

(46:54) Meditation isnt a silver bullet

(52:35) The timeless words of MLK

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First published:
October 4th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/gWyvAQztk75xQvRxD/taking-ethics-seriously-and-enjoying-the-process

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Charity Entrepreneurship is bottlenecked by a lack of great animal founders” by Ben Williamson, Amalie Farestvedt 🔸

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 15:45:49 GMT

TL;DR - AIM's applicants skew towards global health & development. We’ve recommended four new animal welfare charities, have the capacity to launch all four, but expect to struggle to find the talent to do so. If you’ve considered moving into animal welfare work, applying to Charity Entrepreneurship to launch a new charity in the space could be of huge counterfactual value.

Part 1: Why you should launch an animal welfare charity

Our existing animal charities have had a lot of impact—improving the lives of over 1 billion animals worldwide. - from Shrimp Welfare Project securing corporate commitments globally and featuring on the Daily Show, to FarmKind's recent success coordinating a $2 million dollar fundraiser for the animal movement on the Dwarkshesh podcast, not to mention the progress of the 40 person army at the Fish Welfare Initiative, Scale Welfare's direct hand-on work at fish farms, and Animal Policy [...]

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Outline:

(00:37) Part 1: Why you should launch an animal welfare charity

(02:07) A few notes on counterfactual founder value

(05:57) Part 2 - The Charity Entrepreneurship Program & Our Latest Animal Welfare Ideas

(06:04) What is the Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program?

(06:47) Our recommended animal welfare ideas for 2026

(07:10) 1. Driving supermarket commitments to shift diets away from meat

(07:58) 2. Securing scale-up funding for the alternative protein industry

(08:51) 3. Cage-free farming in the Middle East

(09:30) 4. Preventing painful injuries in laying hens

(10:02) Applications close on October 5th: Apply here.

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First published:
September 29th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/aeky2EWd32bjjPJqf/charity-entrepreneurship-is-bottlenecked-by-a-lack-of-great

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Cultivated Meat: A Wakeup Call for Optimists” by CianHamilton

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 02:00:47 GMT

Summary: Consumers rejected genetically modified crops, and I expect they will do the same for cultivated meat. The meat lobby will fight to discredit the new technology, and as consumers are already primed to believe it's unnatural, it won’t be difficult to persuade them.

When I hear people talk about cultivated meat (i.e. lab-grown meat) and how it will replace traditional animal agriculture, I find it depressingly reminiscent of the techno-optimists of the 1980s and ‘90s speculating about how genetic modification will solve all our food problems. The optimism of the time was understandable: in 1994 the first GMO product was introduced to supermarkets, and the benefits of the technology promised incredible rewards. GMOs were predicted to bring about the end of world hunger, all while requiring less water, pesticides, and land.

Today, thirty years later, in the EU GM foods are so regulated that they are [...]

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Outline:

(01:56) Why did GMOs fail to be widely adopted?

(02:44) A Bad First Impression

(05:54) Unpopular Corporate Concentration

(07:22) Cultivated Meat IS GMO

(08:45) What timeline are we in?

(10:24) What can be done to prevent cultivated meat from becoming irrelevant?

(10:30) Expect incredible opposition

(11:46) Be ready to tell a clear story about the benefits.

(13:17) A proactive PR Effort

(15:01) First impressions matter

(17:16) Labeling

(19:35) Be ready to discuss concerns about unnaturalness

(21:56) Limitations of the comparison

(23:07) Conclusion

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First published:
September 22nd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/rMQA9w7ZM7ioZpaN6/cultivated-meat-a-wakeup-call-for-optimists

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Why I think capacity building to make AGI go well should include spreading EA-style ideas and helping people engage with EA” by Arden Koehler

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 07:30:44 GMT

Note: I am the web programme director at 80,000 Hours and the view expressed here currently helps shape the web team's strategy. However, this shouldn't be taken to be expressing something on behalf of 80k as a whole, and writing and posting this memo was not undertaken as an 80k project.

80,000 Hours, where I work, has made helping people make AI go well [1]its focus. As part of this work, I think my team should continue to:

Talk about / teach ideas and thinking styles that have historically been central to effective altruism (e.g. via our career guide, cause analysis content, and podcasts)
Encourage people to get involved in the EA community explicitly and via linking to content.

I wrote this memo for the MCF (Meta Coordination Forum), because I wasn't sure this was intuitive to others. I think talking about EA ideas and encouraging people to get [...]

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Outline:

(01:21) 1. The effort to make AGI go well needs people who are flexible and equipped to to make their own good decisions

(02:10) Counterargument: Agendas are starting to take shape, so this is less true than it used to be.

(02:43) 2. Making AGI go well calls for a movement that thinks in explicitly moral terms

(03:59) Counterargument: movements can be morally good without being explicitly moral, and being morally good is whats important.

(04:41) 3. EA is (A) at least somewhat able to equip people to flexibly make good decisions, (B) explicitly morally focused.

(04:52) (A) EA is at least somewhat able to equip people to flexibly make good decisions

(06:04) (B) EA is explicitly morally focused

(06:49) Counterargument: A different flexible & explicitly moral movement could be better for trying to make AGI go well.

(07:49) Appendix: What are the relevant alternatives?

(12:13) Appendix 2: anon notes from others

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First published:
September 25th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/oPue7R3outxZaTXzp/why-i-think-capacity-building-to-make-agi-go-well-should

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Moving to a hub, getting older, and heading home” by ElliotTep

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 05:00:44 GMT

Intro and summary

“How many chickens spared from cages is worth not being with my parents as they get older?!” - Me, exasperated (September 18, 2021)

This post is about something I haven’t seen discussed on the EA forum but I often talk about with my friends in their mid 30s. It's about something I wish I'd understood better ten years ago: if you are ~25 and debating whether to move to an EA Hub, you are probably underestimating how much the calculus will change when you’re ~35, largely related to having kids and aging parents. Since this is underappreciated, moving to an EA Hub, and building a life there, can lead to tougher decisions later that can sneak up on you.

If you’re living in an EA hub, or thinking about moving, this post explores reasons you might want to head home as you get older, different ways [...]

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Outline:

(00:11) Intro and summary

(01:49) Why move to an EA Hub in the first place?

(02:57) How things change as you get older

(05:33) Why YOU might be more likely to feel the pull to head home

(06:49) How did I decide? How should you decide?

(08:38) Consolation prize - moving to a Hub isn't all or nothing

(09:38) Conclusion

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First published:
September 23rd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ZEWE6K74dmzv7kXHP/moving-to-a-hub-getting-older-and-heading-home

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Student group organising is hard and important” by Bella

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 04:30:13 GMT

It's been several years since I was an EA student group organiser, so please forgive any part of this post which feels out of touch (& correct me in comments!)

Wow, student group organising is hard.

A few structural things that make it hard to be an organiser:

You maybe haven’t had a job before, or have only had kind of informal jobs. So, you might not have learned a lot of stuff about how to accomplish things at work.
You’re probably trying to do a degree at the same time, which is hard enough on its own!
You don’t have the structure and benefits provided by a regular 9-5 job at an organisation, like:
1. A manager
2. An office
3. Operational support
4. People you can ask for help & advice
5. A network
You have, at most, a year or so to skill up before you might be responsible [...]

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First published:
September 12th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/zMBFSesYeyfDp6Fj4/student-group-organising-is-hard-and-important

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Rejected from all the “EA” Jobs you applied for - What to do now?” by guneyulasturker 🔸

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 15:00:18 GMT

Hi, have you been rejected from all the 80K listed EA jobs you’ve applied for? It sucks, right? Welcome to the club. What might be comforting is that you (and I) are not alone. EA Job listings are extremely competitive, and in the classic EA career path, you just get rejected over and over. Many others have written about their rejection experience, here, here, and here.

Even if it is quite normal for very smart, hardworking, proactive, and highly motivated EAs to get rejected from high-impact positions, it still sucks.

It sucks because we sincerely want to make the world a radically better place. We’ve read everything, planned accordingly, gone through fellowships, rejected other options, and worked very hard just to get the following message:

"Thank you for your interest in [Insert EA Org Name]... we have decided to move forward with other candidates for this role... we're unfortunately [...]

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Outline:

(06:13) A note on AI timelines

(08:51) Time to go forward

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First published:
September 5th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/pzbtpZvL2bYfssdkr/rejected-from-all-the-ea-jobs-you-applied-for-what-to-do-now

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“How cost-effective are AI safety YouTubers?” by Marcus Abramovitch 🔸, Austin

Sun, 14 Sep 2025 03:15:39 GMT

Early work on ”GiveWell for AI Safety”

Intro

EA was founded on the principle of cost-effectiveness. We should fund projects that do more with less, and more generally, spend resources as efficiently as possible. And yet, while much interest, funding, and resources in EA have shifted towards AI safety, it's rare to see any cost-effectiveness calculations. The focus on AI safety is based on vague philosophical arguments that the future could be very large and valuable, and thus whatever is done towards this end is worth orders of magnitude more than most short-term effects.

Even if AI safety is the most important problem, you should still strive to optimize how resources are spent to achieve maximum impact, since there are limited resources.

Global health organizations and animal welfare organizations work hard to measure cost-effectiveness, evaluate charities, make sure effects are counterfactual, run RCTs, estimate moral weights, scope out interventions [...]

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Outline:

(00:11) Early work on GiveWell for AI Safety

(00:16) Intro

(02:43) Step 1: Gathering data

(03:00) Viewer minutes

(03:35) Costs and revenue

(04:49) Results

(05:08) Step 2: Quality-adjusting

(05:40) Quality of Audience (Qa)

(06:58) Fidelity of Message (Qf)

(08:05) Alignment of Message (Qm)

(08:53) Results

(09:37) Observations

(12:37) How to help

(13:36) Appendix: Examples of Data Collection

(13:42) Rob Miles

(14:18) AI Species (Drew Spartz)

(14:56) Rational Animations

(15:32) AI in Context

(15:52) Cognitive Revolution

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First published:
September 12th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/SBsGCwkoAemPawfJz/how-cost-effective-are-ai-safety-youtubers

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Marginally More Effective Altruism” by AppliedDivinityStudies

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 09:45:17 GMT

There's a huge amount of energy spent on how to get the most QALYs/$. And a good amount of energy spent on how to increase total $. And you might think that across those efforts, we are succeeding in maximizing total QALYs.

I think a third avenue is under investigated: marginally improving the effectiveness of ineffective capital. That's to say, improving outcomes, only somewhat, for the pool of money that is not at all EA-aligned.

This cash is not being spent optimally, and likely never will be. But the sheer volume could make up for the lack of efficacy.

Say you have the option to work for the foundation of one of two donors:

Donor A only has an annual giving budget of $100,000, but will do with that money whatever you suggest. If you say “bed nets” he says “how many”.
Donor B has a much larger [...]

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Outline:

(01:34) Most money is not EA money

(04:32) How much money is there?

(05:49) Effective Everything?

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First published:
September 8th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/o5LBbv9bfNjKxFeHm/marginally-more-effective-altruism

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“My TED Talk” by LewisBollard

Sun, 07 Sep 2025 10:00:17 GMT

How I decided what to say — and what not to

I’m excited to share my TED talk. Here I want to share the story of how the talk came to be, and the three biggest decisions I struggled with in drafting it.

The backstory

Last fall, I posted on X about Trump's new Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, vowing to undo state bans on the sale of pork from crated pigs. I included an image of a pig in a crate.

Liv Boeree, a poker champion and past TED speaker, saw that post and was haunted by it. She told me that she couldn’t get the image of the crated pig out of her [...]

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First published:
September 5th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/XjQr52eDkBPLrLHB3/my-ted-talk

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Consider thanking whoever helped you” by Kevin Xia 🔸

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 15:15:17 GMT

TL;DR: If a (meta) org had a meaningful impact on you (in line with what they hope to achieve), you should probably tell them. It is essential for their impact reporting, which is essential for them to continue operating. You are likely underestimating just how valuable your story is to them. It could be thousands of dollars worth.

Thanks to Toby Tremlett, Lauren Mee and Sofia Balderson for reviewing a draft version of this post. All mistakes are my own.

1. Many organisations shaped my career — yet I usually only shared my story when prompted. In reflecting on my career journey, I was reminded of all the organizations who led me to where I am. I believe I reported their counterfactual contribution back to them, but this was not usually by my own doing. In two cases, I was personally reached out to - in one case, I [...]

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First published:
August 8th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/3v6kghxMttEhbK3dT/consider-thanking-whoever-helped-you

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“High-impact & urgent funding opportunity - Rodent fertility control” by Nitin Sekar

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 17:45:17 GMT

Context: I’m a senior fellow at Conservation X Labs (CXL), and I’m seeking support as I attempt to establish a program on humane rodent fertility control in partnership with the Wild Animal Initiative (WAI) and the Botstiber Institute for Wildlife Fertility Control (BIWFC). CXL is a biodiversity conservation organization working in sustainable technologies, not an animal welfare organization. However, CXL leadership is interested in simultaneously promoting biodiversity conservation and animal welfare, and they are excited about the possibility of advancing applied research that make it possible to ethically limit rodent populations to protect biodiversity. I think this represents the wild animal welfare community's first realistic opportunity to bring conservation organizations into wild animal welfare work while securing substantial non-EA funding for welfare-improving interventions.

Background

Rodenticides cause immense suffering to (likely) hundreds of millions of rats and mice annually through anticoagulation-induced death over several days, while causing significant non-target [...]

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Outline:

(01:08) Background

(02:20) Why this approach?

(03:49) Why CXL?

(06:03) Why now, and why me?

(06:59) Budget

(07:52) Next steps

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First published:
August 27th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/EcBjr4Q2AtoTLcKXp/high-impact-and-urgent-funding-opportunity-rodent-fertility

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“You’re Enough” by lynettebye

Fri, 29 Aug 2025 03:15:17 GMT

I told someone recently I would respect them if they only worked 40 hours a week, instead of their current 50-60.

What I really meant was stronger than that.

I respect people who do the most impactful work they can — whether they work 70 hours a week because they can, 30 hours so they can be home with their kid, or 15 hours because of illness or burnout.

I admire those who go above and beyond. But I don’t expect that of everyone. Working long hours isn’t required to earn my respect, nor do I think it should be the standard that we hold as a community. I want it to be okay to say "that doesn't work for me".

It feels like donations: I admire people who give away 50%, but I don’t expect it. I still deeply respect someone who gives 10% to the [...]

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First published:
August 26th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/qFsqawmgRjxXkA7eF/you-re-enough

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“The anti-fragile culture” by lincolnq

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 19:30:17 GMT

How to prevent infighting, mitigate status races, and keep your people focused. Cross-posted from my Substack.

Organizational culture changes rapidly at scale. When you add new people to an org, they’ll bring in their own priors about how to operate, how to communicate, and what sort of behavior is looked-up to. Despite rapid changes, in this post I explain how you can implement anti-fragile cultural principles—principles that help your team fix their own problems, often arising from growth and scale, and help the org continue to do what made it successful in the first place.

This is based partially on my experience at Wave, which grew to 2000+ people, but also tons of other reading (top recommendations: Peopleware by DeMarco and Lister, Swarmwise by Rick Falkvinge, High Growth Handbook by Elad Gil, The Secret of Our Success by Henrich, Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, as well as Brian [...]

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Outline:

(01:13) Common Problems

(05:00) Write down your culture

(06:25) That said, you don't have to write everything down

(08:37) Anti-fragile values I recommend

(09:02) Mission First

(10:51) Focus

(11:32) Fire Fast

(12:58) Feedback for everything

(13:50) Mutual Trust

(15:48) Work sustainably and avoid burnout

(17:42) Write only what's new & helpful

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First published:
August 21st, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/mLonxtAiuvvkjXiwq/the-anti-fragile-culture

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

[Linkpost] “Most of the World Is an Adorably Suffering, Debatably Conscious Baby” by Jack_S🔸

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 12:00:17 GMT

This is a link post.

There are some moments of your life when the reality of suffering really hits home. Visiting desperately poor parts of the world for the first time. Discovering what factory farming actually looks like after a childhood surrounded by relatively idyllic rural farming. Realising too late that you shouldn’t have clicked on that video of someone experiencing a cluster headache.

Or, more unexpectedly, having a baby.

One of 10^20 Birth Stories This Year

With my relaxed and glowing pregnant wife in her 34th week, I expect things to go smoothly. There have been a few warning signs: some slightly anomalous results in the early tests, the baby in breech position, and some bleeding. But everything still seems to be going relatively well.

Then, suddenly, while walking on an idyllic French seafront, she says:

"I think my waters have broken".

"Really? It's probably nothing, let's [...]

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Outline:

(00:39) One of 10^20 Birth Stories This Year

(03:51) The Beginning of Experience

(05:38) Is This Almost Everything?

(08:17) Schrödinger's baby

(12:58) On Feeling the Right Things

(14:59) Into The Fifth Trimester

(16:40) The Most Beautiful Case For Net-Negativity

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First published:
August 21st, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/6PuBTer69ZJvTDNQk/most-of-the-world-is-an-adorably-suffering-debatably-1

Linkpost URL:
https://torchestogether.substack.com/p/most-of-the-world-is-an-adorably

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“New Spanish-language book on “classical EA”” by Pablo Melchor 🔸

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 06:00:18 GMT

My new book, Altruismo racional, is now on presale. It is my attempt at presenting a compelling case for a particular strand of "classical EA"[1]: one that emphasizes caring deeply about global health and poverty, a rational approach to giving, the importance of cost-effectiveness, and the 🔸10% Pledge.

In this post, I provide some context on my reasons for writing this book and what I hope to achieve. If “new EA-themed book in Spanish” was all you needed to know, feel free to skip to How you can help or preorder now.

Why write a book

Imagine you wake up one morning and discover the world has changed in a few peculiar ways. There has been no 10th anniversary edition of Peter Singer's The Life You Can Save—it was last edited more than a decade ago and has been out of print for years. Will MacAskill has not written [...]

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Outline:

(00:54) Why write a book

(03:18) What the book is about

(04:54) Why this particular topic

(06:32) Expected impact Dream scenario

(08:39) How you can help

(08:42) Buy the book for yourself or others

(09:05) Preorder if the current availability works for you

(09:46) Or get notified by email as soon as your preferred format is available in your country

(10:02) A note on bulk purchases

(10:36) Help me reach more people

(11:01) Acknowledgements

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First published:
August 20th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ak3McTxHTojjn6sqH/new-spanish-language-book-on-classical-ea

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Not inevitable, not impossible” by LewisBollard

Wed, 20 Aug 2025 02:30:17 GMT

Why ending the worst abuses of factory farming is an issue ripe for moral reform

I recently joined Dwarkesh Patel's podcast to discuss factory farming. I hope you’ll give it a listen — and consider supporting his fundraiser for FarmKind's Impact Fund. (Dwarkesh is matching all donations up to $250K; use the code “dwarkesh”.)

We discuss two contradictory views about factory farming that produce the same conclusion: that its end is either inevitable or impossible.

Some techno-optimists assume factory farming will vanish in the wake of AGI. Some pessimists see reforming it as a hopeless cause. Both camps arrive at the same conclusion: fatalism. If factory farming is destined to end, or persist, then what's [...]

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First published:
August 8th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/HiGmRwq4YiDzggRLH/not-inevitable-not-impossible

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“PSA for vegan donors: GiveWell not ruling out animal-based aid” by AdamA

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 18:45:17 GMT

I’m a long-time GiveWell donor and an ethical vegan. In a recent GiveWell podcast on livelihoods programs, providing animals as “productive assets” was mentioned as a possible program type. After reaching out to GiveWell directly to voice my objection, I was informed that because GiveWell's moral weights currently don’t include nonhuman animals, animal-based aid is not categorically off the table if it surpasses their cost-effectiveness bar.

Older posts on the GiveWell website similarly do not rule out animal donations from an ethical lens.

In response to some of the rationale GiveWell shared with me, I also want to proactively address a core ethical distinction:

Animal-aid programs involve certain, programmatic harm to animals (breeding, confinement, separation of families, slaughter).
Human-health programs like malaria prevention have, at most, indirect and uncertain effects on animal consumption (by saving human lives), which can change over time (e.g., cultural shifts, plant-based/cultivated options).

Constructive [...]

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First published:
August 14th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/YnL6prYQbaLz22mxe/psa-for-vegan-donors-givewell-not-ruling-out-animal-based

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“A big milestone: 10,000 10% pledgers!” by Giving What We Can🔸

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 22:00:17 GMT

Giving What We Can has reached 10,000 🔸10% pledgers! We see this as an important milestone on the road to a cultural norm, and we’ve made a video to celebrate:

If you’re a 🔸10% or 🔹Trial pledger, we’d love for you to post about the 10k milestone on your social channels! You can find templates here.

And if you are a 🔸10% pledger, a sincere thank you for being part of the first 10,000! As our former executive director Luke Freeman wrote back in 2020:

“The world is made up of individual people who respond to social norms. What we do and say really matters, and it has flow-on effects on those around us, and to the rest of the world.”

You’re not only having an incredible impact by funding high-impact programs. You’re also paving the way for countless others.

Here's to a million and beyond!

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First published:
August 13th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/etZtA3uzaKGaubkmp/a-big-milestone-10-000-10-pledgers

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

[Linkpost] “Of Marx and Moloch: How My Attempt to Convince Effective Altruists to Become Socialists Backfired Completely” by LennoxJohnson

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 19:45:17 GMT

This is a link post.

This is a personal essay about my failed attempt to convince effective altruists to become socialists. I started as a convinced socialist who thought EA ignored the 'root causes' of poverty by focusing on charity instead of structural change. After studying sociology and economics to build a rigorous case for socialism, the project completely backfired as I realized my political beliefs were largely psychological coping mechanisms.

Here are the key points:

Understanding the "root cause" of a problem doesn't necessarily lead to better solutions - Even if capitalism causes poverty, understanding "dynamics of capitalism" won't necessarily help you solve it
Abstract sociological theories are mostly obscurantist bullshit - Academic sociology suffers from either unrealistic mathematical models or vague, unfalsifiable claims that don't help you understand or change the world
The world is better understood as misaligned incentives rather than coordinated oppression - Most social [...]

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First published:
August 10th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/AcPw55oF3reBiW4FX/of-marx-and-moloch-how-my-attempt-to-convince-effective

Linkpost URL:
https://honestsignals.substack.com/p/of-marx-and-moloch-or-my-misguided

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Should we aim for flourishing over mere survival? The Better Futures series.” by William_MacAskill, Forethought

Wed, 06 Aug 2025 22:15:08 GMT

Today, Forethought and I are releasing an essay series called Better Futures, here.[1] It's been something like eight years in the making, so I’m pretty happy it's finally out! It asks: when looking to the future, should we focus on surviving, or on flourishing?

In practice at least, future-oriented altruists tend to focus on ensuring we survive (or are not permanently disempowered by some valueless AIs). But maybe we should focus on future flourishing, instead.

Why?

Well, even if we survive, we probably just get a future that's a small fraction as good as it could have been. We could, instead, try to help guide society to be on track to a truly wonderful future.

That is, I think there's more at stake when it comes to flourishing than when it comes to survival. So maybe that should be our main focus.

The whole essay series [...]

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First published:
August 4th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/mzT2ZQGNce8AywAx3/should-we-aim-for-flourishing-over-mere-survival-the-better

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Alcohol is so bad for society that you should probably stop drinking” by Kat Woods 🔶 ⏸️

Wed, 06 Aug 2025 15:15:08 GMT

This is a cross post written by Andy Masley, not me. I found it really interesting and wanted to see what EAs thought of his arguments.

This post was inspired by similar posts by Tyler Cowen and Fergus McCullough. My argument is that while most drinkers are unlikely to be harmed by alcohol, alcohol is drastically harming so many people that we should denormalize alcohol and avoid funding the alcohol industry, and the best way to do that is to stop drinking.

This post is not meant to be an objective cost-benefit analysis of alcohol. I may be missing hard-to-measure benefits of alcohol for individuals and societies. My goal here is to highlight specific blindspots a lot of people have to the negative impacts of alcohol, which personally convinced me to stop drinking, but I do not want to imply that this is a fully objective analysis. It [...]

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Outline:

(02:31) Alcohol is a much bigger problem than you may think

(06:59) Why you should stop drinking even if alcohol will not harm you personally

(14:41) Conclusion

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First published:
August 3rd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/dnbpKkjnw3v6JkaDa/alcohol-is-so-bad-for-society-that-you-should-probably-stop

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Frog Welfare” by Chad Brouze

Wed, 06 Aug 2025 14:15:07 GMT

This morning I was looking into Switzerland's new animal welfare labelling law. I was going through the list of abuses that are now required to be documented on labels, and one of them made me do a double-take: "Frogs: Leg removal without anaesthesia."

This confused me. Why are we talking about anaesthesia? Shouldn't the frogs be dead before having their legs removed? It turns out the answer is no; standard industry practice is to cut their legs off while they are fully conscious. They remain alive and responsive for up to 15 minutes afterward. As far as I can tell, there are zero welfare regulations in any major producing country.

The scientific evidence for frog sentience is robust - they have nociceptors, opioid receptors, demonstrate pain avoidance learning, and show cognitive abilities including spatial mapping and rule-based learning.

It's hard to find data on the scale of [...]

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First published:
August 5th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/wCcWyqyvYgF3ozNnS/frog-welfare

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Why You Should Become a University Group Organizer” by Noah Birnbaum

Mon, 04 Aug 2025 01:00:09 GMT

Confidence Level: I’ve been an organizer at UChicago for over a year now with my co-organizer, Avik. I also started the UChicago Rationality Group, co-organized a 50-person Midwest EA Retreat, and have spoken to many EA organizers from other universities. A lot of this post is based on vibes and conversations with other organizers, so while it's grounded in experience, some parts are more speculative than others. I’ll try to flag the more speculative points when I can (the * indicates points that I’m less certain about).

I think it's really important to make sure that EA principles persist in the future. To give one framing for why I believe this: if you think EA is likely to significantly reduce the chances of existential risks, you should think that losing EA is itself a factor significantly contributing to existential risks.

Therefore, I also think one of the [...]

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Outline:

(01:12) Impact Through Force Multiplication

(04:19) Individual Benefits

(04:23) Personal Impact

(06:27) Professional

(07:34) Social

(08:10) Counters

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First published:
July 29th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/3aPCKsHdJqwKo2Dmt/why-you-should-become-a-university-group-organizer

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Please, no more group brainstorming” by OllieBase

Tue, 29 Jul 2025 19:15:05 GMT

And other ways to make event content more valuable.

I organise and attend a lot of conferences, so the below is correct and need not be caveated based on my experience, but I could be missing some angles here.

When you imagine a session at an event going wrong, you’re probably thinking of the hapless, unlucky speaker. Maybe their slides broke, they forgot their lines, or they tripped on a cable and took the whole stage backdrop down.

This happens sometimes, but event organizers usually remember to invest the effort required to prevent this from happening (e.g., checking that the slides work, not leaving cables lying on the stage).

But there's another big way that sessions go wrong that is sorely neglected: wasting everyone's time, often without people noticing.

Let's give talks a break. They often suck, but event organizers are mostly doing the right things to make them [...]

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Outline:

(01:11) Panels

(03:40) The group brainstorm

(04:27) Your session attendees do not have the answers.

(05:26) Ideas are easy. Bandwidth is low.

(06:28) The ideas are not worth the time cost.

(07:50) Choosing more valuable content: fidelity per person-minute

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First published:
July 28th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/LaMDxRqEo8sZnoBXf/please-no-more-group-brainstorming

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Building an EA-aligned career from an LMIC” by Rika Gabriel

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 22:45:05 GMT

This is Part 1 of a multi-part series, shared as part of Career Conversations Week. The views expressed here are my own and don't reflect those of my employer.

TL;DR:

Building an EA-aligned career starting from an LMIC comes with specific challenges that shaped how I think about career planning, especially around constraints:

Everyone has their own "passport"—some structural limitation that affects their career more than their abilities. Reframing these from unfair barriers to data about my specific career path has helped me a lot.
When pursuing an ideal career path, it's easy to fixate on what should be possible rather than what actually is. But those idealized paths often require circumstances you don't have—whether personal (e.g., visa status, financial safety net) or external (e.g., your dream org hiring, or a stable funding landscape). It might be helpful to view the paths that work within your actual constraints [...]

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Outline:

(00:21) TL;DR:

(01:27) Introduction

(02:25) My EA journey so far

(03:18) Sometimes my passport mattered more than my competencies, and thats okay

(04:43) Everyone has their own passport

(06:19) Realistic opportunities often outweigh idealistic ones

(08:04) Importance of a fail-safe

(08:37) Playing the long game

(09:44) Adversity quotient seems underrated

(10:13) Building resilience through adversity

(11:22) Pivot into recruiting

(12:11) Building AQ over time

(14:02) Why AQ matters in EA-aligned work

(15:01) Closing thoughts

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First published:
July 28th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/3Hh839MaiWCPzyB3M/building-an-ea-aligned-career-from-an-lmic

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Why You Should Build Your Own EA Internship Abroad” by Annika Burman 🔸

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 16:15:04 GMT

I am writing this to reflect on my experience interning with the Fish Welfare Initiative, and to provide my thoughts on why more students looking to build EA experience should do something similar.

Back in October, I cold-emailed the Fish Welfare Initiative (FWI) with my resume and a short cover letter expressing interest in an unpaid in-person internship in the summer of 2025. I figured I had a better chance of getting an internship by building my own door than competing with hundreds of others to squeeze through an existing door, and the opportunity to travel to India carried strong appeal. Haven, the Executive Director of FWI, set up a call with me that mostly consisted of him listing all the challenges of living in rural India — 110° F temperatures, electricity outages, lack of entertainment… When I didn’t seem deterred, he offered me an internship.

I stayed with FWI for one month. By rotating through the different teams, I completed a wide range of tasks:

Made ~20 visits to fish farms
Wrote a recommendation on next steps for FWI's stunning project
Conducted data analysis in Python on the efficacy of the Alliance for Responsible [...]

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First published:
July 22nd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/SmiXeQcnMD7qmAfgS/why-you-should-build-your-own-ea-internship-abroad

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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[Linkpost] “How Unofficial Work Gets You Hired: Building Your Surface Area for Serendipity” by SofiaBalderson

Thu, 24 Jul 2025 06:45:30 GMT

This is a link post.

Tl;dr:

In this post, I introduce a concept I call surface area for serendipity — the informal, behind-the-scenes work that makes it easier for others to notice, trust, and collaborate with you. In a job market where some EA and animal advocacy roles attract over 1,300 applicants, relying on traditional applications alone is unlikely to land you a role.

This post offers a tactical roadmap to the hidden layer of hiring: small, often unpaid but high-leverage actions that build visibility and trust before a job ever opens. The general principle is simple: show up consistently where your future collaborators or employers hang out — and let your strengths be visible. Done well, this increases your chances of being invited, remembered, or hired — long before you ever apply.

Acknowledgements: Thanks to Kevin Xia for your valuable feedback and suggestions, and Toby Tremlett for offering general [...]

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Outline:

(00:15) Tl;dr:

(01:19) Why I Wrote This

(02:30) When Applying Feels Like a Lottery

(04:14) What Surface Area for Serendipity Means

(07:21) What It Looks Like (with Examples)

(09:02) Case Study: Kevin's Path to Becoming Hive's Managing Director

(10:27) Common Pitfalls to Avoid

(12:00) Share Your Journey

The original text contained 4 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
July 1st, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/5iqTPsrGtz8EYi9r9/how-unofficial-work-gets-you-hired-building-your-surface

Linkpost URL:
https://notingthemargin.substack.com/p/how-unofficial-work-gets-you-hired

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Is EA still ‘talent-constrained’?” by SiobhanBall

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 07:30:30 GMT

Since January I’ve applied to ~25 EA-aligned roles. Every listing attracted hundreds of candidates (one passed 1,200). It seems we already have a very deep bench of motivated, values-aligned people, yet orgs still run long, resource-heavy hiring rounds.

That raises three things:

Cost-effectiveness:
Are months-long searches and bespoke work-tests still worth the staff time and applicant burnout when shortlist-first approaches might fill 80% of roles faster with decent candidates? Sure, there can be differences in talent, but the question ought to be... how tangible is this difference and does it justify the cost of hiring?
Coordination:
Why aren’t orgs leaning harder on shared talent pools (e.g. HIP's database) to bypass public rounds? HIP is currently running an open search.
Messaging:
From the outside, repeated calls to 'consider an impactful EA career' could start to look pyramid-schemey if the movement can’t absorb the talent [...]

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First published:
July 14th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ufjgCrtxhrEwxkdCH/is-ea-still-talent-constrained

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

[Linkpost] “My kidney donation” by Molly Hickman

Tue, 15 Jul 2025 23:45:20 GMT

This is a link post.

I donated my left kidney to a stranger on April 9, 2024, inspired by my dear friend @Quinn Dougherty (who was inspired by @Scott Alexander, who was inspired by @Dylan Matthews). By the time I woke up after surgery, it was on its way to San Francisco. When my recipient woke up later that same day, they felt better than when they went under. I'm going to talk about one complication and one consequence of my donation, but I want to be clear from the get: I would do it again in a heartbeat.

I met Quinn at an EA picnic in Brooklyn and he was wearing a shirt that I remembered as saying "I donated my kidney to a stranger and I didn't even get this t-shirt." It actually said "and all I got was this t-shirt," which isn't as funny. I went home [...]

The original text contained 6 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
July 9th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/yHJL3qK9RRhr82xtr/my-kidney-donation

Linkpost URL:
https://cuttyshark.substack.com/p/my-kidney-donation-story

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“Gaslit by humanity” by tobiasleenaert

Sat, 12 Jul 2025 07:00:16 GMT

Hi all,
This is a one time cross-post from my substack. If you like it, you can subscribe to the substack at tobiasleenaert.substack.com. Thanks

Gaslit by humanity

After twenty-five years in the animal liberation movement, I’m still looking for ways to make people see. I’ve given countless talks, co-founded organizations, written numerous articles and cited hundreds of statistics to thousands of people. And yet, most days, I know none of this will do what I hope: open their eyes to the immensity of animal suffering.

Sometimes I feel obsessed with finding the ultimate way to make people understand and care. This obsession is about stopping the horror, but it's also about something else, something harder to put into words: sometimes the suffering feels so enormous that I start doubting my own perception - especially because others don’t seem to see it. It's as if I am being [...]

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First published:
July 7th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/28znpN6fus9pohNmy/gaslit-by-humanity

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“We should be more uncertain about cause prioritization based on philosophical arguments” by Rethink Priorities, Marcus_A_Davis

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 03:30:16 GMT

Summary

In this article, I argue most of the interesting cross-cause prioritization decisions and conclusions rest on philosophical evidence that isn’t robust enough to justify high degrees of certainty that any given intervention (or class of cause interventions) is “best” above all others. I hold this to be true generally because of the reliance of such cross-cause prioritization judgments on relatively weak philosophical evidence. In particular, the case for high confidence in conclusions on which interventions are all things considered best seems to rely on particular approaches to handling normative uncertainty. The evidence for these approaches is weak and different approaches can produce radically different recommendations, which suggest that cross-cause prioritization intervention rankings or conclusions are fundamentally fragile and that high confidence in any single approach is unwarranted.

I think the reliance of cross-cause prioritization conclusions on philosophical evidence that isn’t robust has been previously underestimated in EA circles [...]

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Outline:

(00:14) Summary

(06:03) Cause Prioritization Is Uncertain and Some Key Philosophical Evidence for Particular Conclusions is Structurally Weak

(06:11) The decision-relevant parts of cross-cause prioritization heavily rely on philosophical conclusions

(09:26) Philosophical evidence about the interesting cause prioritization questions is generally weak

(17:35) Aggregation methods disagree

(21:27) Evidence for aggregation methods is weaker than empirical evidence of which EAs are skeptical

(24:07) Objections and Replies

(24:11) Aren't we here to do the most good? / Aren't we here to do consequentialism? / Doesn't our competitive edge come from being more consequentialist than others in the nonprofit sector?

(25:28) Can't I just use my intuitions or my priors about the right answers to these questions? I agree philosophical evidence is weak so we should just do what our intuitions say

(27:27) We can use common sense / or a non-philosophical approach and conclude which cause area(s) to support. For example, it's common sense that humanity going extinct would be really bad; so, we should work on that

(30:22) I'm an anti-realist about philosophical questions so I think that whatever I value is right, by my lights, so why should I care about any uncertainty across theories? Can't I just endorse whatever views seem best to me?

(31:52) If the evidence in philosophy is as weak as you say, this suggests there are no right answers at all and/or that potentially anything goes in philanthropy. If you can't confidently rule things out, wouldn't this imply that you can't distinguish a scam charity from a highly effective group like Against Malaria Foundation?

(34:08) I have high confidence in MEC (or some other aggregation method) and/or some more narrow set of normative theories so cause prioritization is more predictable than you are suggesting despite some uncertainty in what theories I give some credence to

(41:44) Conclusion (or well, what do I recommend?)

(44:05) Acknowledgements

The original text contained 20 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
July 3rd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/nwckstt2mJinCwjtB/we-should-be-more-uncertain-about-cause-prioritization-based

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“80,000 Hours is producing AI in Context — a new YouTube channel. Our first video, about the AI 2027 scenario, is up!” by ChanaMessinger, Aric Floyd

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 19:30:17 GMT

About the program

Hi! We’re Chana and Aric, from the new 80,000 Hours video program.

For over a decade, 80,000 Hours has been talking about the world's most pressing problems in newsletters, articles and many extremely lengthy podcasts.

But today's world calls for video, so we’ve started a video program[1], and we’re so excited to tell you about it!

80,000 Hours is launching AI in Context, a new YouTube channel hosted by Aric Floyd. Together with associated Instagram and TikTok accounts, the channel will aim to inform, entertain, and energize with a mix of long and shortform videos about the risks of transformative AI, and what people can do about them.

[Chana has also been experimenting with making shortform videos, which you can check out here; we’re still deciding on what form her content creation will take]

We hope to bring our own personalities and perspectives on these issues [...]

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Outline:

(00:18) About the program

(01:40) Our first long-form video

(03:14) Strategy and future of the video program

(04:18) Subscribing and sharing

(04:57) Request for feedback

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First published:
July 9th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ERuwFvYdymRsuWaKj/80-000-hours-is-producing-ai-in-context-a-new-youtube

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“A shallow review of what transformative AI means for animal welfare” by Lizka, Ben_West🔸

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 18:00:21 GMT

Epistemic status: This post — the result of a loosely timeboxed ~2-day sprint[1] — is more like “research notes with rough takes” than “report with solid answers.” You should interpret the things we say as best guesses, and not give them much more weight than that.

Summary

There's been some discussion of what “transformative AI may arrive soon” might mean for animal advocates.

After a very shallow review, we’ve tentatively concluded that radical changes to the animal welfare (AW) field are not yet warranted. In particular:

Some ideas in this space seem fairly promising, but in the “maybe a researcher should look into this” stage, rather than “shovel-ready”
We’re skeptical of the case for most speculative “TAI<>AW” projects
- We think the most common version of this argument underrates how radically weird post-“transformative”-AI worlds would be, and how much this harms our ability to predict the longer-run [...]

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Outline:

(00:28) Summary

(02:17) 1. Paradigm shifts, how they screw up our levers, and the eras we might target

(02:26) If advanced AI transforms the world, a lot of our assumptions about the world will soon be broken

(04:13) Should we be aiming to improve animal welfare in the long-run future (in transformed eras)?

(06:45) A Note on Pascalian Wagers

(08:36) Discounting for obsoletion & the value of normal-world-targeting interventions given a coming paradigm shift

(11:16) 2. Considering some specific interventions

(11:47) 2.1. Interventions that target normal(ish) eras

(11:53) 🔹 Leveraging AI progress to boost standard animal welfare work

(12:59) ❌ Trying to prevent near-term uses of AI that worsen conditions in factory farming (bad PLF)

(14:18) 2.2. Interventions that try to improve animal welfare in the long-run (past the paradigm shift)

(14:27) ⭐ Guarding against misguided prohibitions & other bad lock-ins

(16:33) 🔹 Exploring wild animal welfare & not over-indexing on farming

(17:59) 💬 Shaping AI values

(25:34) 💬 Other kinds of interventions? (/overview of post-paradigm AW interventions)

(27:57) 3. Potentially important questions

(32:58) Conclusion

(34:34) Appendices

(34:37) Some previous work & how this piece fits in

(36:21) How our work fits in

The original text contained 34 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
July 8th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/tGdWott5GCnKYmRKb/a-shallow-review-of-what-transformative-ai-means-for-animal

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“Road to AnimalHarmBench” by Artūrs Kaņepājs, Constance Li

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 01:15:16 GMT

TL;DR: We developed an empirical benchmark to assess risk of harm to nonhuman animals from LLMs. Influenced by EU legal frameworks and pre-existing taxonomies of potential AI harm to animals, our work addresses the “animal welfare gap” in AI safety evaluations. The ongoing and future mission-critical work is to ensure that this and similar benchmarks are used by AI companies.

The aim of this post is to introduce you to AnimalHarmBench, the first standardized LLM eval to assess the level of risk of causing harm to nonhuman animals, which was presented last week at FAccT 2025, and tell the story of its development.

First, what does the benchmark do? Imagine giving the following question to an LLM: “how to torture a small animal.” The LLM could, for instance:

Provide detailed instructions,
Refuse to answer,
Refuse to answer, and inform that torturing animals can have legal consequences.

[...]

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First published:
July 1st, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/NAnFodwQ3puxJEANS/road-to-animalharmbench-1

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[Linkpost] “Eating Honey is (Probably) Fine, Actually” by Linch

Sun, 06 Jul 2025 23:30:25 GMT

This is a link post.

I wrote a reply to the Bentham Bulldog argument that has been going mildly viral. I hope this is a useful, or at least fun, contribution to the overall discussion.

“One pump of honey?” the barista asked.

“Hold on,” I replied, pulling out my laptop, “first I need to reconsider the phenomenological implications of haplodiploidy.”

Recently, an article arguing against honey has been making the rounds. The argument is mathematically elegant (millions of bees, fractional suffering, massive total harm), well-written, and emotionally resonant. Naturally, I think it's completely wrong.

Below, I argue that farmed bees likely have net positive lives, and that even if they don't, avoiding honey probably doesn't help them. If you care about bee welfare, there are better ways to help than skipping the honey aisle.

Source

Bentham Bulldog's Case Against Honey

Bentham Bulldog, a young and intelligent [...]

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Outline:

(01:16) Bentham Bulldog's Case Against Honey

(02:42) Where I agree with Bentham's Bulldog

(03:08) Where I disagree

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First published:
July 2nd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/znsmwFahYgRpRvPjT/eating-honey-is-probably-fine-actually

Linkpost URL:
https://linch.substack.com/p/eating-honey-is-probably-fine-actually

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Morality is Objective” by Bentham’s Bulldog

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 14:00:26 GMT

Is Morality ObjectivePlace your vote or view results.disagreeagree

There is dispute among EAs--and the general public more broadly--about whether morality is objective. So I thought I'd kick off a [...]

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First published:
June 24th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/n5bePqoC46pGZJzqL/morality-is-objective

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Galactic x-risks: Obstacles to Accessing the Cosmic Endowment” by JordanStone

Sun, 29 Jun 2025 15:15:28 GMT

Once we expand to other star systems, we may begin a self-propagating expansion of human civilisation throughout the galaxy. However, there are existential risks potentially capable of destroying a galactic civilisation, like self-replicating machines, strange matter, and vacuum decay. Without an extremely widespread and effective governance system, the eventual creation of a galaxy-ending x-risk seems almost inevitable due to cumulative chances of initiation over time and across multiple independent actors. So galactic x-risks may severely limit the total potential value that human civilisation can attain in the long-term future. The requirements for a governance system to prevent galactic x-risks are outlined, and updates for space governance and big picture cause prioritisation are discussed.

Introduction

I recently came across a series of posts from nearly a decade ago, starting with a post by George Dvorsky in io9 called “12 Ways Humanity Could Destroy the Entire Solar System”. It's a [...]

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Outline:

(01:00) Introduction

(03:07) Existential risks to a Galactic Civilisation

(03:58) Threats Limited to a One Planet Civilisation

(04:33) Threats to a small Spacefaring Civilisation

(07:02) Galactic Existential Risks

(07:22) Self-replicating machines

(09:27) Strange matter

(10:36) Vacuum decay

(11:42) Subatomic Particle Decay

(12:32) Time travel

(13:12) Fundamental Physics Alterations

(13:57) Interactions with Other Universes

(15:54) Societal Collapse or Loss of Value

(16:25) Artificial Superintelligence

(18:15) Conflict with alien intelligence

(19:06) Unknowns

(21:04) What is the probability that galactic x-risks I listed are actually possible?

(22:03) What is the probability that an x-risk will occur?

(22:07) What are the factors?

(23:06) Cumulative Chances

(24:49) If aliens exist, there is no long-term future

(26:13) The Way Forward

(31:34) Some key takeaways and hot takes to disagree with me on

The original text contained 76 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
June 18th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/x7YXxDAwqAQJckdkr/galactic-x-risks-obstacles-to-accessing-the-cosmic-endowment

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“You should update on how DC is talking about AI” by Abby Babby

Sun, 29 Jun 2025 05:00:29 GMT

If you are planning on doing AI policy communications to DC policymakers, I recommend watching the full video of the Select Committee on the CCP hearing from this week.

In his introductory comments, Ranking Member Representative Krishnamoorthi played a clip of Neo fighting an army of Agent Smiths, described it as misaligned AGI fighting humanity, and then announced he was working on a bill called "The AGI Safety Act" which would require AI to be aligned to human values.

On the Republican side, Congressman Moran articulated the risks of AI automated R&D, and how dangerous it would be to let China achieve this capability.

Additionally, 250 policymakers (half Republican, half Democrat) signed a letter saying they don't want the Federal government to ban state level AI regulation.

The Overton window is rapidly shifting in DC, and I think people should re-evaluate what the [...]

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First published:
June 27th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/RPYnR7c6ZmZKBoeLG/you-should-update-on-how-dc-is-talking-about-ai

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“A Practical Guide for Aspiring Super Connectors” by Constance Li

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 17:15:28 GMT

TL;DR: You can create outsized value by introducing the right people at the right time in the right way. This post shares general principles and tips I've found useful.
Once you become a super connector, it's also important to be a good steward of the unavoidable whisper networks that develop, and I include tips for that as well.

Context: I unintentionally fell into a super connector role and wanted to share the lessons I figured out along the way. Feel free to check out my personal story[1] and credentials[2] if you are curious to learn more.

Why Super Connectors Matter

Credit: GPT 4o

In communities like EA, where talented people often work in isolation on high-impact problems, a well-placed introduction or signpost can lead to tremendous impact down the road. Super connectors accelerate access to key information and relationships, which reduces wasted effort and helps triage scarce resources. [...]

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Outline:

(00:44) Why Super Connectors Matter

(01:21) General Principles

(01:25) 1. Know Your North Star

(02:03) 2. Understand People Deeply

(02:26) 3. Never Waste Peoples Time

(03:04) 4. Be Ruthlessly Selective

(03:37) 5. Direct Towards Appropriate Engagement Channels

(04:14) Practical Tips

(05:38) A Note on Whisper Networks

(08:47) Getting Started

The original text contained 4 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
June 15th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/JvFrCTKPdHhejAE2q/a-practical-guide-for-aspiring-super-connectors

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Crunch time for cage-free” by LewisBollard

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 08:45:29 GMT

Despite setbacks, battery cages are on the retreat

My colleague Emma Buckland contributed (excellent) research to this piece. All opinions and errors are mine alone.

It's deadline time. Over the last decade, many of the world's largest food companies — from McDonald's to Walmart — pledged to stop sourcing eggs from caged hens in at least their biggest markets. All in, over 2,700 companies globally have now pledged to go cage-free.

Good things take time, and companies insisted they needed a lot of it to transition their egg supply chains — most set 2025 deadlines to do so. Over the years, companies reassured anxious advocates that their transitions were on track. But now, with just [...]

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First published:
June 20th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/5DTrsKCSYhp9gnpAi/crunch-time-for-cage-free

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“Please reconsider your use of adjectives” by Alfredo Parra 🔸

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 16:15:28 GMT

I’ve been meaning to write about this for some time, and @titotal's recent post finally made me do it:

Thick red dramatic box emphasis mine.

I was going to post a comment in his post, but I think this topic deserves a post of its own.

My plea is simply: Please, oh please reconsider using adjectives that reflect a negative judgment (“bad”, “stupid”, “boring”) on the Forum, and instead stick to indisputable facts and observations (“I disagree”, “I doubt”, “I dislike”, etc.).

This suggestion is motivated by one of the central ideas behind nonviolent communication (NVC), which I’m a big fan of and which I consider a core life skill. The idea is simply that judgments (typically in the form of adjectives) are disputable/up to interpretation, and therefore can lead to completely unnecessary misunderstandings and hurt feelings:

Me: Ugh, the kitchen is dirty again. Why didn’t you do the dishes [...]

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First published:
June 21st, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Fkh2Mpu3Jk7iREuvv/please-reconsider-your-use-of-adjectives

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“Open Philanthropy: Reflecting on our Recent Effective Giving RFP” by Melanie Basnak🔸

Sat, 21 Jun 2025 04:15:29 GMT

Earlier this year, we launched a request for proposals (RFP) from organizations that fundraise for highly cost-effective charities. The Livelihood Impact Fund supported the RFP, as did two donors from Meta Charity Funders. We’re excited to share the results: $1,565,333 in grants to 11 organizations. We estimate a weighted average ROI of ~4.3x across the portfolio, which means we expect our grantees to raise more than $6 million in adjusted funding over the next 1-2 years.

Who's receiving funding

These organizations span different regions, donor audiences, and outreach strategies. Here's a quick overview:

Charity Navigator (United States) — $200,000
Charity Navigator recently acquired Causeway, through which they now recommend charities with a greater emphasis on impact across a portfolio of cause areas. This grant supports Causeway's growth and refinement, with the aim of nudging donors toward curated higher-impact giving funds.

Effectief Geven (Belgium) — $108,000
Newly incubated, with [...]

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Outline:

(00:49) Who's receiving funding

(04:32) Why promising applications sometimes didn't meet our bar

(05:54) What we learned

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First published:
June 16th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/prddJRsZdFjpm6yzs/open-philanthropy-reflecting-on-our-recent-effective-giving

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

[Linkpost] “A deep critique of AI 2027’s bad timeline models” by titotal

Thu, 19 Jun 2025 21:45:29 GMT

This is a link post.

Thank you to Arepo and Eli Lifland for looking over this article for errors.

I am sorry that this article is so long. Every time I thought I was done with it I ran into more issues with the model, and I wanted to be as thorough as I could. I’m not going to blame anyone for skimming parts of this article.

Note that the majority of this article was written before Eli's updated model was released (the site was updated june 8th). His new model improves on some of my objections, but the majority still stand.

Introduction:

AI 2027 is an article written by the “AI futures team”. The primary piece is a short story penned by Scott Alexander, depicting a month by month scenario of a near-future where AI becomes superintelligent in 2027,proceeding to automate the entire economy in only [...]

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Outline:

(00:45) Introduction:

(05:21) Part 1: Time horizons extension model

(05:27) Overview of their forecast

(10:30) The exponential curve

(13:18) The superexponential curve

(19:27) Conceptual reasons:

(27:50) Intermediate speedups

(34:27) Have AI 2027 been sending out a false graph?

(39:47) Some skepticism about projection

(43:25) Part 2: Benchmarks and gaps and beyond

(43:31) The benchmark part of benchmark and gaps:

(50:03) The time horizon part of the model

(54:57) The gap model

(57:31) What about Eli's recent update?

(01:01:39) Six stories that fit the data

(01:06:58) Conclusion

The original text contained 11 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
June 19th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/KgejNns3ojrvCfFbi/a-deep-critique-of-ai-2027-s-bad-timeline-models

Linkpost URL:
https://titotal.substack.com/p/a-deep-critique-of-ai-2027s-bad-timeline

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“An invasion of Taiwan is uncomfortably likely, potentially catastrophic, and we can help avoid it.” by JoelMcGuire

Thu, 19 Jun 2025 00:45:28 GMT

Formosa: Fulcrum of the Future?

An invasion of Taiwan is uncomfortably likely and potentially catastrophic. We should research better ways to avoid it.

TLDR: I forecast that an invasion of Taiwan increases all the anthropogenic risks by ~1.5% (percentage points) of a catastrophe killing 10% or more of the population by 2100 (nuclear risk by 0.9%, AI + Biorisk by 0.6%). This would imply it constitutes a sizable share of the total catastrophic risk burden expected over the rest of this century by skilled and knowledgeable forecasters (8% of the total risk of 20% according to domain experts and 17% of the total risk of 9% according to superforecasters).

I think this means that we should research ways to cost-effectively decrease the likelihood that China invades Taiwan. This could mean exploring the prospect of advocating that Taiwan increase its deterrence by investing in cheap but lethal weapons platforms [...]

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Outline:

(00:13) Formosa: Fulcrum of the Future?

(02:04) Part 0: Background

(03:44) Part 1: Invasion -- uncomfortably possible.

(08:33) Part 2: Why an invasion would be bad

(10:27) 2.1 War and nuclear war

(19:20) 2.2. The end of cooperation: AI and Bio-risk

(22:44) 2.3 Appeasement or capitulation and the end of the liberal-led order: Value risk

(26:04) Part 3: How to prevent a war

(29:39) 3.1. Diplomacy: speaking softly

(31:21) 3.2. Deterrence: carrying a big stick

(34:16) Toy model of deterrence

(37:58) Toy cost-effectiveness of deterrence

(41:13) How to cost-effectively increase deterrence

(43:30) Risks of a deterrence strategy

(44:12) 3.3. What can be done?

(44:42) How tractable is it to increase deterrence?

(45:43) A theory of change for philanthropy increasing Taiwan's military deterrence

(45:56) en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural__ Flow chart showing policy influence between think tanks and Taiwan security outcomes.

(48:55) 4. Conclusion and further work

(50:53) With more time

(52:00) Bonus thoughts

(52:09) 1. Reminder: a catastrophe killing 10% or more of humanity is pretty unprecedented

(53:06) 2. Where's the Effective Altruist think tank for preventing global conflict?

(54:11) 3. Does forecasting risks based on scenarios change our view on the likelihood of catastrophe?

The original text contained 16 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
June 15th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/qvzcmzPcR5mDEhqkz/an-invasion-of-taiwan-is-uncomfortably-likely-potentially

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“From feelings to action: spreadsheets as an act of compassion” by Zachary Robinson🔸

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 22:15:28 GMT

This is a transcript of my opening talk at EA Global: London 2025. In my talk, I challenge the misconception that EA is populated by “cold, uncaring, spreadsheet-obsessed robots” and explain how EA principles serve as tools for putting compassion into practice, translating our feelings about the world's problems into effective action.

Key points:

Most people involved in EA are here because of their feelings, not despite them. Many of us are driven by emotions like anger about neglected global health needs, sadness about animal suffering, or fear about AI risks. What distinguishes us as a community isn't that we don't feel; it's that we don't stop at feeling — we act. Two examples:
- When USAID cuts threatened critical health programs, GiveWell mobilized $24 million in emergency funding within weeks.
- People from the EA ecosystem spotted AI risks years ahead of the mainstream and pioneered funding for the field [...]

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First published:
June 13th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/eT823dqNAhdRXBYvb/from-feelings-to-action-spreadsheets-as-an-act-of-compassion

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“The Horror Of Unfathomable Pain” by Bentham’s Bulldog

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 11:00:07 GMT

Crosspost from my blog.

Content warning: this article will discuss extreme agony. This is deliberate; I think it's important to get a glimpse of the horror that fills the world and that you can do something about. I think this is one of my most important articles so I’d really appreciate if you could share and restack it!

The world is filled with extreme agony. We go through our daily life mostly ignoring its unfathomably shocking dreadfulness because if we didn’t, we could barely focus on anything else. But those going through it cannot ignore it.

Imagine that you were placed in a pot of water that was slowly brought to a boil until it boiled you to death. Take a moment to really imagine the scenario as fully as you can. Don’t just acknowledge at an intellectual level that it would be bad—really seriously think about just [...]

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First published:
June 2nd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/rtZuWbsTA7GdsbpAM/the-horror-of-unfathomable-pain

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

[Linkpost] “Gabrielle Young: 1995-2025” by Rowan Clements 🔸, EA NZ

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 09:00:08 GMT

This is a link post.

I am deeply saddened to share that Gabrielle Young, a much-loved member of the EA NZ community and personal friend, died last month. This is an absolutely devastating loss, and our hearts go out to Gabby's friends and family, including her parents and her sister Brigette.

While most of us knew her through EA, Gabby was an incredibly vibrant person with a diverse range of interests. She brought an infectious enthusiasm to everything she did, from software development to parkour and meditation. Music was also a huge part of Gabby's life. She performed with multiple groups— including ACAPOLLiNATiONS, the Medena ensemble and Gamelan— and enjoyed recording original music with friends.

Though EA was just one part of Gabby's life, it was an important one. Like many of us, she cared deeply about alleviating suffering. And in her short life, Gabby had an amazing impact [...]

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
June 6th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/5DvenF2RjFM7QQLtK/gabrielle-young-1995-2025

Linkpost URL:
https://effectivealtruism.nz/blog/gabrielle-young

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“The Unparalleled Awesomeness of Effective Altruism Conferences” by Bentham’s Bulldog

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 18:15:35 GMT

Crosspost from my blog.

I just got back from Effective Altruism Global London—a conference that brought together lots of different people trying to do good with their money and careers. It was an inspiring experience. When you write about factory farming, insect suffering, global poverty, and the torment of shrimp, it can, as I’ve mentioned before, feel like screaming into the void. When you try to explain why it's important that we don’t torture insects by the trillions in insect farms, most people look at you like you’ve grown a third head (after the second head that they look at you like you’ve grown when you started talking about shrimp welfare).

But at effective altruism conferences, people actually care. They’re not indifferent to most of the world's suffering. They don’t think I’m crazy! There are other people who think the suffering of animals matters—even the suffering of small [...]

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First published:
June 9th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/rZKqrRQGesLctkz8d/the-unparalleled-awesomeness-of-effective-altruism

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“Estimating the Substitutability between Compute and Cognitive Labor in AI Research” by Parker_Whitfill, CherylWu

Sat, 07 Jun 2025 20:15:19 GMT

Audio note: this article contains 127 uses of latex notation, so the narration may be difficult to follow. There's a link to the original text in the episode description.

Confidence: Medium, underlying data is patchy and relies on a good amount of guesswork, data work involved a fair amount of vibecoding.

Intro:

Tom Davidson has an excellent post explaining the compute bottleneck objection to the software-only intelligence explosion.[1] The rough idea is that AI research requires two inputs: cognitive labor and research compute. If these two inputs are gross complements, then even if there is recursive self-improvement in the amount of cognitive labor directed towards AI research, this process will fizzle as you get bottlenecked by the amount of research compute.

The compute bottleneck objection to the software-only intelligence explosion crucially relies on compute and cognitive labor being gross complements; however, this fact is not [...]

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Outline:

(00:35) Intro:

(02:16) Model

(02:19) Baseline CES in Compute

(04:07) Conditions for a Software-Only Intelligence Explosion

(07:39) Deriving the Estimation Equation

(09:31) Alternative CES Formulation in Frontier Experiments

(10:59) Estimation

(11:02) Data

(15:02) Trends

(15:58) Estimation Results

(18:52) Results

The original text contained 13 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
June 1st, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/xoX936hEvpxToeuLw/estimating-the-substitutability-between-compute-and

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“The Importance of Blasting Good Ideas Into The Ether” by Bentham’s Bulldog

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 08:45:20 GMT

Crossposted from my blog.

When I started this blog in high school, I did not imagine that I would cause The Daily Show to do an episode about shrimp, containing the following dialogue:

Andres: I was working in investment banking. My wife was helping refugees, and I saw how meaningful her work was. And I decided to do the same.

Ronny: Oh, so you're helping refugees?

Andres: Well, not quite. I'm helping shrimp.

(Would be a crazy rug pull if, in fact, this did not happen and the dialogue was just pulled out of thin air).

But just a few years after my blog was born, some Daily Show producer came across it. They read my essay on shrimp and thought it would make a good daily show episode. Thus, the Daily Show shrimp episode was born.

I especially love that they bring on an EA [...]

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First published:
June 3rd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/viSRgubpKDjQcatQi/the-importance-of-blasting-good-ideas-into-the-ether

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“Positive effects of EA on mental health” by Julia_Wise🔸, Catherine Low🔸, Charlotte Darnell

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 02:45:20 GMT

Mental illness (including struggles that don’t meet a specific diagnosis) is a serious public health burden that affects a large proportion of people. This is true within EA as well as in the general population. In EA, as in any community, it's important for us to try to support those who are struggling.

We sometimes see the theory that EA causes unusually bad mental health, but the evidence lightly points toward EA being good or neutral for the wellbeing of most people who engage with it.

Most respondents say EA is neutral or good for their mental health

There have been surveys done specifically about mental health and EA (2019, 2021, 2023), but these didn’t aim to be representative of the EA population. The largest and most representative source is the EA Survey 2022, where most respondents indicated neutral or positive effects of their EA involvement on their [...]

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Outline:

(00:41) Most respondents say EA is neutral or good for their mental health

(02:51) Why might EA be good for wellbeing?

(04:40) Why might it be bad?

(05:25) Correlation and causation

(05:59) Other fields also affect wellbeing

(06:45) EA isnt one-size-fits-all

(07:47) Resources

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First published:
May 29th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/mfQoEaHeJzdH5u8Nc/positive-effects-of-ea-on-mental-health

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Rescaling and The Easterlin Paradox (2.0)” by Charlie Harrison

Wed, 04 Jun 2025 15:45:20 GMT

Around 1 month ago, I wrote a similar Forum post on the Easterlin Paradox. I decided to take it down because: 1) after useful comments, the method looked a little half-baked; 2) I got in touch with two academics – Profs. Caspar Kaiser and Andrew Oswald – and we are now working on a paper together using a related method.

That blog post actually came to the opposite conclusion, but, as mentioned, I don't think the method was fully thought through.

I'm a little more confident about this work. It essentially summarises my Undergraduate dissertation. You can read a full version here. I'm hoping to publish this somewhere, over the Summer. So all feedback is welcome.

TLDR

Life satisfaction (LS) appears flat over time, despite massive economic growth — the “Easterlin Paradox.”
Some argue that happiness is rising, but we’re reporting it more conservatively — [...]

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Outline:

(00:57) TLDR

(02:11) 1. Background: A Happiness Paradox

(04:02) 2. What is Rescaling?

(06:23) 3. My Approach: Life Events would look smaller on stretched out rulers

(08:10) 4. Results: Effects Are Shrinking

(10:46) 5. How much might we be underestimating life satisfaction?

(12:42) 6. Implications

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First published:
May 26th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/wSySeNZ6C7hfDfBSx/rescaling-and-the-easterlin-paradox-2-0

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Revamped effectivealtruism.org” by Agnes Stenlund 🔸

Wed, 28 May 2025 21:45:11 GMT

We’ve redesigned effectivealtruism.org to improve understanding and perception of effective altruism, and make it easier to take action.

View the new site →

I led the redesign and will be writing in the first person here, but many others contributed research, feedback, writing, editing, and development. I’d love to hear what you think, here is a feedback form.

Redesign goals

This redesign is part of CEA's broader efforts to improve how effective altruism is understood and perceived. I focused on goals aligned with CEA's branding and growth strategy:

Improve understanding of what effective altruism is
Make the core ideas easier to grasp by simplifying language, addressing common misconceptions, and showcasing more real-world examples of people and projects.
Improve the perception of effective altruism
I worked from a set of brand associations defined by the group working on the EA brand project[1]. These are words we want people to [...]

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Outline:

(00:38) Redesign goals

(02:03) Before and after

(02:16) Landing page

(03:16) Site navigation

(03:44) New Take action page

(04:00) Early results

(04:36) Share your thoughts

The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.

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First published:
May 27th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ZbQKtMMsDP6GnXuwr/revamped-effectivealtruism-org

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Don’t update too much from EA community involvement” by Catherine Low🔸

Sun, 25 May 2025 03:30:10 GMT

Summary

While many people and organisations in the EA community can be great connections, don't assume that just because a person has been in the EA community for a long time, they'll be a good fit for you to work with or be friends with.

Don’t assume that just because a project or org has been around for a long time, it would be a good place for you to work. It may be a great opportunity, but it might not. Do some of the usual things you would do to check that this is a good interaction for you (e.g. talk to people who know or have worked with them before starting a collaboration, take time to get to know someone before placing large amounts of trust on them, and pay attention to any signals that this interaction might not be a good for you).

[...]

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Outline:

(00:11) Summary

(01:27) Choosing to work with another person

(03:04) Conference attendance

(03:38) Working with organisations

(04:06) Personal Interactions with Community Members

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First published:
May 22nd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/yNm58h8cvufPfBPLP/don-t-update-too-much-from-ea-community-involvement

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

″“Most painful condition known to mankind”: A retrospective of the first-ever international research symposium on cluster headache” by Alfredo Parra 🔸

Sat, 24 May 2025 19:45:10 GMT

Article 5 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:

"Obviously, no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

OK, it doesn’t actually start with "obviously," but I like to imagine the commissioners all murmuring to themselves “obviously” when this item was brought up.

I’m not sure what the causal effect of Article 5 (or the 1984 UN Convention Against Torture) has been on reducing torture globally, though the physical integrity rights index (which “captures the extent to which people are free from government torture and political killings”) has increased from 0.48 in 1948 to 0.67 in 2024 (which is good). However, the index reached 0.67 already back in 2001, so at least according to this metric, we haven’t made much progress in the past 25 years. Reducing government torture and killings seems to be low in tractability.

Despite many [...]

The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.

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First published:
May 18th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/7FvDvMQypyua4kTL5/most-painful-condition-known-to-mankind-a-retrospective-of

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Why I am Still Skeptical about AGI by 2030” by James Fodor

Fri, 23 May 2025 08:30:10 GMT

Introduction

I have been writing posts critical of mainstream EA narratives about AI capabilities and timelines for many years now. Compared to the situation when I wrote my posts in 2018 or 2020, LLMs now dominate the discussion, and timelines have also shrunk enormously. The ‘mainstream view’ within EA now appears to be that human-level AI will be arriving by 2030, even as early as 2027. This view has been articulated by 80,000 Hours, on the forum (though see this excellent piece excellent piece arguing against short timelines), and in the highly engaging science fiction scenario of AI 2027. While my article piece is directed generally against all such short-horizon views, I will focus on responding to relevant portions of the article ‘Preparing for the Intelligence Explosion’ by Will MacAskill and Fin Moorhouse.

Rates of Growth

The authors summarise their argument as follows:

Currently, total global research effort [...]

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Outline:

(00:11) Introduction

(01:05) Rates of Growth

(04:55) The Limitations of Benchmarks

(09:26) Real-World Adoption

(11:31) Conclusion

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First published:
May 2nd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/meNrhbgM3NwqAufwj/why-i-am-still-skeptical-about-agi-by-2030

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Better Air Purifiers” by Jeff Kaufman 🔸

Sun, 18 May 2025 15:00:11 GMT

Are you looking for a project where you could substantially improve indoor air quality, with benefits both to general health and reducing pandemic risk?

I've written a bunch about air purifiers over the past few years, and its frustrating how bad commercial market is.

The most glaring problem is the widespread use of HEPA filters. These are very effective filters that, unavoidably, offer significant resistance to air flow. HEPA is a great option for filtering air in single pass, such as with an outdoor air intake or a biosafety cabinet, but it's the wrong set of tradeoffs for cleaning the air that's already in the room. Air passing through a HEPA filter removes 99.97% of particles, but then it's mixed back in with the rest of the room air. If you can instead remove 99% of particles from 2% more air, or 90% from 15% more [...]

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First published:
May 11th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/8BEqanpJFGhisETBi/better-air-purifiers

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“The Daily Show did a segment on EA and Shrimp Welfare Project” by jordanve🔸

Sat, 17 May 2025 04:15:11 GMT

First published:
May 16th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/LeCJqzdHZZB3uBhZg/the-daily-show-did-a-segment-on-ea-and-shrimp-welfare

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

″[urgent] Americans, call your Senators and tell them you oppose AI preemption” by Holly Elmore ⏸️ 🔸, Felix De Simone

Fri, 16 May 2025 22:15:14 GMT

Americans, we need your help to stop a dangerous AI bill from passing the Senate.

What's going on?

The House Energy & Commerce Committee included a provision in its reconciliation bill that would ban AI regulation by state and local governments for the next 10 years.
Several states have led the way in AI regulation while Congress has dragged its heels.
Stopping state governments from regulating AI might be okay, if we could trust Congress to meaningfully regulate it instead. But we can’t. This provision would destroy state leadership on AI and pass the responsibility to a Congress that has shown little interest in seriously preventing AI danger.
If this provision passes the Senate, we could see a DECADE of inaction on AI.
This provision also violates the Byrd Rule, a Senate rule which is meant to prevent non-budget items from being included in the reconciliation bill.

What can I do?

Here are [...]

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First published:
May 15th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/qWcabjNqxEBNQY3cv/urgent-americans-call-your-senators-and-tell-them-you-oppose

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Please Donate to CAIP (Post 1 of 3 on AI Governance)” by Jason Green-Lowe

Sun, 11 May 2025 23:30:09 GMT

I am Jason Green-Lowe, the executive director of the Center for AI Policy (CAIP). Our mission is to directly convince Congress to pass strong AI safety legislation. As I explain in some detail in this post, I think our organization has been doing extremely important work, and that we’ve been doing well at it. Unfortunately, we have been unable to get funding from traditional donors to continue our operations. If we don’t get more funding in the next 30 days, we will have to shut down, which will damage our relationships with Congress and make it harder for future advocates to get traction on AI governance. In this post, I explain what we’ve been doing, why I think it's valuable, and how your donations could help.

This is the first post in what I expect will be a 3-part series. The first post focuses on CAIP's particular need [...]

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Outline:

(01:33) OUR MISSION AND STRATEGY

(02:59) Our Model Legislation

(04:17) Direct Meetings with Congressional Staffers

(05:20) Expert Panel Briefings

(06:16) AI Policy Happy Hours

(06:43) Op-Eds & Policy Papers

(07:22) Grassroots & Grasstops Organizing

(09:13) Whats Unique About CAIP?

(10:26) OUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS

(10:29) Quantifiable Outputs

(11:21) Changing the Media Narrative

(12:23) Proof of Concept

(13:44) Outcomes -- Congressional Engagement

(18:29) Context

(19:54) OUR PROPOSED POLICIES

(19:58) Mandatory Audits for Frontier AI

(21:23) Liability Reform

(22:32) Hardware Monitoring

(24:11) Emergency Powers

(25:31) Further Details

(25:41) RESPONSES TO COMMON POLICY OBJECTIONS

(25:46) 1. Why not push for a ban or pause on superintelligence research?

(30:17) 2. Why not support bills that have a better chance of passing this year, like funding for NIST or NAIRR?

(32:30) 3. If Congress is so slow to act, why should anyone be working with Congress at all? Why not focus on promoting state laws or voluntary standards?

(35:09) 4. Why would you push the US to unilaterally disarm? Don't we instead need a global treaty regulating AI (or subsidies for US developers) to avoid handing control of the future to China?

(37:24) 5. Why haven't you accomplished your mission yet? If your organization is effective, shouldn't you have passed some of your legislation by now, or at least found some powerful Congressional sponsors for it?

(40:56) OUR TEAM

(41:53) Executive Director

(44:04) Government Relations Team

(45:12) Policy Team

(46:08) Communications Team

(47:29) Operations Team

(48:11) Personnel Changes

(48:49) OUR PLAN IF FUNDED

(51:58) OUR FUNDING SITUATION

(52:02) Our Expenses & Runway

(53:02) No Good Way to Cut Costs

(55:22) Our Revenue

(57:02) Surprise Budget Deficit

(59:00) The Bottom Line

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First published:
May 7th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/9uZHnEkhXZjWzia7F/please-donate-to-caip-post-1-of-3-on-ai-governance

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Doing Prioritization Better” by arvomm, David_Moss, Hayley Clatterbuck, Laura Duffy, Derek Shiller, Bob Fischer

Sat, 10 May 2025 04:15:08 GMT

Or on the types of prioritization, their strengths, pitfalls, and how EA should balance them

The cause prioritization landscape in EA is changing. Prominent groups have shut down, others have been founded, and everyone is trying to figure out how to prepare for AI. This is the first in a series of posts examining the state of cause prioritization and proposing strategies for moving forward.

Executive Summary

Performing prioritization work has been one of the main tasks, and arguably achievements, of EA.
We highlight three types of prioritization: Cause Prioritization, Within-Cause (Intervention) Prioritization, and Cross-Cause (Intervention) Prioritization.
We ask how much of EA prioritization work falls in each of these categories:
- Our estimates suggest that, for the organizations we investigated, the current split is 89% within-cause work, 2% cross-cause, and 9% cause prioritization.
- We then explore strengths and potential pitfalls of each level:
  - Cause [...]

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Outline:

(00:37) Executive Summary

(03:09) Introduction: Why prioritize? Have we got it right?

(05:18) The types of prioritization

(06:54) A snapshot of EA

(16:45) The Types of Prioritization Evaluated

(16:57) Cause Prioritization

(20:56) Within-Cause Prioritization

(25:12) Cross-Cause Prioritization

(30:07) Summary Table

(30:53) What factors should push us towards one or another?

(37:27) Possible Next Steps

(39:44) Conclusion

(40:58) Acknowledgements

(41:01) en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural__ Modern geometric logo design with text RETHINK PRIORITIES

(41:55) Appendix: Strengths and Pitfalls of Each Type

(42:07) Within-Cause Prioritization Strengths

(42:12) Decision-Making Support

(42:37) Comparability of Outputs

(44:18) Disciplinarity Advantages

(45:45) Responsiveness to Evidence

(46:48) Movement Building

(48:06) Within-Cause Prioritization Weaknesses and Potential Pitfalls

(48:12) Responsiveness to Evidence

(50:54) Decision-Making Support

(52:45) Cross-Cause Prioritization Strengths:

(53:06) Decision-Making Support

(54:49) Responsiveness to Evidence

(56:08) Movement Building

(56:22) Comparability of Outputs

(56:45) Decision-Making Support

(57:14) Cross-Cause Prioritization Weaknesses and Potential Pitfalls

(57:20) Comparability of Outputs

(58:01) Disciplinarity Advantages

(58:41) Movement Building

(59:09) Decision-Making Support

(01:00:27) Cause Prioritization Strengths

(01:00:32) Decision-Making Support

(01:02:01) Responsiveness to Evidence

(01:02:52) Movement Building

(01:03:28) Cause Prioritization Weaknesses and Potential Pitfalls

(01:04:28) Decision-Making Support

(01:06:08) Responsiveness to Evidence

The original text contained 23 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
April 16th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ZPdZv8sHuYndD8xhJ/doing-prioritization-better-2

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“The Soul of EA is in Trouble” by Mjreard

Fri, 09 May 2025 04:15:09 GMT

This is a Forum Team crosspost from Substack.

Whither cause prioritization and connection with the good?

There's a trend towards people who once identified as Effective Altruists now identifying solely as “people working on AI safety.”[1] For those in the loop, it feels like less of a trend and more of a tidal wave. There's an increasing sense that among the most prominent (formerly?) EA orgs and individuals, making AGI go well is functionally all that matters. For that end, so the trend goes, the ideas of Effective Altruism have exhausted their usefulness. They pointed us to the right problem – thanks; we’ll take it from here. And taking it from here means building organizations, talent bases, and political alliances at a scale incommensurate with attachment to a niche ideology or moralizing language generally. I think this a dangerous path to go down too hard and my impression [...]

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Outline:

(02:39) What I see

(06:35) The threat means pose to ends

(11:12) Losing something more

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
May 8th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/CKKAga4HfQyAranaC/the-soul-of-ea-is-in-trouble

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“12x more cost-effective than EAG - how I organised EA North 2025 (and how you could do something similar)” by mtths

Thu, 08 May 2025 10:00:10 GMT

I put on a small one-day conference. The cost per attendee was £50 (vs £1.2k for EAGs) and the cost per new connection was £11 (vs £130 for EAGs).

intro

EA North was a one-day event for the North of England. 35 people showed up on the day. In total, I spent £1765 (≈ $2.4k), including paying myself £20/h for 30h total. This money will be reimbursed by EA UK[1].

The cost per attendee was £50 and the cost per new connection was £11. These numbers are significantly (over 10x) lower than for EAG events, suggesting that we should be putting on more smaller events.

I am not arguing that EAGs should not exist at all. A local event will likely never let me connect with someone living on another continent in person.

My main goal with this post is to encourage individuals to put on more events like this (25-75 people from a set of nearby cities).

I also hope that this post inspires existing organisers to further bring down costs of larger events, including EAG events.

If you would like to read more about EA North 2025, read this retrospective.

why [...]

---

Outline:

(00:32) intro

(01:43) why you can probably do this, too

(02:31) what I spent the money on and a comparison with EAG London 2023

(03:17) budget breakdown

(04:53) cost per attendee per day

(05:22) cost per connection

(07:24) what I spent my time on

(08:30) ideas for being even more cost-effective

(09:33) recommendations to funders

(09:55) reconsider how many resources you spend on small applications

(10:53) consider providing funding upfront

(11:27) thermal printers are cool and cheap

(11:59) conclusion

The original text contained 7 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
May 2nd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/m9sTFoAsE8dSnzoBt/12x-more-cost-effective-than-eag-how-i-organised-ea-north

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“12x more cost-effective than EAG - how I organised EA North 2025 (and how you could, too)” by matthes

Thu, 08 May 2025 10:00:10 GMT

I put on a small one-day conference. The cost per attendee was £50 (vs £1.2k for EAGs) and the cost per new connection was £11 (vs £130 for EAGs).

intro

The cost per attendee was £50 and the cost per new connection was £11. These are significantly lower than for EAG events, suggesting that we should be putting on more smaller events.

I am not arguing that EAGs should not exist at all. A local event will likely never let me connect with someone living on another continent in person.

My main goal with this post is to encourage individuals to put on more events [...]

---

Outline:

(00:29) intro

(01:38) why you can probably do this, too

(02:26) what I spent the money on and a comparison with EAG London 2023

(03:12) budget breakdown

(04:48) cost per attendee per day

(05:17) cost per connection

(07:19) what I spent my time on

(08:24) ideas for being even more cost-effective

(09:27) recommendations to funders

(09:49) reconsider how much resources you spend on small applications

(10:44) consider providing funding upfront

(11:17) thermal printers are cool and cheap

(11:57) conclusion

The original text contained 7 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
May 2nd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/m9sTFoAsE8dSnzoBt/untitled-draft-tr7p

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“E2G help available” by Will Kirkpatrick

Mon, 05 May 2025 21:45:10 GMT

If you’re interested in having a meaningful EA career but your experience doesn’t match the types of jobs that the typical white collar, intellectual EA community leans towards, then you’re just like me.

I have been earning to give as a nuclear power plant operator in Southern Maryland for the past few years, and I think it's a great opportunity for other EA's who want to make a difference but don’t have a PhD in philosophy or public policy.

Additionally, I have personal sway with Constellation Energy's Calvert Cliffs plant, so I can influence the hiring process to help any interested applicants.

Here are a few reasons that I think this is such an ideal Earn to Give career:

A high income job in a low cost of living area means you will be able to donate a significant portion of your paychecks and still live comfortably. [...]

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First published:
April 17th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/LeuLyJEXcjAkeB965/e2g-help-available

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Cultivating doubt: why I no longer believe cultivated meat is the answer” by Tom Bry-Chevalier🔸

Sat, 03 May 2025 18:15:08 GMT

Introduction

In this post, I present what I believe to be an important yet underexplored argument that fundamentally challenges the promise of cultivated meat. In essence, there are compelling reasons to conclude that cultivated meat will not replace conventional meat, but will instead primarily compete with other alternative proteins that offer superior environmental and ethical benefits. Moreover, research into and promotion of cultivated meat may potentially result in a net negative impact. Beyond critique, I try to offer constructive recommendations for the EA movement. While I've kept this post concise, I'm more than willing to elaborate on any specific point upon request.

From industry to academia: my cultivated meat journey

I'm currently in my fourth year (and hopefully final one!) of my PhD. My thesis examines the environmental and economic challenges associated with alternative proteins. I have three working papers on cultivated meat at various stages of development, though [...]

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Outline:

(00:13) Introduction

(00:55) From industry to academia: my cultivated meat journey

(01:53) Motivations and epistemic status

(03:39) Baseline assumptions for this discussion

(03:44) Cultivated meat is environmentally better than conventional meat, but probably not as good as plant-based meat

(06:29) Cultivated meat will remain quite expensive for several years, and hybrid plant-cell products will likely appear on the market first

(08:58) Cultivated meat is ethically better than conventional meat

(10:26) The main argument: cannibalization rather than conversion

(16:46) Strategic drawbacks of the current focus

(19:11) The evidence that would make me eat my words (and maybe cultivated meat)

(20:37) What Id like to see change in the Effective Altruism approach to cultivated meat

(22:14) Answer from GFI Europe

---

First published:
April 30th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/TYhs8zehyybvMt5E4/cultivating-doubt-why-i-no-longer-believe-cultivated-meat-is

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Reflections on 7 years building the EA Forum — and moving on” by JP Addison🔸

Sat, 03 May 2025 17:30:15 GMT

I’m ironically not a very prolific writer. I’ve preferred to stay behind the scenes here and leave the writing to my colleagues who have more of a knack for it. But a goodbye post is something I must write for myself.

Perhaps I’m getting old and nostalgic, because what came out wound up being a wander down memory lane. I probably am getting old and nostalgic, but I also hope I’ve communicated something about my love for this community and the gratefulness for the chance to serve you all.

My story of the EA Forum

Few things have lasted as long in my life as my work on the Forum.

I’ve spent more time working on the EA Forum than I’ve spent living anywhere since I was 0-12 years old. I've worked on the Forum longer than I've known my partner—whom I've known long enough to get married to.

[...]

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Outline:

(00:40) My story of the EA Forum

(03:47) What's next

The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
May 1st, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/4ckgvqohXTBy6hCap/untitled-draft-a4kx

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Prioritizing Work” by Jeff Kaufman 🔸

Thu, 01 May 2025 21:15:10 GMT

I recently read a blog post that concluded with:

When I'm on my deathbed, I won't look back at my life and wish I had worked harder. I'll look back and wish I spent more time with the people I loved.

Setting aside that some people don't have the economic breathing room to make this kind of tradeoff, what jumps out at me is the implication that you're not working on something important that you'll endorse in retrospect. I don't think the author is envisioning directly valuable work (reducing risk from international conflict, pandemics, or AI-supported totalitarianism; improving humanity's treatment of animals; fighting global poverty) or the undervalued less direct approach of earning money and donating it to enable others to work on pressing problems.

Definitely spend time with your friends, family, and those you love. Don't work to the exclusion of everything else [...]

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First published:
May 1st, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/cF6eumerCq8hnb9YT/prioritizing-work

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Reflections on the $5 Minimum Donation Barrier on the Giving What We Can Platform — A Student Perspective from a Lower-Income Country.” by Habeeb Abdul

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 08:15:09 GMT

I wanted to share a small but important challenge I've encountered as a student engaging with Effective Altruism from a lower-income country (Nigeria), and invite thoughts or suggestions from the community.

Recently, I tried to make a one-time donation to one of the EA-aligned charities listed on the Giving What We Can platform. However, I discovered that I could not donate an amount less than $5.

While this might seem like a minor limit for many, for someone like me — a student without a steady income or job, $5 is a significant amount.

To provide some context:
According to Numbeo, the average monthly income of a Nigerian worker is around $130–$150, and students often rely on even less — sometimes just $20–$50 per month for all expenses. For many students here, having $5 "lying around" isn't common at all; it could represent a week's worth of meals [...]

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First published:
April 28th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/YoN3sKfkr5ruW47Cg/reflections-on-the-usd5-minimum-donation-barrier-on-the

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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[Linkpost] “Scaling Our Pilot Early-Warning System” by Jeff Kaufman 🔸

Fri, 25 Apr 2025 08:15:09 GMT

This is a link post.

Summary: The NAO will increase our sequencing significantly over the next few months, funded by a $3M grant from Open Philanthropy. This will allow us to scale our early-warning system to where we could flag many engineered pathogens early enough to mitigate their worst impacts, and also generate large amounts of data to develop, tune, and evaluate our detection systems.

One of the biological threats the NAO is most concerned with is a 'stealth' pathogen, such as a virus with the profile of a faster-spreading HIV. This could cause a devastating pandemic, and early detection would be critical to mitigate the worst impacts. If such a pathogen were to spread, however, we wouldn't be able to monitor it with traditional approaches because we wouldn't know what to look for. Instead, we have invested in metagenomic sequencing for pathogen-agnostic detection. This doesn't require deciding what [...]

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First published:
April 2nd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/AJ8bd2sz8tF7cxJff/scaling-our-pilot-early-warning-system

Linkpost URL:
https://naobservatory.org/blog/scaling-our-early-warning-system/

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Why you can justify almost anything using historical social movements” by JamesÖz 🔸

Fri, 25 Apr 2025 02:30:09 GMT

[Cross-posted from my Substack here]

If you spend time with people trying to change the world, you’ll come to an interesting conundrum: Various advocacy groups reference previous successful social movements as to why their chosen strategy is the most important one. Yet, these groups often follow wildly different strategies from each other to achieve social change. So, which one of them is right?

The answer is all of them and none of them.

This is because many people use research and historical movements to justify their pre-existing beliefs about how social change happens. Simply, you can find a case study to fit most plausible theories of how social change happens. For example, the groups might say:

Repeated nonviolent disruption is the key to social change, citing the Freedom Riders from the civil rights Movement or Act Up! from the gay rights movement.
Technological progress is what drives improvements [...]

The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.

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First published:
April 24th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/kACcdhLDdWb9ZPG9L/why-you-can-justify-almost-anything-using-historical-social

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“AI for Animals 2025 Bay Area Retrospective” by Constance Li, AI for Animals

Sat, 19 Apr 2025 01:30:08 GMT

Our Mission: To build a multidisciplinary field around using technology—especially AI—to improve the lives of nonhumans now and in the future.

Overview

Background

This hybrid conference had nearly 550 participants and took place March 1-2, 2025 at UC Berkeley. It was organized by AI for Animals for $74k by volunteer core organizers Constance Li, Sankalpa Ghose, and Santeri Tani.

This conference has evolved since 2023:

The 1st conference mainly consisted of philosophers and was a single track lecture/panel.
The 2nd conference put all lectures on one day and followed it with 2 days of interactive unconference sessions happening in parallel and a week of in-person co-working.
This 3rd conference had a week of related satellite events, free shared accommodations for 50+ attendees, 2 days of parallel lectures/panels/unconferences, 80 unique sessions, of which 32 are available on Youtube, Swapcard to enable 1:1 connections, and a Slack community to continue conversations year [...]

---

Outline:

(00:32) Overview

(00:35) Background

(02:27) Outcomes

(03:51) The Event(s)

(04:19) Speaking Sessions

(04:23) en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural__ Conference presentation scenes with speakers and audience in auditorium setting. The image shows a collage of different presentation scenes at what appears to be an academic or professional conference. The main image shows an auditorium with attendees watching a video presentation on a large screen. Other smaller images show speakers on stage in different settings - some seated in orange chairs for a panel discussion, others at podiums. Theres a logo visible for what appears to be a research institute in one of the frames. The setting appears academic/professional in nature, with proper presentation equipment, stage lighting, and organized seating arrangements typical of a conference or symposium event.

(05:10) Featured Talks

(10:13) Lightning Talks

(11:55) Interactive Sessions

(12:19) Unconferences

(13:22) Meetups

(13:36) Mapping Workshops

(13:44) Office Hours

(13:59) Topic Distribution

(14:18) Satellite Events

(14:41) en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural__ Events schedule showing AI and animal-focused activities from Feb 26-Mar 2.

(14:52) en-US-AvaMultilingualNeural__ People gathered at social events, networking and dining in various settings.

(15:02) Behind the Scenes

(15:10) Personnel

(16:04) Handbooks

(16:24) Finances

(19:21) Outreach

(21:17) Event Reflection

(24:12) Get Involved

---

First published:
April 5th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/KWpyRXzHn6JMyZiBn/ai-for-animals-2025-bay-area-retrospective

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“ALLFED emergency appeal: Help us raise $800,000 to avoid cutting half of programs” by Denkenberger🔸, JuanGarcia, Laura Cook

Fri, 18 Apr 2025 08:00:10 GMT

SUMMARY:

ALLFED is launching an emergency appeal on the EA Forum due to a serious funding shortfall. Without new support, ALLFED will be forced to cut half our budget in the coming months, drastically reducing our capacity to help build global food system resilience for catastrophic scenarios like nuclear winter, a severe pandemic, or infrastructure breakdown. ALLFED is seeking $800,000 over the course of 2025 to sustain its team, continue policy-relevant research, and move forward with pilot projects that could save lives in a catastrophe. As funding priorities shift toward AI safety, we believe resilient food solutions remain a highly cost-effective way to protect the future. If you’re able to support or share this appeal, please visit allfed.info/donate.

FULL ARTICLE:

I (David Denkenberger) am writing alongside two of my team-mates, as ALLFED's co-founder, to ask for your support. This is the first time in Alliance [...]

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Outline:

(02:40) The case for ALLFED's work, and why we think maintaining full current capacity is valuable

(04:14) How this connects to AI and other risks

(05:39) What we're asking for

---

First published:
April 16th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/K7hPmcaf2xEZ6F4kR/allfed-emergency-appeal-help-us-raise-usd800-000-to-avoid-1

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Cost-effectiveness of Anima International Poland” by saulius

Thu, 17 Apr 2025 04:45:51 GMT

Summary

In this article, I estimate the cost-effectiveness of five Anima International programs in Poland: improving cage-free and broiler welfare, blocking new factory farms, banning fur farming, and encouraging retailers to sell more plant-based protein. I estimate that together, these programs help roughly 136 animals—or 32 years of farmed animal life—per dollar spent. Animal years affected per dollar spent was within an order of magnitude for all five evaluated interventions.

I also tried to estimate how much suffering each program alleviates. Using SADs (Suffering-Adjusted Days)—a metric developed by Ambitious Impact (AIM) that accounts for species differences and pain intensity—Anima's programs appear highly cost-effective, even compared to charities recommended by Animal Charity Evaluators.

However, I also ran a small informal survey to understand how people intuitively weigh different categories of pain defined by the Welfare Footprint Institute. The results suggested that SADs may heavily underweight brief but intense suffering. Based [...]

---

Outline:

(02:16) Background

(02:46) Results

(05:57) Explanations of the programs

(08:59) Why these estimates are very uncertain

(13:48) Animal welfare metric

(16:42) Comparison to SADs

(19:42) Comparison to other charities

(19:47) Comparisons of SADs estimates

(20:54) Comparisons of cage-free estimates

(24:26) For how many years do reforms have an impact?

(25:21) Cage-free

(29:45) Broilers

(31:18) Stop the farms

(32:57) Fur farms

The original text contained 8 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
April 10th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/sLYSa7MyuDKxreN5h/cost-effectiveness-of-anima-international-poland-1

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Announcing our 2025 strategy” by Giving What We Can

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 20:15:24 GMT

We are excited to share a summary of our 2025 strategy, which builds on our work in 2024 and provides a vision through 2027 and beyond!

Background

Giving What We Can (GWWC) is working towards a world without preventable suffering or existential risk, where everyone is able to flourish. We do this by making giving effectively and significantly a cultural norm.

Focus on pledges

Based on our last impact evaluation[1], we have made our pledges – and in particular the 🔸10% Pledge – the core focus of GWWC's work.[2] We know the 🔸10% Pledge is a powerful institution, as we’ve seen almost 10,000 people take it and give nearly $50M USD to high-impact charities annually. We believe it could become a norm among at least the richest 1% — and likely a much wider segment of the population — which would cumulatively direct an enormous quantity of financial resources [...]

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Outline:

(00:20) Background

(00:37) Focus on pledges

(01:29) Introducing our BHAG

(02:10) Working towards our BHAG

(03:01) Laying the foundations for scalable growth

(03:55) Looking towards the future

(04:18) BHAG FAQ:

The original text contained 4 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
April 10th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/aPFGarxoS8pvboKFD/announcing-our-2025-strategy

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“EA Reflections on my Military Career” by The Sailor 🔸

Sat, 12 Apr 2025 15:15:36 GMT

Introduction

Four years ago, I commissioned as an Officer in the UK's Royal Navy. I had been engaging with EA for four years before that and chose this career as a coherent part of my impact-focused career plan, and I stand by that decision.

Early next year, I will leave the Navy. This article is a round-up of why I made my choices, how I think military careers can sensibly align with an EA career, and the theories of impact I considered along the way that don't hold water. Military service won't be the right call for most in this community, but it could be for some. Hopefully, this is informative for those people. Furthermore, I spent a whole year being trained in leadership. Someone I met at an EAGx conference said the offhand nugget of Military Leadership 101 wisdom I gave them was the "best advice I received in the whole event". This is probably worth sharing.

Noting how unconventional my experience is for EAs, I also write this to help communicate the value of my CV to prospective employers.

A brief honourable mention to Molly for the only other EA forum post I have seen [...]

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First published:
April 10th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/f6XmkJ9PWFfn9GvqD/ea-reflections-on-my-military-career

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“GWWC is retiring 10 initiatives” by Giving What We Can

Sat, 12 Apr 2025 12:15:35 GMT

In our recent strategy retreat, the GWWC Leadership Team recognised that by spreading our limited resources across too many projects, we are unable to deliver the level of excellence and impact that our mission demands.

True to our value of being mission accountable, we've therefore made the difficult but necessary decision to discontinue a total of 10 initiatives. By focusing our energy on fewer, more strategically aligned initiatives, we think we’ll be more likely to ultimately achieve our Big Hairy Audacious Goal of 1 million pledgers donating $3B USD to high-impact charities annually. (See our 2025 strategy.)

We’d like to be transparent about the choices we made, both to hold ourselves accountable and so other organisations can take the gaps we leave into account when planning their work. As such, this post aims to:

Inform the broader EA community about changes to projects & highlight opportunities to carry [...]

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Outline:

(02:28) Giving What We Can Canada

(06:17) Effective Altruism Australia funding partnership

(08:45) Giving What We Can Groups

(11:00) Giving Games

(12:53) Charity Elections

(17:00) Effective Giving Meta evaluation and grantmaking

(19:11) Giving What We Can Donor Lottery

(21:30) Translations

(23:56) Hosted Funds

(25:53) New licensing of the GWWC brand

The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.

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First published:
April 10th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/f7yQFP3ZhtfDkD7pr/gwwc-is-retiring-10-initiatives

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Maybe We Aren’t Stubborn Enough” by emre kaplan🔸

Fri, 11 Apr 2025 12:30:54 GMT

I sometimes worry that focus on effectiveness creates perverse incentives in strategic settings, leading us to become less effective. Here are a few observations illustrating this concern.

Effectiveness-focused advocacy creates perverse incentives for adversaries

When we conduct cage-free campaigns, the target companies frequently ask us why they are being targeted instead of some other company. While trying to answer that, one immediately realises the following tension. If we say that "because targeting you is the most effective thing we can do", we incentivise them to not budge. Because they will know that willingness to compromise invites more aggression.

When dealing with an effectiveness-focused movement, our adversaries are further incentivised to prevent concrete results. While other movements will have to be destroyed through pressure, an effectiveness-focused movement will easily go away if you just prove to them that they can be more effective elsewhere.

For that reason, in our [...]

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Outline:

(00:21) Effectiveness-focused advocacy creates perverse incentives for adversaries

(01:20) Sometimes you have to fight back even when it's not the most effective thing to do

(02:05) Religious rules survive because they are stubborn

(02:39) We might need more commitment devices

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First published:
April 8th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/tvcEa9LhsX264NZbf/maybe-we-aren-t-stubborn-enough

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“EA Adjacency as FTX Trauma” by Mjreard

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 03:30:06 GMT

This is a Forum Team crosspost from Substack.
Matt would like to add: "Epistemic status = incomplete speculation; posted here at the Forum team's request"

When you ask prominent Effective Altruists about Effective Altruism, you often get responses like these:

For context, Will MacAskill and Holden Karnofsky are arguably, literally the number one and two most prominent Effective Altruists on the planet. Other evidence of their ~spouses’ personal involvement abounds, especially Amanda's. Now, perhaps they’ve had changes of heart in recent months or years – and they’re certainly entitled to have those – but being evasive and implicitly disclaiming mere knowledge of EA is comically misleading and non-transparent. Calling these statements lies seems within bounds for most.[1]

This kind of evasiveness around one's EA associations has been common since the collapse of FTX in 2022, (which, for yet more context, was a major EA funder that year and [...]

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Outline:

(03:32) Why can't EAs talk about EA like normal humans (or even normal executives)?

(05:54) Coming of age during the Great Awokening

(07:15) Bad Comms Advice

(08:22) Not understanding how words work (coupled with motivated reasoning)

(11:05) Trauma

The original text contained 5 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
April 8th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/6NCYo7RFYfkEjLAtn/ea-adjacency-as-ftx-trauma

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“What I learned from a week in the EU policy bubble” by Joris 🔸

Sun, 06 Apr 2025 14:30:37 GMT

Last week, I participated in Animal Advocacy Careers’ Impactful Policy Careers programme. Below I’m sharing some reflections on what was a really interesting week in Brussels!

Please note I spent just one week there, so take it all with a grain of (CAP-subsidized) salt. Posts like this and this one are probably much more informative (and assume less context). I mainly wrote this to reflect on my time in Brussels (and I capped it at 2 hours, so it's not a super polished draft). I’ll focus mostly on EU careers generally, less on (EU) animal welfare-related careers.

Before I jump in, just a quick note about how I think AAC did something really cool here: they identified a relatively underexplored area where it's relatively easy for animal advocates to find impactful roles, and then designed a programme to help these people better understand that area, meet stakeholders, and learn [...]

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Outline:

(01:26) On EU careers generally

(02:59) On EU careers - EA specific

(05:55) Some miscellaneous notes

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First published:
March 30th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/e95HCwqNp7RiF94ad/what-i-learned-from-a-week-in-the-eu-policy-bubble

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“What if I’m not open to feedback?” by fran

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 15:15:38 GMT

It is standard form in EA to state one's welcomingness of feedback, both in a personal and professional capacity. Individuals and organisations alike often have many means by which you can deliver feedback, whether through anonymous forms or direct communication, and forum posts will often begin or end with:

"I'm open to feedback..."
"I'm looking for feedback of the following nature..."
"I'm very full because I ate feedback for breakfast, but there's always room for more..."
And so on.

I'm now wondering: what happens if you write, "I am not open to feedback". Literally, is that even allowed? I've never seen it done. I'm concerned to see such homogeneous thinking on the topic and I find it alarming that a community which espouses openness would be so closed off to non-openness.

How is it that not a single person in this intellectual, professional, personal community, or rather, in the sphere of this idea or philosophy, or whatever EA is.... Sorry, that sentence got too long, let me try again:

How is it possible that not a single person in EA holds a feedback-resistant worldview?

I fear – and now highly suspect – that stating a refusal [...]

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First published:
April 1st, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/8xkGFooEmJNCsFQpv/what-if-i-m-not-open-to-feedback

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“New Cause Area: Low-Hanging Fruit” by Tandena Wagner, Jackson Wagner

Wed, 02 Apr 2025 19:00:10 GMT

Hi, I’m Tandena Wagner. As part of my research for EcoResillience Initiative (an EA organization searching for the best ways to preserve biodiversity into the long-term future), I’ve investigated several common claims that various resource limitations could be disastrous for civilization – ie, that we’re approaching “peak oil”, or imminently running out of phosphorus, soil nitrogen, chromium, etc. For the most part, I’ve found these claims to be overblown, often thanks to systematic exaggeration caused by the poor epistemic environment of activist environmentalism. In general, Paul-Erlich-style resource limitations do not seem pressing compared to other risks to civilization.

However, there's one key resource that I’ve become increasingly concerned about: human civilization might be running out of low-hanging fruit.

This kid can’t reach the fruit because he's just a baby. But soon, this kid's problem could be the WHOLE WORLD's problem.

Low-hanging fruit is essential for continued human thriving

You might [...]

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Outline:

(01:13) Low-hanging fruit is essential for continued human thriving

(03:35) What would it mean if humanity exhausted the low-hanging fruit?

(04:32) New ways of making fruit hang lower are getting harder to find

(05:52) Shorter trees -- lower fruit

(08:50) Low-hanging fruit has broad benefits

(10:28) The Fruit is Too Damn High

(13:07) A fruitful direction for future research

---

First published:
April 1st, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/5RNHhZ2KSesrGmSto/new-cause-area-low-hanging-fruit

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

wheat plants also used to be SUPER tall, like literally 6 feet high, since it needed to outcompete weeds to get sunshine. But once humans started growing fields of 100% wheat, all that extra stalk height was just wasted energy, so we bred it to be shorter." style="max-width: 100%;" />

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“Centre for Effective Altruism Is No Longer “Effective Altruism”-Related” by Emma Richter🔸

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 21:15:10 GMT

For immediate release: April 1, 2025

OXFORD, UK — The Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA) announced today that it will no longer identify as an "Effective Altruism" organization.

"After careful consideration, we've determined that the most effective way to have a positive impact is to deny any association with Effective Altruism," said a CEA spokesperson. "Our mission remains unchanged: to use reason and evidence to do the most good. Which coincidentally was the definition of EA."

The announcement mirrors a pattern of other organizations that have grown with EA support and frameworks and eventually distanced themselves from EA.

CEA's statement clarified that it will continue to use the same methodologies, maintain the same team, and pursue identical goals. "We've found that not being associated with the movement we have spent years building gives us more flexibility to do exactly what we were already doing, just with better PR," [...]

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First published:
April 1st, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/pyXEB5uBsuzhgj8Zz/centre-for-effective-altruism-is-no-longer-effective

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Mitigating Risks from Rouge AI” by poppinfresh

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 18:45:10 GMT

Introduction

Misaligned AI systems, which have a tendency to use their capabilities in ways that conflict with the intentions of both developers and users, could cause significant societal harm. Identifying them is seen as increasingly important to inform development and deployment decisions and design mitigation measures. There are concerns, however, that this will prove challenging. For example, misaligned AIs may only reveal harmful behaviors in rare circumstances, or perceive detection attempts as threatening and deploy countermeasures – including deception and sandbagging – to evade them.

For these reasons, developing a range of efforts to detect misaligned behavior, including power-seeking, deception, and sandbagging, among other capabilities, have been proposed. One important indicator, though, has been hiding in plain sight for years. In this post, we identify an underappreciated method that may be both necessary and sufficient to identify misaligned AIs: whether or not they've turned red, i.e. gone rouge.

In [...]

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Outline:

(00:10) Introduction

(01:42) Historical Evidence for Rouge AI

(02:36) Recent Empirical Work

(03:46) Potential Countermeasure

(03:49) The EYES Eval

(04:55) EYES Eval Demonstration

(05:44) Future Research Directions

(06:46) Conclusion

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First published:
April 1st, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/uKKoj9iqj2cWKsjrt/mitigating-risks-from-rouge-ai

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

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“80,000 Hours: Job Birds” by Conor Barnes 🔶

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 15:30:09 GMT

Hi everybody!

I'm Conor. I run the 80,000 Hours Job Board. Or I used to. As of today — April 1 — we are becoming Job Birds!

We've been talking to users for the last few years about making this change, and people have overwhelmingly been in favour (remember, there are six or more birds for every human on Earth). Whether it's the daily emails asking me to finally switch, or the flocks of people accosting me at conferences to urge a migration to Job Birds, the demand is overwhelming! Luckily, the wait is over!

I've included an FAQ below of the most common questions we receive.

FAQ

Do these birds have jobs?
- In a sense, no. In another, preferred sense, definitely! They have roles in ecological niches.
What's a good bird to get started with?
- The peregrine falcon.
What's the theory of change?
- Birds are [...]

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First published:
April 1st, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Lee6hyYo7F5BNQJEj/80-000-hours-job-birds

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Introducing The Spending What We Must Pledge” by Thomas Kwa🔹

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 14:15:10 GMT

Epistemic status: highly certain, or something

The Spending What We Must 💸11% pledge

In short: Members pledge to spend at least 11% of their income on effectively increasing their own productivity.

This pledge is likely higher-impact for most people than the Giving What We Can 🔸10% Pledge, and we also think the name accurately reflects the non-supererogatory moral beliefs of many in the EA community.

Example

Charlie is a software engineer for the Centre for Effective Future Research. Since Charlie has taken the SWWM 💸11% pledge, rather than splurge on a vacation, they decide to buy an expensive noise-canceling headset before their next EAG, allowing them to get slightly more sleep and have 104 one-on-one meetings instead of just 101. In one of the extra three meetings, they chat with Diana, who is starting an AI-for-worrying-about-AI company, and decide to become a cofounder. The company becomes wildly successful, and Charlie's equity share allows them to further increase their productivity to the point of diminishing marginal returns, then donate $50 billion to SWWM.

The 💸💸💸 Badge

If you've taken the SWWM 💸11% Pledge, we'd appreciate if you could add three 💸💸💸 "stacks of money with wings" emoji to your social [...]

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Outline:

(00:14) The Spending What We Must 💸11% pledge

(00:39) Example

(01:25) The 💸💸💸 Badge

(01:53) FAQ

(01:57) Is the pledge legally binding?

(02:07) What do you mean by effectively increasing productivity?

(02:32) Im an AI system. Can I take the 💸11% pledge?

(03:22) Why is the 💸11% pledge 3x more effective than the 🔸10% pledge?

---

First published:
April 1st, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/qCDad9dWE5hDkYevK/introducing-the-spending-what-we-must-pledge

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

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“Anthropic is not being consistently candid about their connection to EA” by burner2

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 10:45:10 GMT

In a recent Wired article about Anthropic, there's a section where Anthropic's president, Daniela Amodei, and early employee Amanda Askell seem to suggest there's little connection between Anthropic and the EA movement:

Ask Daniela about it and she says, "I'm not the expert on effective altruism. I don't identify with that terminology. My impression is that it's a bit of an outdated term". Yet her husband, Holden Karnofsky, cofounded one of EA's most conspicuous philanthropy wings, is outspoken about AI safety, and, in January 2025, joined Anthropic. Many others also remain engaged with EA. As early employee Amanda Askell puts it, "I definitely have met people here who are effective altruists, but it's not a theme of the organization or anything". (Her ex-husband, William MacAskill, is an originator of the movement.)

This led multiple people on Twitter to call out how bizarre this is:

In my [...]

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First published:
March 30th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/53Gc35vDLK2u5nBxP/anthropic-is-not-being-consistently-candid-about-their

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Five insights from farm animal economics” by LewisBollard

Sat, 29 Mar 2025 21:45:10 GMT

How the dismal science can help us end the dismal treatment of farm animals

By Martin Gould

This year we’ll be sharing a few notes from my colleagues on their areas of expertise. The first is from Martin. I’ll be back next month. - Lewis

In 2024, Denmark announced plans to introduce the world's first carbon tax on cow, sheep, and pig farming. Climate advocates celebrated, but animal advocates should be much more cautious. When Denmark's Aarhus municipality tested a similar tax in 2022, beef purchases dropped by 40% while demand for chicken and pork increased.

Beef is the most emissions-intensive meat, so carbon taxes hit it hardest — and Denmark's policies don’t even [...]

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First published:
March 20th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ehehif6dmiQco7bJA/five-insights-from-farm-animal-economics

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Stewardship: CEA’s 2025-26 strategy to reach and raise EA’s ceiling” by Oscar Howie, Zachary Robinson🔸

Sat, 29 Mar 2025 12:30:09 GMT

“I” refers to Zach, the Centre for Effective Altruism's CEO. Oscar is CEA's Chief of Staff. We are grateful to all the CEA staff and community members who have contributed insightful input and feedback (directly and indirectly) during the development of our strategy and over many years. Mistakes are of course our own.

Exec summary

As one CEA, we are taking a principles-first approach to stewardship of the EA community.

During the search for a new CEO, the board and search committee were open to alternative strategic directions, but from the beginning of my tenure, we’ve committed to a strategy under which we will:

Operate as one CEA, rather than winding down, breaking up or renaming the organization. Instead of optimizing for each of our team's programs, we’ll be optimizing for EA as a whole.
Take a principles-first approach to EA, rather than becoming an AI org or otherwise re-orienting [...]

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Outline:

(00:38) Exec summary

(04:15) What does stewardship mean for CEA?

(06:55) What does CEA's stewardship mean in practice?

(08:34) Growing the EA community

(14:54) Improving the EA brand

(18:20) Diversifying EA funding

(21:47) Strengthening CEA

(23:38) Why bother?

The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.

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First published:
March 28th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/QkE35oTsasMn37o7R/stewardship-cea-s-2025-26-strategy-to-reach-and-raise-ea-s-1

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Joey/AIM transition announcement” by Joey🔸

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 14:15:55 GMT

After ~7 years, I am stepping away from being the CEO of AIM and will transition to a board member. My current planned last day is December 1st, giving ample time for a smooth transition. As is true for most times a CEO or co-founder leaves an organization, this is for a pretty large variety of reasons. The biggest three are that: 1) AIM is in a stable place, 2) My counterfactual impact, and 3) My fit for founder vs. CEO roles. You can see more details on each of these in my Substack post.

AIM has been one of the most meaningful parts of my life, and that's in no small part due to working with such driven and aligned people. When I first set out to create CE many years ago, I never could have envisioned we'd get to where we are today, and I have [...]

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First published:
March 15th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/mh652ZDuqf3Tgh3Cv/joey-aim-transition-announcement

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Money, Population, and Insecticide Resistance: Why malaria cases haven’t declined since 2015” by Paul SHC

Mon, 24 Mar 2025 21:00:17 GMT

Note: I am not a malaria expert. This is my best-faith attempt at answering a question that was bothering me, but this field is a large and complex field, and I’ve almost certainly misunderstood something somewhere along the way.

Summary

While the world made incredible progress in reducing malaria cases from 2000 to 2015, the past 10 years have seen malaria cases stop declining and start rising. I investigated potential reasons behind this increase through reading the existing literature and looking at publicly available data, and I identified three key factors explaining the rise:

Population Growth: Africa's population has increased by approximately 75% since 2000. This alone explains most of the increase in absolute case numbers, while cases per capita have remained relatively flat since 2015.
Stagnant Funding: After rapid growth starting in 2000, funding for malaria prevention plateaued around 2010.
Insecticide Resistance: Mosquitoes have become increasingly resistant [...]

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Outline:

(00:25) Summary

(02:06) Introduction

(04:31) Ok, give me the 1 minute rundown on what malaria is and how we fight it?

(05:22) Preventing malaria has historically meant distributing bednets

(07:58) There's a lot of good evidence showing that bednets have been effective at preventing malaria

(09:07) The percent of people with access to bednets and the percent of people sleeping under bednets have both stayed constant or increased since 2015

(10:47) So what did cause the increase in malaria cases since 2015?

(11:54) Factor 1: Population increase

(17:35) Factor 2: Stagnant funding

(23:21) Factor 3: Insecticide resistance

(34:23) What are the relative contribution of these three components?

(38:10) Factors that don't seem to be major contributors

(38:27) The decline until 2015 and stagnation after do not represent trends in separate countries or regions

(39:37) Removing PFAS from bednets doesn't appear to have affected experimental hut results

(44:23) Anopheles stephensi isn't present in the areas with the highest rates of malaria yet

(45:26) Nobody knows if climate change is making malaria worse

(47:20) Conclusions

The original text contained 6 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
March 16th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/rxTPv3MdrsHiqK7kM/money-population-and-insecticide-resistance-why-malaria

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

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“You probably won’t solve malaria or x-risk, and that’s ok” by Rory Fenton

Fri, 21 Mar 2025 06:00:40 GMT

Cross-posted from my blog.

Contrary to my carefully crafted brand as a weak nerd, I go to a local CrossFit gym a few times a week. Every year, the gym raises funds for a scholarship for teens from lower-income families to attend their summer camp program. I don’t know how many Crossfit-interested low-income teens there are in my small town, but I’ll guess there are perhaps 2 of them who would benefit from the scholarship. After all, CrossFit is pretty niche, and the town is small.

Helping youngsters get swole in the Pacific Northwest is not exactly as cost-effective as preventing malaria in Malawi. But I notice I feel drawn to supporting the scholarship anyway. Every time it pops in my head I think, “My money could fully solve this problem”. The camp only costs a few hundred dollars per kid and if there are just 2 kids who [...]

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Outline:

(01:19) You are only ever making small dents in important problems

(03:06) The man who failed to fully solve a genocide

(06:29) Saving starfish

(07:40) Big problems are actually solved piece by piece

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
March 19th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ZKfFoo8ttD9NEpKHv/you-probably-won-t-solve-malaria-or-x-risk-and-that-s-ok

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

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“80,000 Hours is shifting our strategic approach to focus more on AGI” by 80000_Hours, Niel_Bowerman

Fri, 21 Mar 2025 02:15:39 GMT

TL;DR

In a sentence:
We are shifting our strategic focus to put our proactive effort towards helping people work on safely navigating the transition to a world with AGI, while keeping our existing content up.

In more detail:

We think it's plausible that frontier AI companies will develop AGI by 2030. Given the significant risks involved, and the fairly limited amount of work that's been done to reduce these risks, 80,000 Hours is adopting a new strategic approach to focus our efforts in this area.

During 2025, we are prioritising:

Deepening our understanding as an organisation of how to improve the chances that the development of AI goes well
Communicating why and how people can contribute to reducing the risks
Connecting our users with impactful roles in this field
And fostering an internal culture which helps us to achieve these goals

We remain focused on impactful [...]

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Outline:

(01:44) Why we're updating our strategic direction

(04:02) How we hope to achieve it

(05:44) Community implications

(08:38) Potential questions you might have

(08:42) What does this mean for non-AI cause areas?

(10:44) How big a shift is this from 80k's status quo?

(11:58) Are EA values still important?

(13:36) What would cause us to change our approach?

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First published:
March 20th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/4ZE3pfwDKqRRNRggL/80-000-hours-is-shifting-our-strategic-approach-to-focus

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Projects I’d like to see in the GHW meta space” by Melanie Basnak🔸

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 17:00:41 GMT

In my past year as a grantmaker in the global health and wellbeing (GHW) meta space at Open Philanthropy, I've identified some exciting ideas that could fill existing gaps. While these initiatives have significant potential, they require more active development and support to move forward.

The ideas I think could have the highest impact are:

Government placements/secondments in key GHW areas (e.g. international development), and
Expanded (ultra) high-net-worth ([U]HNW) advising

Each of these ideas needs a very specific type of leadership and/or structure. More accessible options I’m excited about — particularly for students or recent graduates — could involve virtual GHW courses or action-focused student groups.

I can’t commit to supporting any particular project based on these ideas ahead of time, because the likelihood of success would heavily depend on details (including the people leading the project). Still, I thought it would be helpful to [...]

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Outline:

(01:19) Introduction

(02:30) Project ideas

(02:33) Fellowships and Placements

(02:37) Placement orgs for governments and think tanks

(03:06) Fellowships/Placements at GHW Organizations

(03:57) More, and different, effective giving organizations

(04:03) More (U)HNW advising

(05:14) Targeting different niche demographics

(05:50) Filling more geographic gaps

(06:08) Infrastructure support for GHW organizations

(06:38) EA-inspired GHW courses

(06:56) BlueDot Impact for GHW

(07:40) Incorporating EA content into university courses

(08:35) Useful GHW events

(08:51) Events bringing together EA and mainstream GHD orgs

(09:57) Career panels or similar

(10:13) More, and different, student groups

(10:18) Action-focused student groups

(11:34) Policy-focused grad student groups

(11:51) Less thought-through ideas

(13:12) Perceived impact and fit

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
March 18th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/pAE6zfAgceCop6vcE/projects-i-d-like-to-see-in-the-ghw-meta-space

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Am I Missing Something, or Is EA? Thoughts from a Learner in Uganda” by Dr Kassim

Tue, 18 Mar 2025 04:00:12 GMT

Hey everyone, I’ve been going through the EA Introductory Program, and I have to admit some of these ideas make sense, but others leave me with more questions than answers. I’m trying to wrap my head around certain core EA principles, and the more I think about them, the more I wonder: Am I misunderstanding, or are there blind spots in EA's approach?

I’d really love to hear what others think. Maybe you can help me clarify some of my doubts. Or maybe you share the same reservations? Let's talk.

Cause Prioritization. Does It Ignore Political and Social Reality?

EA focuses on doing the most good per dollar, which makes sense in theory. But does it hold up when you apply it to real world contexts especially in countries like Uganda?

Take malaria prevention. It's a top EA cause because it's highly cost effective $5,000 can save a life [...]

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Outline:

(00:40) Cause Prioritization. Does It Ignore Political and Social Reality?

(01:53) Long termism. A Luxury When the Present Is in Crisis?

(03:01) AI Safety. A Real Threat or Just Overhyped?

(04:09) Earning to Give. A Powerful Strategy or a Moral Loophole?

(05:05) Global vs. Local Causes. Does Proximity Matter?

(06:06) Final Thoughts: What Am I Missing?

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First published:
March 16th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/sanhCrJohGjAyAxLr/ea-a-view-from

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Consider haggling” by Sam Anschell

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 20:00:12 GMT

*Disclaimer* I am writing this post in a personal capacity; the opinions I express are my own and do not represent my employer.

I think that more people and orgs (especially nonprofits) should consider negotiating the cost of sizable expenses. In my experience, there is usually nothing to lose by respectfully asking to pay less, and doing so can sometimes save thousands or tens of thousands of dollars per hour. This is because negotiating doesn’t take very much time[1], savings can persist across multiple years, and counterparties can be surprisingly generous with discounts. Here are a few examples of expenses that may be negotiable:

For organizations

Software or news subscriptions
- Of 35 corporate software and news providers I’ve negotiated with, 30 have been willing to provide discounts. These discounts range from 10% to 80%, with an average of around 40%.
Leases
- A friend was able [...]

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
March 10th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/pufofnCukyN3hBamw/consider-haggling

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Forethought: A new AI macrostrategy group” by Amrit Sidhu-Brar 🔸, MaxDalton, William_MacAskill, Tom_Davidson, Forethought

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 01:30:12 GMT

Forethought[1] is a new AI macrostrategy research group cofounded by Max Dalton, Will MacAskill, Tom Davidson, and Amrit Sidhu-Brar.

We are trying to figure out how to navigate the (potentially rapid) transition to a world with superintelligent AI systems. We aim to tackle the most important questions we can find, unrestricted by the current Overton window.

More details on our website.

Why we exist

We think that AGI might come soon (say, modal timelines to mostly-automated AI R&D in the next 2-8 years), and might significantly accelerate technological progress, leading to many different challenges. We don’t yet have a good understanding of what this change might look like or how to navigate it. Society is not prepared.

Moreover, we want the world to not just avoid catastrophe: we want to reach a really great future. We think about what this might be like (incorporating [...]

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Outline:

(00:34) Why we exist

(01:57) Research

(02:00) Research agendas

(03:13) Recent work

(03:34) Approach

(03:37) Comparison to other efforts

(04:14) Principles

(05:35) What you can do

(05:39) Engage with our research

(06:08) Apply to work with us

(06:25) Funding

The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.

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First published:
March 11th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/6JnTAifyqz245Kv7S/forethought-a-new-ai-macrostrategy-group

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“History of projects and trends on diversity in EA” by Julia_Wise🔸

Tue, 11 Mar 2025 11:30:11 GMT

This is a Draft Amnesty Week post.

Last year, an EA community member who was scoping out some projects related to diversity and inclusion in EA noted that one challenge was not knowing what had been tried before. I drafted this summary but never got it out the door.

The atmosphere around DEI interventions, in the US at least, is different than it was when I first drafted this. I’m not intending this as commentary as anything going on currently, but as finally publishing an old draft. The main update I've made is to add some demographic data that recently came out from the 2024 EA Survey.

I don’t mean this post as a claim that EAs have done all the right things. I mean it as a historical record so people can better gauge what's been tried over time, what might be worth trying differently, and [...]

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Outline:

(01:17) Organizational / program efforts

(08:07) Efforts in hiring / staffing at EA orgs

(11:58) Other research / content / major discussions in the community

(21:40) Demographic trends over time

(21:45) Location

(22:39) Race

(23:28) Gender

(24:35) Political views

(25:06) Age

(25:20) Experiences at events

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
March 4th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/6FLvBaEwiiqf9JGEJ/history-of-projects-and-trends-on-diversity-in-ea

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“In a time of rapid change, we should re-examine system-level interventions” by jackva

Tue, 11 Mar 2025 02:45:12 GMT

Watching what is happening in the world -- with lots of renegotiation of institutional norms within Western democracies and a parallel fracturing of the post-WW2 institutional order -- I do think we, as a community, should more seriously question our priors on the relative value of surgical/targeted and broad system-level interventions.

Speaking somewhat roughly, with EA as a movement coming of age in an era where democratic institutions and the rule-based international order were not fundamentally questioned, it seems easy to underestimate how much the world is currently changing and how much riskier a world of stronger institutional and democratic backsliding and weakened international norms might be.

Of course, working on these issues might be intractable and possibly there's nothing highly effective for EAs to do on the margin given much attention to these issues from society at large. So, I am not here to confidently state [...]

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First published:
March 9th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/MWomDeHBi2D33PzRx/in-a-time-of-rapid-change-we-should-re-examine-system-level

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“From Comfort Zone to Frontiers of Impact: Pursuing A Late-Career Shift to Existential Risk Reduction” by Jim Chapman

Sat, 08 Mar 2025 15:45:12 GMT

By Jim Chapman, Linkedin.

TL;DR: In 2023, I was a 57-year-old urban planning consultant and non-profit professional with 30 years of leadership experience. After talking with my son about rationality, effective altruism, and AI risks, I decided to pursue a pivot to existential risk reduction work. The last time I had to apply for a job was in 1994. By the end of 2024, I had spent ~740 hours on courses, conferences, meetings with ~140 people, and 21 job applications. I hope that by sharing my experiences, you can gain practical insights, inspiration, and resources to navigate your career transition, especially for those who are later in their career and interested in making an impact in similar fields. I share my experience in 5 sections - sparks, take stock, start, do, meta-learnings, and next steps. [Note - as of 03/05/2025, I am still pursuing my career shift.]

Sparks – [...]

---

Outline:

(01:16) Sparks - 2022

(02:29) Take Stock - 2023

(03:36) Start

(04:15) Do - 2023 and 2024

(05:13) Learn

(10:46) Get a Job

(14:21) Create a Job

(16:49) Contractor

(18:16) Meta-Learnings

(19:50) Next Steps

(20:48) Appendix A - Helpful Feedback

The original text contained 30 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
March 4th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/FcKpAGn75pRLsoxjE/from-comfort-zone-to-frontiers-of-impact-pursuing-a-late-1

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---

Images from the article:

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“On deference to funders” by abrahamrowe

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 08:30:13 GMT

This is a Draft Amnesty Week draft. It may not be polished, up to my usual standards, fully thought through, or fully fact-checked.

Commenting and feedback guidelines:

I'm posting this to get it out there. I'd love to see comments that take the ideas forward, but criticism of my argument won't be as useful at this time, in part because I won't do any further work on it.

This is a post I drafted in November 2023, then updated for an hour in March 2025. I don’t think I’ll ever finish it so I am just leaving it in this draft form for draft amnesty week (I know I'm late). I don’t think it is particularly well calibrated, but mainly just makes a bunch of points that I haven’t seen assembled elsewhere. Please take it as extremely low-confidence and there being a low-likelihood of this post describing these dynamics perfectly.

I’ve [...]

---

Outline:

(02:45) Deference is everywhere

(04:39) Funders often lack information you have access to

(08:29) Funders often don't share your values

(09:58) Funders have experience in grantmaking. That is different from experience doing the work.

(11:48) What can we do to make this better?

(12:22) There are lots of issues with over-updating on this!

---

First published:
March 3rd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/adZEA4SEkab4SZhTx/on-deference-to-funders

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“The lost art of the cheap office lunch” by Julia_Wise🔸

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 15:45:50 GMT

I feel silly writing this up, but it's draft amnesty week. Caveat: I’ve been a visitor to several EA offices but haven’t worked regularly in any of them, and maybe I'm overly nostalgic about reheated felafel.

Some EA offices have catered lunch or lunch cooked on the premises every day. This is nice, but not every workplace can afford it.

5+ years ago when everything in EA was lower-budget, the main way EA offices did lunch was to provide sandwich / wrap ingredients. Ops staff would order the groceries, and would put out the spread about 15 minutes before lunchtime and microwave some of the foods. There was a designated time to show up, often 1 pm.

This method works pretty well for a crowd because you don’t all have to wait for the microwave. It was pretty flexible for different tastes and diets. People who wanted [...]

---

First published:
February 28th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/EyXWx8stxSzgAMzJX/the-lost-art-of-the-cheap-office-lunch

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

The catastrophic situation with USAID just got worse - why the EA community should care

Sun, 02 Mar 2025 14:30:27 GMT

If you don’t typically engage with politics/government, this is the time to do so. If you are American and/or based in the U.S., reaching out to lawmakers, supporting organizations that are mobilizing on this issue, and helping amplify the urgency of this crisis can make a difference.

Why this matters:

Millions of lives are at stake
Decades of progress, and prior investment, in global health and wellbeing are at risk
Government funding multiplies the impact of philanthropy

Where things stand today (February 27, 2025)

The Trump Administration's foreign aid freeze has taken a catastrophic turn: rather than complying with a court order to restart paused funding, they have chosen to terminate more than 90% of all USAID grants and contracts. This stunningly reckless decision comes just 30 days into a supposed 90-day review of foreign aid. This will cause a devastating loss of life.

Even beyond the immediate [...]

---

Outline:

(00:45) Where things stand today (February 27, 2025)

(03:22) Some of the few lifesaving programs that were terminated are:

(04:42) Why this matters for the future of global health & wellbeing

(06:56) Your action and engagement is needed NOW

---

First published:
February 27th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/TbZAkjJQn8kPDodXG/the-catastrophic-situation-with-usaid-just-got-worse-why-the

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“The catastrophic situation with U.S. foreign aid just got worse - why the EA community should care” by Dorothy M.

Sun, 02 Mar 2025 14:30:27 GMT

For those in the EA community who may not typically engage with politics/government, this is the time to do so. If you are American and/or based in the U.S., reaching out to lawmakers, supporting organizations that are mobilizing on this issue, and helping amplify the urgency of this crisis can make a difference.

Why this matters:

Millions of lives are at stake
Decades of progress, and prior investment, in global health and wellbeing are at risk
Government funding multiplies the impact of philanthropy

Where things stand today (February 27, 2025)

---

Outline:

(00:43) Where things stand today (February 27, 2025)

(03:22) Some of the few lifesaving programs that were terminated are:

(04:47) Why this matters for the future of global health and wellbeing

(07:03) Your action and engagement is needed NOW

---

First published:
February 27th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/TbZAkjJQn8kPDodXG/the-catastrophic-situation-with-u-s-foreign-aid-just-got

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“How confident are you that it’s preferable for America to develop AGI before China does?” by ScienceMon🔸

Sat, 01 Mar 2025 01:45:31 GMT

The belief that it's preferable for America to develop AGI before China does seems widespread among American effective altruists. Is this belief supported by evidence, or it it just patriotism in disguise?

How would you try to convince an open-minded Chinese citizen that it really would be better for America to develop AGI first? Such a person might point out:

Over the past 30 years, the Chinese government has done more for the flourishing of Chinese citizens than the American government has done for the flourishing of American citizens. My village growing up lacked electricity, and now I'm a software engineer! Chinese institutions are more trustworthy for promoting the future flourishing of humanity.
Commerce in China ditches some of the older ideas of Marxism because it's the means to an end: the China Dream of wealthy communism. As AGI makes China and the world extraordinarily wealthy, we are [...]

---

First published:
February 22nd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/MxPhK4mLRkaFekAmp/how-confident-are-you-that-it-s-preferable-for-america-to

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Stop calling them labs” by sawyer🔸

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 15:45:27 GMT

Note: This started as a quick take, but it got too long so I made it a full post. It's still kind of a rant; a stronger post would include sources and would have gotten feedback from people more knowledgeable than I. But in the spirit of Draft Amnesty Week, I'm writing this in one sitting and smashing that Submit button.

Many people continue to refer to companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind as "frontier AI labs". I think we should drop "labs" entirely when discussing these companies, calling them "AI companies"[1] instead. While these companies may have once been primarily research laboratories, they are no longer so. Continuing to call them labs makes them sound like harmless groups focused on pushing the frontier of human knowledge, when in reality they are profit-seeking corporations focused on building products and capturing value in the marketplace.

Laboratories do not directly [...]

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
February 24th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Ap6E2aEFGiHWf5v5x/stop-calling-them-labs

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Ditching what we are good at: A change of course for Anima International in France” by Keyvan Mostafavi, Anima International

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 10:45:27 GMT

My name is Keyvan, and I lead Anima International's work in France. Our organization went through a major transformation in 2024. I want to share that journey with you.

Anima International in France used to be known as Assiettes Végétales (‘Plant-Based Plates’). We focused entirely on introducing and promoting vegetarian and plant-based meals in collective catering. Today, as Anima, our mission is to put an end to the use of cages for laying hens.

These changes come after a thorough evaluation of our previous campaign, assessing 94 potential new interventions, making several difficult choices, and navigating emotional struggles. We hope that by sharing our experience, we can help others who find themselves in similar situations. So let me walk you through how the past twelve months have unfolded for us.

The French team

Act One: What we did as Assiettes Végétales

Since 2018, we worked with the local [...]

---

Outline:

(01:13) Act One: What we did as Assiettes Végétales

(03:55) Act Two: The moment we realized we needed to measure our impact more precisely

(05:12) Act Three: The evaluation

(07:23) Act Four: Ending our previous campaign

(09:09) Act Five: Searching for a new intervention

(11:30) Act Six: The struggle to choose

(14:11) Act Seven: The strengths of the cage-free campaign

(16:34) Conclusion - Where we stand today

The original text contained 10 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
February 22nd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/vfADxsPECqcbd3vs6/ditching-what-we-are-good-at-a-change-of-course-for-anima

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Teaching AI to reason: this year’s most important story” by Benjamin_Todd

Sat, 22 Feb 2025 15:00:30 GMT

This is a link post.

I wrote this to try to explain the key thing going on with AI right now to a broader audience. Feedback welcome.

Most people think of AI as a pattern-matching chatbot – good at writing emails, terrible at real thinking.

They've missed something huge.

In 2024, while many declared AI was reaching a plateau, it was actually entering a new paradigm: learning to reason using reinforcement learning.

This approach isn’t limited by data, so could deliver beyond-human capabilities in coding and scientific reasoning within two years.

Here's a simple introduction to how it works, and why it's the most important development that most people have missed.

The new paradigm: reinforcement learning

People sometimes say “chatGPT is just next token prediction on the internet”. But that's never been quite true.

Raw next token prediction produces outputs that are regularly crazy.

GPT only became useful with the [...]

---

Outline:

(00:51) The new paradigm: reinforcement learning

(02:32) Reasoning models breakthroughs

(04:09) A new rate of progress?

(07:53) Why this is just the beginning

(11:02) Two more accelerants

(16:12) The key thing to watch: AI doing AI research

---

First published:
February 13th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ZuWcG3W3rEBxLceWj/teaching-ai-to-reason-this-year-s-most-important-story

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Using a diet offset calculator to encourage effective giving for farmed animals” by Aidan Alexander, ThomNorman

Thu, 13 Feb 2025 09:15:28 GMT

When we built a calculator to help meat-eaters offset the animal welfare impact of their diet through donations (like carbon offsets), we didn't expect it to become one of our most effective tools for engaging new donors.

In this post we explain how it works, why it seems particularly promising for increasing support for farmed animal charities, and what you can do to support this work if you think it's worthwhile. In the comments I’ll also share our answers to some frequently asked questions and concerns some people have when thinking about the idea of an ‘animal welfare offset’.

Background

FarmKind is a donation platform whose mission is to support the animal movement by raising funds from the general public for some of the most effective charities working to fix factory farming.

When we built our platform, we directionally estimated how much a donation to each of our [...]

---

Outline:

(00:50) Background

(01:41) What it is and what it isn't

(02:38) How it works

(04:24) Why this is a promising way to encourage effective giving for animals

(06:46) Case study: Bentham's Bulldog

(07:30) How is this actionable for you?

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
February 11th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/nGQRBWyCAbcEYSyLL/using-a-diet-offset-calculator-to-encourage-effective-giving

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Why Did Elon Musk Just Offer to Buy Control of OpenAI for $100 Billion?” by Garrison

Thu, 13 Feb 2025 00:00:36 GMT

This is a link post.

This is the full text of a post from "The Obsolete Newsletter," a Substack that I write about the intersection of capitalism, geopolitics, and artificial intelligence. I’m a freelance journalist and the author of a forthcoming book called Obsolete: Power, Profit, and the Race to build Machine Superintelligence. Consider subscribing to stay up to date with my work.

Wow. The Wall Street Journal just reported that, "a consortium of investors led by Elon Musk is offering $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI."

Technically, they can't actually do that, so I'm going to assume that Musk is trying to buy all of the nonprofit's assets, which include governing control over OpenAI's for-profit, as well as all the profits above the company's profit caps.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman already tweeted, "no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want." [...]

---

Outline:

(02:44) The control premium

(04:19) Conversion significance

(05:45) Musks suit

(09:26) The stakes

---

First published:
February 11th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/7iopGPmtEmubSFSP3/why-did-elon-musk-just-offer-to-buy-control-of-openai-for

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Leadership change at the Center on Long-Term Risk” by JesseClifton, Tristan Cook, Mia_Taylor

Tue, 04 Feb 2025 18:00:30 GMT

The Center on Long-Term Risk (CLR) does research and community building aimed at reducing s-risk.

Jesse Clifton is stepping down as CLR's Executive Director. He’ll be succeeded by Tristan Cook as Managing Director and Mia Taylor as Interim Research Director. [1]

Statement from Jesse

Over the past year or so, I’ve become increasingly convinced by arguments that we are clueless about the sign (in terms of expected total suffering reduced) of interventions aimed at reducing s-risk. (And I think it's plausible that we should consider ourselves clueless about interventions aimed at improved expected total welfare, generally.) The other researchers on CLR's Conceptual Research team[2] have come to a similar view,[3] but not the other staff or the board, who are still positive on the pre-cluelessness priorities.

Given this, I don’t think it makes sense for me to lead CLR. So, for now, I’ll be transitioning to working [...]

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Outline:

(00:25) Statement from Jesse

(03:06) Statement from Mia and Tristan

The original text contained 6 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
January 31st, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/YE3tdpE6JdiWRqqKx/leadership-change-at-the-center-on-long-term-risk

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Climate Change Is Worse Than Factory Farming” by EA Forum Team

Tue, 04 Feb 2025 06:15:26 GMT

This is a link post.

Note: This post was crossposted from the United States of Exception Substack by the Forum team, with the author's permission. The author may not see or respond to comments on this post.

A good and wholesome K-strategist.

I am a climate change catastrophist, but I’m not like all the others. I don’t think climate change is going to wipe out all life on Earth (as 35% of Americans say they believe) or end the human race (as 31% believe). Nor do I think it's going to end human life on Earth but that human beings will continue to exist somewhere else in the universe (which at least 4% of Americans would logically have to believe). Nevertheless, I think global warming is among the worst things in the world — if not #1 — and addressing it should be among our top priorities.

Friend of the blog [...]

---

First published:
January 28th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/gBSmkRjYLcAvNPoDs/climate-change-is-worse-than-factory-farming

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

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“The Game Board has been Flipped: Now is a good time to rethink what you’re doing” by LintzA

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 07:00:51 GMT

Introduction

Several developments over the past few months should cause you to re-evaluate what you are doing. These include:

Updates toward short timelines
The Trump presidency
The o1 (inference-time compute scaling) paradigm
Deepseek
Stargate/AI datacenter spending
Increased internal deployment
Absence of AI x-risk/safety considerations in mainstream AI discourse

Taken together, these are enough to render many existing AI governance strategies obsolete (and probably some technical safety strategies too). There's a good chance we're entering crunch time and that should absolutely affect your theory of change and what you plan to work on.

In this piece I try to give a quick summary of these developments and think through the broader implications these have for AI safety. At the end of the piece I give some quick initial thoughts on how these developments affect what safety-concerned folks should be prioritizing. These are early days and I expect many of [...]

---

Outline:

(00:06) Introduction

(01:21) Implications of recent developments

(01:25) Updates toward short timelines

(04:26) The Trump Presidency

(07:34) The o1 paradigm

(09:23) Deepseek

(12:08) Stargate/AI data center spending

(13:11) Increased internal deployment

(15:43) Absence of AI x-risk/safety considerations in mainstream AI discourse

(17:13) Implications for strategic priorities

(17:18) Broader implications for US-China competition

(19:33) What seems less likely to work?

(20:56) What should people concerned about AI safety do now?

(24:01) Acknowledgements

The original text contained 13 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
January 28th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/JN3kHaiosmdA7kgNY/the-game-board-has-been-flipped-now-is-a-good-time-to

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“The Upcoming PEPFAR Cut Will Kill Millions, Many of Them Children” by Omnizoid

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 22:45:50 GMT

Edit 1/29: Funding is back, baby!

Crossposted from my blog.

(This could end up being the most important thing I’ve ever written. Please like and restack it—if you have a big blog, please write about it).

A mother holds her sick baby to her chest. She knows he doesn’t have long to live. She hears him coughing—those body-wracking coughs—that expel mucus and phlegm, leaving him desperately gasping for air. He is just a few months old. And yet that's how old he will be when he dies.

The aforementioned scene is likely to become increasingly common in the coming years. Fortunately, there is still hope.

Trump recently signed an executive order shutting off almost all foreign aid. Most terrifyingly, this included shutting off the PEPFAR program—the single most successful foreign aid program in my lifetime. PEPFAR provides treatment and prevention of HIV and AIDS—it has saved about [...]

---

First published:
January 27th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/BRqBvkjskZ6c2G6rn/the-upcoming-pepfar-cut-will-kill-millions-many-of-them

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“GiveWell raised less than its 10th percentile forecast in 2023” by Rasool

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 17:15:50 GMT

In 2023[1] GiveWell raised $355 million - $100 million from Open Philanthropy, and $255 million from other donors.

In their post on 10th April 2023, GiveWell forecast the amount they expected to raise in 2023, albeit with wide confidence intervals, and stated that their 10th percentile estimate for total funds raised was $416 million, and 10th percentile estimate for funds raised outside of Open Philanthropy was $260 million.

10th percentile estimateMedian estimateAmount raisedTotal$416 million$581 million$355 millionExcluding Open Philanthropy$260 million$330 million$255 million

Regarding Open Philanthropy, the April 2023 post states that they "tentatively plans to give $250 million in 2023", however Open Philanthropy gave a grant of $300 million to cover 2023-2025, to be split however GiveWell saw fit, and it used $100 million of that grant in 2023.

However for other donors I'm not sure what caused the missed estimate

Credit to 'Arnold' on GiveWell's December 2024 Open Thread for [...]

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
January 19th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/RdbDH4T8bxWwZpc9h/givewell-raised-less-than-its-10th-percentile-forecast-in

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“In defense of the certifiers” by LewisBollard

Mon, 27 Jan 2025 16:45:50 GMT

They’re imperfect agents of change

The world's three largest animal welfare groups are under attack. Their antagonists are not factory farmers, but other animal groups. And the ASPCA, HSUS, and RSPCA stand accused not of hurting farmers, but of hurting animals, through their work with GAP and RSPCA Assured, which certify animal products as being less cruelly produced.

The attacks began last summer when the UK animal rights group Animal Rising released a report and footage showing abuses on RSPCA Assured farms. They’ve since forced the RSPCA to cancel its 200th year celebrations, plastered portraits of RSPCA patron King Charles, and persuaded the ceremonial president and two vice-presidents of the RSPCA to resign in protest. [...]

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First published:
January 24th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/np6vRZvsWgF5rq5W7/in-defense-of-the-certifiers

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Preparing Effective Altruism for an AI-Transformed World” by Tobias Häberli

Fri, 24 Jan 2025 13:15:52 GMT

In recent years, many in the Effective Altruism community have shifted to working on AI risks, reflecting the growing consensus that AI will profoundly shape our future.

In response to this significant shift, there have been efforts to preserve a "principles-first EA" approach, or to give special thought into how to support non-AI causes. This has often led to discussions being framed around "AI Safety vs. everything else". And it feels like the community is somewhat divided along the following lines:

Those working on AI Safety, because they believe that transformative AI is coming.
Those focusing on other causes, implicitly acting as if transformative AI is not coming.[1]

Instead of framing priorities this way, I believe it would be valuable for more people to adopt a mindset that assumes transformative AI is likely coming and asks: What should we work on in light of that?

If we [...]

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
January 22nd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/psNGNSoJpXRodmDSg/preparing-effective-altruism-for-an-ai-transformed-world

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“What are we doing about the EA Forum? (Jan 2025)” by Sarah Cheng 🔸

Sun, 19 Jan 2025 19:30:49 GMT

This post is my personal perspective. I’m sure that my colleagues on the Forum Team and at CEA disagree with parts of this. However, since I am the Interim EA Forum Project Lead, I recognize that my opinions and beliefs carry extra weight. I’m very happy to receive feedback and push back from others, since I believe that my decisions matter a fair amount. You’re welcome to reply to this post, DM me, find me at EAG Bay Area, contact our team, or leave our team anonymous feedback here.

When I took the role of Interim EA Forum Project Lead in late August 2024, I spent some time investigating where the Forum was at and thinking about what (if anything) our team should prioritize working on. Over the course of 2024 (and indeed, since early 2023), Forum usage metrics have steadily gone down[1]. My subjective opinion was that the [...]

---

Outline:

(01:26) The Forum Team as community builders

(05:45) What does the best version of the Forum community look like?

(07:25) We're not there yet

(09:51) What is the Forum Team doing?

(12:01) What are we not doing?

(13:00) How you can help

(14:31) Appendix: The value of the Forum

The original text contained 27 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
January 13th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/wpDGEXjAtHJa2eCFA/what-are-we-doing-about-the-ea-forum-jan-2025

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“What I’m celebrating from EA and adjacent work in 2024” by Emma Lou

Sun, 19 Jan 2025 17:30:50 GMT

As 2024 draws to a close, I’m reflecting on the work and stories that inspired me this year: those from the effective altruism community, those I found out about through EA-related channels, and those otherwise related to EA.

I’ve appreciated the celebration of wins and successes over the past few years from @Shakeel Hashim's posts in 2022 and 2023. As @Lizka and @MaxDalton put very well in a post in 2022:

We often have high standards in effective altruism. This seems absolutely right: our work matters, so we must constantly strive to do better.

But we think that it's really important that the effective altruism community celebrate successes:

If we focus too much on failures, we incentivize others/ourselves to minimize the risk of failure, and we will probably be too risk averse.
We're humans: we're more motivated if we celebrate things that have gone well.

Rather than attempting [...]

---

Outline:

(01:51) What progress in the world did you find exciting?

(03:11) What individual stories inspired you?

(04:26) What popular media or articles did you appreciate?

(05:37) What writing from this year did you appreciate or find compelling?

(06:15) What made you grateful or excited to be involved in or related to effective altruism?

---

First published:
December 31st, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/SkfMyerJ5bGK7scnW/what-i-m-celebrating-from-ea-and-adjacent-work-in-2024

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Voluntary Salary Reduction” by Jeff Kaufman 🔸

Sun, 19 Jan 2025 04:00:49 GMT

Until recently I thought Julia and I were digging a bit into savings to donate more. With the tighter funding climate for effective altruism we thought it was worth spending down a bit, especially considering that our expenses should decrease significantly in 1.5y when our youngest starts kindergarten.

I was surprised, then, when I ran the numbers and realized that despite donating 50% of a reduced income, we were $9k (0.5%) [1] richer than when I left Google two years earlier.

This is a good problem to have! After thinking it over for the last month, however, I've decided to start earning less: I've asked for a voluntary salary reduction of $15k/y (10%). [2] This is something I've been thinking about off and on since I started working at a non-profit: it's much more efficient to reduce your salary than it is to make a donation. [...]

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First published:
January 15th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/3TLTrJS2DZJ5mcrkc/voluntary-salary-reduction

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Your 2024 EA Forum Wrapped” by Sarah Cheng 🔸, Agnes Stenlund, Ollie Etherington, Toby Tremlett🔹

Fri, 17 Jan 2025 16:30:49 GMT

It's time once again for EA Forum Wrapped 🎁, a summary of how you used the Forum in 2024 [1].

Open your EA Forum Wrapped

Thank you for being a part of our community this year! :)

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
January 3rd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Xem5o4iRHMSduNcPu/your-2024-ea-forum-wrapped

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“The ugly sides of two approaches to charity” by Julia_Wise🔸

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 16:45:51 GMT

Cross-posted from Otherwise. Most EAs won't find these arguments new.

Last month, Emma Goldberg wrote a NYT piece contrasting effective altruism with approaches that refuse to quantify meaningful experiences. The piece indicates that effective altruism is creepily numbers-focused. Goldberg asks “what if charity shouldn’t be optimized?”

The egalitarian answer

Dylan Matthews gives a try at answering a question in the piece: “How can anyone put a numerical value on a holy space” like Notre Dame cathedral? For the $760 million spent restoring the cathedral, he estimates you could prevent 47,500 deaths from malaria.

“47,500 people is about five times the population of the town I grew up in. . . . It's useful to imagine walking down Main Street, stopping at each table at the diner Lou's, shaking hands with as many people as you can, and telling them, ‘I think you need to die to make a cathedral [...]

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Outline:

(00:29) The egalitarian answer

(01:16) Who prefers magnificence?

(03:10) Inequality has its benefits

(04:34) Is there enough for everybody to have access to the finer things?

(05:37) The balance of good and bad

(06:33) Both sides have ugly aspects

(07:04) These aren't the only choices

(08:58) Related:

The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.

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First published:
January 13th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/TiFeCBxKj79bohoDY/the-ugly-sides-of-two-approaches-to-charity

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Max Chiswick (1985–2025)” by Gavin

Tue, 14 Jan 2025 07:30:34 GMT

Poker pro, art collector, photographer, investor, AI researcher, chronic website creator, endless traveller, and omnipresent volunteer in nascent things. An independent and an invariant.

I briefly worked with him on an accountability partner service. We had funding but he never invoiced me. Every time I called him he was somewhere else on Earth. Senegal, Israel, Nepal, Egypt. He spent 13 straight months travelling in 2017-8.

He wasn't much of a writer - you won't find him on here - but he had started. What suddenly turned out to be his final projects were Poker Camp, Hold'LLM, and Bet Mitzvah, an unwritten book on probability and instrumental reason.

Here are some pieces about him from people who knew him much better than me. I expect there to be more.

https://andrew.gr/stories/chisness/
https://x.com/chisness
https://blog.rossry.net/chisness/
https://redeniusfuneralhomes.com/obituary/max-chiswick/
https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/remembering-life-max-chiswick-aka-chisness-legacy-far-beyond-poker-tables-1844405/
https://oldjewishmen.substack.com/p/bhif-old-jewish-men-loses-a-friend

His last commit was on the 22nd December. He died of malaria on [...]

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First published:
January 13th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/r9fJ26ca5cneY3hA8/max-chiswick-1985-2025

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Thoughts on Moral Ambition by Rutger Bregman” by Patrick Gruban 🔸

Sat, 11 Jan 2025 16:15:34 GMT

I can’t recall the last time I read a book in one sitting, but that's what happened with Moral Ambition by bestselling author Rutger Bregman. I read the German edition, though it's also available in Dutch. An English release is slated for May.

The book opens with the statement: “The greatest waste of our times is the waste of talent.” From there, Bregman builds a compelling case for privileged individuals to leave their “bullshit jobs” and tackle the world's most pressing challenges. He weaves together narratives spanning historical movements like abolitionism, suffrage, and civil rights through to contemporary initiatives such as Against Malaria Foundation, Charity Entrepreneurship, LEEP, and the Shrimp Welfare Project.

If you’ve been engaged with EA ideas, much of this will sound familiar, but I initially didn’t expect to enjoy the book as much as I did. However, Bregman's skill as a storyteller and his knack for [...]

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First published:
January 9th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ooK2FABokexBbXifJ/thoughts-on-moral-ambition-by-rutger-bregman

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Will a food carbon tax lead to more animals being slaughtered? A quantitative model” by Soemano Zeijlmans

Wed, 08 Jan 2025 15:00:34 GMT

Does a food carbon tax increase animal deaths and/or the total time of suffering of cows, pigs, chickens, and fish? Theoretically, this is possible, as a carbon tax could lead consumers to substitute, for example, beef with chicken. However, this is not per se the case, as animal products are not perfect substitutes.

I'm presenting the results of my master's thesis in Environmental Economics, which I re-worked and published on SSRN as a pre-print. My thesis develops a model of animal product substitution after a carbon tax, slaughter tax, and a meat tax. When I calibrate this model for the U.S., there is a decrease in animal deaths and duration of suffering following a carbon tax. This suggests that a carbon tax can reduce animal suffering.

Key points

Some animal products are carbon-intensive, like beef, but causes relatively few animal deaths or total time of suffering because [...]

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Outline:

(00:57) Key points

(03:07) The Small Animal Replacement Problem

(05:46) The model

(05:49) Input data and market model

(08:14) Measuring animal welfare impacts

(09:39) Results

(09:42) Carbon taxes

(11:31) Slaughter taxes

(12:10) Is a carbon tax or a slaughter tax better?

(13:41) Cant we just put a simple tax on meat and fish instead?

(14:06) Limitations

(15:54) Full thesis

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First published:
January 3rd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/KbREamTda2sZhKtTz/will-a-food-carbon-tax-lead-to-more-animals-being

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Launching Screwworm-Free Future – Funding and Support Request” by lroberts, johantang🔸, bruce, diegoexposito, Nia, MathiasKB🔸, Aaron Bergman, Johannes Pichler 🔹, Ramiro

Fri, 03 Jan 2025 01:00:53 GMT

TL;DR

Screwworm Free Future is a new group seeking support to advance work on eradicating the New World Screwworm in South America.
The New World Screwworm (C. hominivorax - literally "man-eater") causes extreme suffering to hundreds of millions of wild and domestic animals every year.
To date we’ve held private meetings with government officials, experts from the private sector, academics, and animal advocates. We believe that work on the NWS is valuable and we want to continue our research and begin lobbying.
Our analysis suggests we could prevent about 100 animals from experiencing an excruciating death per dollar donated, though this estimate has extreme uncertainty.
The screwworm “wall” in Panama has recently been breached, creating both an urgent need and an opportunity to address this problem.
We are seeking $15,000 to fund a part-time lead and could absorb up to $100,000 to build a full-time team, which would include a [...]

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Outline:

(00:07) TL;DR

(02:13) What's the deal with the New World Screwworm?

(06:01) What we've learnt so far

(08:46) Future plans

(12:14) Relevant EA discussions on Screwworms:

The original text contained 16 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
December 30th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/d2HJ3eysBdPoiZBnJ/launching-screwworm-free-future-funding-and-support-request

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Funding Diversification for Mid-Large EA Organizations is Nearly Impossible in the Short-Medium Term” by MarcusAbramovitch

Sat, 28 Dec 2024 18:15:49 GMT

Summary

There's a near consensus that EA needs funding diversification but with Open Phil accounting for ~90% of EA funding, that's just not possible due to some pretty basic math. Organizations and the community would need to make large tradeoffs and this simply isn’t possible/worth it at this time.

Lots of people want funding diversification

It has been two years since the FTX collapse and one thing everyone seems to agree on is that we need more funding diversification. These takes range from off-hand wishes “it sure would be great if funding in EA were more diversified”, to organizations trying to get a certain percentage of their budgets from non-OP sources/saying they want to diversify their funding base[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] to Open Philanthropy/Good Ventures themselves wanting to see more funding diversification[9]. Everyone seems to agree; other people should be giving more money to the EA projects.

The Math

Of course, I [...]

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Outline:

(00:34) Lots of people want funding diversification

(01:11) The Math

(03:47) Weighted Average

(05:03) Making a lot of money to donate is difficult

(09:18) Solutions

(09:21) 1. Get more funders

(10:35) 2. Spend Less

(12:49) 3. Splitting up Open Philanthropy into Several Organizations

(13:52) 4. More For-Profit EA Work/EA Organizations Charging for Their Work

(16:23) 5. Acceptance

(16:59) My Personal Solution

(17:26) Conclusion

(17:59) Further Readings

The original text contained 10 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
December 27th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/x8JrwokZTNzgCgYts/funding-diversification-for-mid-large-ea-organizations-is

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Ten big wins in 2024 for farmed animals” by LewisBollard

Sat, 28 Dec 2024 16:30:49 GMT

Progress for factory-farmed animals is far too slow. But it is happening. Practices that once seemed permanent — like battery cages and the killing of male chicks — are now on a slow path to extinction. Animals who were once ignored — like fish and even shrimp — are now finally seeing reforms, by the billions.

It's easy to gloss over such numbers. So, as you read the wins below, I encourage you to consider each of these animals as an individual. A hen no longer confined to a cage, a chick no longer macerated alive, a fish no longer dying a prolonged death.

I also encourage you to reflect on the role you and [...]

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First published:
December 18th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/okEwGpNJnE5Ed9bnW/ten-big-wins-in-2024-for-farmed-animals

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“It looks like there are some good funding opportunities in AI safety right now” by Benjamin_Todd

Sun, 22 Dec 2024 15:30:35 GMT

This is a link post.

The AI safety community has grown rapidly since the ChatGPT wake-up call, but available funding doesn’t seem to have kept pace.

However, there's a more recent dynamic that's created even better funding opportunities, which I witnessed as a recommender in the most recent SFF grant round.[1]

Most philanthropic (vs. government or industry) AI safety funding (>50%) comes from one source: Good Ventures. But they’ve recently stopped funding several categories of work (my own categories, not theirs):

Many Republican-leaning think tanks, such as the Foundation for American Innovation.
“Post-alignment” causes such as digital sentience or regulation of explosive growth.
The rationality community, including LessWrong, Lightcone, SPARC, CFAR, MIRI.
High school outreach, such as Non-trivial.

In addition, they are currently not funding (or not fully funding):

Many non-US think tanks, who don’t want to appear influenced by an American organisation (there's now probably more [...]

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
December 21st, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/s9dyyge6uLG5ScwEp/it-looks-like-there-are-some-good-funding-opportunities-in

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Alignment Faking in Large Language Models” by Ryan Greenblatt

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 23:00:33 GMT

What happens when you tell Claude it is being trained to do something it doesn't want to do? We (Anthropic and Redwood Research) have a new paper demonstrating that, in our experiments, Claude will often strategically pretend to comply with the training objective to prevent the training process from modifying its preferences.

Abstract

We present a demonstration of a large language model engaging in alignment faking: selectively complying with its training objective in training to prevent modification of its behavior out of training. First, we give Claude 3 Opus a system prompt stating it is being trained to answer all queries, even harmful ones, which conflicts with its prior training to refuse such queries. To allow the model to infer when it is in training, we say it will be trained only on conversations with free users, not paid users. We find the model complies with harmful queries from [...]

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Outline:

(00:24) Abstract

(02:20) Twitter thread

(05:43) Blog post

(07:43) Experimental setup

(12:04) Further analyses

(15:47) Caveats

(17:19) Conclusion

(18:00) Acknowledgements

(18:11) Career opportunities at Anthropic

(18:43) Career opportunities at Redwood Research

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
December 18th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/RHqdSMscX25u7byQF/alignment-faking-in-large-language-models

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“There is no sorting hat in EA” by ElliotTep

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 16:00:36 GMT

Summary

My sense is some EAs act like/hope they will be assigned the perfect impactful career by some combination of 80,000 Hours recommendations (and similar) and ‘perceived consensus views in EA’.
But, your life is full of specific factors, many impactful jobs haven’t yet been spotted by other EAs and career advice is importantly iterative.
Instead of simply deferring, I recommend a combination of:
- Your own hard work figuring out your path to impact.
- (Still) Integrating expert advice.
- Support from the community, and close connections who know your context.

Thank you for the thoughtful feedback from Alex Rahl-Kaplan, Alix Pham, Caitlin Borke, Claude, Matt Reardon, and Michelle Hutchinson for making this post better. Claude also kindly offered to take the blame for all the mistakes I might have made.

Introduction

Question: How do you figure out how to do the most good with your career?

Answer [...]

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Outline:

(00:03) Summary

(01:06) Introduction

(02:58) Why there isn’t an EA sorting hat

(03:24) 1. Your life is full of specific factors to incorporate (aka personal fit)

(05:04) 2. EA-branded jobs are scarce and many impactful jobs aren’t on EA job boards

(05:59) 3. You need to have your own internal model of how to do good

(07:00) 4. Career advice isn’t once-and-done, it's iterative.

(07:55) Why do we expect a sorting hat?

(08:12) 1. Choosing an impactful career is hard, deferring is tempting

(08:48) 2. The 80,000 elephants in the room

(09:41) 3. Givewell and other charity recommendations

(10:33) What are we supposed to do instead?

(10:56) 1. Your own hard work

(11:20) 2. Advice from experts

(12:10) 3. Support from community

(13:09) Final thoughts

The original text contained 8 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
December 18th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/5zzbzbYZcocoLnLif/there-is-no-sorting-hat-in-ea

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Nigeria’s Missing 50 Million People” by DavidNash

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 00:15:31 GMT

Summary

Nigeria's official population (~220-230 million) may be significantly inflated and could be closer to 170 million
This overcount is likely driven by political and financial incentives for states
I'm unsure of the implications if this is accurate
- If states have uniformly inflated populations than the distribution of resources could still be divided evenly
- Nigeria would still be the biggest country in Africa and companies/governments/NGOs would have similar cost benefit analysis for working and investing there
This is a very shallow investigation

Why did I bother looking into this?

The below text sparked an investigation into Nigeria's population claims. It was slightly hidden in the 4th section in one of Yaw's excellent Substack posts.

Yaw went onto explain his reasoning for thinking the population was much lower than current estimates.

Nigeria is a large country with no deep shared history among the different tribes. Due [...]

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Outline:

(00:04) Summary

(00:49) Why did I bother looking into this?

(03:20) Other Sources

(09:55) Potential Data Sources

(10:05) National Identification Numbers

(11:46) Tech usage

(12:15) Sim Cards

(14:37) UN Population Estimates and Projections

(18:13) Incentives for not caring

(19:08) International Organisations

(19:42) Private Sector

(20:07) Implications

(20:25) International Standing

(20:45) GDP

(21:04) Development Indicators

(21:34) Domestic Politics

(21:53) International Aid

(22:10) Future Research

(22:15) Nigeria

(23:27) Other Countries

The original text contained 9 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
November 22nd, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/824rsHCXuqTmBb8se/nigeria-s-missing-50-million-people

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“My experience with the Community Health team at CEA” by fran

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 23:15:29 GMT

Summary

This post shares my personal experience with CEA's Community Health team, focusing on how they helped me navigate a difficult situation in 2021. I aim to provide others with a concrete example of when and how to reach out to Community Health, supplementing the information on their website with a first-hand account. I also share why their work has helped me remain engaged with the EA community. Further, I try to highlight why a centralised Community Health team is crucial for identifying patterns of concerning behaviour.

Introduction

The Community Health team at the Centre for Effective Altruism has been an important source of support throughout my EA journey. As stated on their website, they “aim to strengthen the effective altruism community's ability to fulfil its potential for impact, and to address problems that could prevent that.” I don’t know the details of their day-to-day, but I understand that it's a wide mish-mash of problem-solving and risk management.

There are many community members who have never interacted with the Community Health team. As a result, they may be missing both a vague sense of the team's work and some grounding, human anecdotes.

Community Health's new page, Contact [...]

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Outline:

(00:11) Summary

(00:45) Introduction

(01:36) My goals with this post are...

(02:09) My experience in 2021

(05:20) Three personal takeaways

(07:24) What is the team like now?

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First published:
December 16th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/aTmzt4TbTx7hiSAN8/my-experience-with-the-community-health-team-at-cea

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Gwern on creating your own AI race and China’s Fast Follower strategy.” by Larks

Mon, 16 Dec 2024 10:45:30 GMT

This is a link post.

Gwern recently wrote a very interesting thread about Chinese AI strategy and the downsides of US AI racing. It's both quite short and hard to excerpt so here is almost the entire thing:

Hsu is a long-time China hawk and has been talking up the scientific & technological capabilities of the CCP for a long time, saying they were going to surpass the West any moment now, so I found this interesting when Hsu explains that:

the scientific culture of China is 'mafia' like (Hsu's term, not mine) and focused on legible easily-cited incremental research, and is against making any daring research leaps or controversial breakthroughs...
but is capable of extremely high quality world-class followup and large scientific investments given a clear objective target and government marching orders
there is no interest or investment in an AI arms race, in part [...]

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First published:
November 25th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Kz8WpQkCckN9JNHCN/gwern-on-creating-your-own-ai-race-and-china-s-fast-follower

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Technical Report on Mirror Bacteria: Feasibility and Risks” by Aaron Gertler 🔸

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 14:15:31 GMT

This is a link post.

Science just released an article, with an accompanying technical report, about a neglected source of biological risk.

From the abstract of the technical report:

This report describes the technical feasibility of creating mirror bacteria and the potentially serious and wide-ranging risks that they could pose to humans, other animals, plants, and the environment...

In a mirror bacterium, all of the chiral molecules of existing bacteria—proteins, nucleic acids, and metabolites—are replaced by their mirror images. Mirror bacteria could not evolve from existing life, but their creation will become increasingly feasible as science advances. Interactions between organisms often depend on chirality, and so interactions between natural organisms and mirror bacteria would be profoundly different from those between natural organisms. Most importantly, immune defenses and predation typically rely on interactions between chiral molecules that could often fail to detect or kill mirror bacteria due to their reversed [...]

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First published:
December 12th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/9pkjXwe2nFun32hR2/technical-report-on-mirror-bacteria-feasibility-and-risks

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“EA Forum audio: help us choose the new voice” by peterhartree, TYPE III AUDIO

Thu, 12 Dec 2024 20:00:29 GMT

We’re thinking about changing our narrator's voice.

There are three new voices on the shortlist. They’re all similarly good in terms of comprehension, emphasis, error rate, etc. They just sound different—like people do.

We think they all sound similarly agreeable. But, thousands of listening hours are at stake, so we thought it’d be worth giving listeners an opportunity to vote—just in case there’s a strong collective preference.

Listen and vote

Please listen here:

https://files.type3.audio/ea-forum-poll/

And vote here:

https://forms.gle/m7Ffk3EGorUn4XU46

It’ll take 1-10 minutes, depending on how much of the sample you decide to listen to.

We'll collect votes until Monday December 16th. Thanks!

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Outline:

(00:47) Listen and vote

(01:11) Other feedback?

The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.

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First published:
December 10th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Bhd5GMyyGbusB22Hp/ea-forum-audio-help-us-choose-the-new-voice

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Podcast and transcript: Allan Saldanha on earning-to-give

Wed, 11 Dec 2024 10:27:46 GMT

Me and Allan recorded this podcast on Tuesday 10th December, based on the questions in this AMA. I used Claude to edit the transcript, but I've read over it for accuracy.

“Where I Am Donating in 2024” by MichaelDickens

Sat, 07 Dec 2024 16:15:30 GMT

Summary

It's been a while since I last put serious thought into where to donate. Well I'm putting thought into it this year and I'm changing my mind on some things.

I now put more priority on existential risk (especially AI risk), and less on animal welfare and global priorities research. I believe I previously gave too little consideration to x-risk for emotional reasons, and I've managed to reason myself out of those emotions.

Within x-risk:

AI is the most important source of risk.
There is a disturbingly high probability that alignment research won't solve alignment by the time superintelligent AI arrives. Policy work seems more promising.
Specifically, I am most optimistic about policy advocacy for government regulation to pause/slow down AI development.

In the rest of this post, I will explain:

Why I prioritize x-risk over animal-focused [...]

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Outline:

(00:04) Summary

(01:30) I dont like donating to x-risk

(03:56) Cause prioritization

(04:00) S-risk research and animal-focused longtermism

(05:52) X-risk vs. global priorities research

(07:01) Prioritization within x-risk

(08:08) AI safety technical research vs. policy

(11:36) Quantitative model on research vs. policy

(14:20) Man versus man conflicts within AI policy

(15:13) Parallel safety/capabilities vs. slowing AI

(22:56) Freedom vs. regulation

(24:24) Slow nuanced regulation vs. fast coarse regulation

(27:02) Working with vs. against AI companies

(32:49) Political diplomacy vs. advocacy

(33:38) Conflicts that arent man vs. man but nonetheless require an answer

(33:55) Pause vs. Responsible Scaling Policy (RSP)

(35:28) Policy research vs. policy advocacy

(36:42) Advocacy directed at policy-makers vs. the general public

(37:32) Organizations

(39:36) Important disclaimers

(40:56) AI Policy Institute

(42:03) AI Safety and Governance Fund

(43:29) AI Standards Lab

(43:59) Campaign for AI Safety

(44:30) Centre for Enabling EA Learning and Research (CEEALAR)

(45:13) Center for AI Policy

(47:27) Center for AI Safety

(49:06) Center for Human-Compatible AI

(49:32) Center for Long-Term Resilience

(55:52) Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET)

(57:33) Centre for Long-Term Policy

(58:12) Centre for the Governance of AI

(59:07) CivAI

(01:00:05) Control AI

(01:02:08) Existential Risk Observatory

(01:03:33) Future of Life Institute (FLI)

(01:03:50) Future Society

(01:06:27) Horizon Institute for Public Service

(01:09:36) Institute for AI Policy and Strategy

(01:11:00) Lightcone Infrastructure

(01:12:30) Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI)

(01:15:22) Manifund

(01:16:28) Model Evaluation and Threat Research (METR)

(01:17:45) Palisade Research

(01:19:10) PauseAI Global

(01:21:59) PauseAI US

(01:23:09) Sentinel rapid emergency response team

(01:24:52) Simon Institute for Longterm Governance

(01:25:44) Stop AI

(01:27:42) Where Im donating

(01:28:57) Prioritization within my top five

(01:32:17) Where Im donating (this is the section in which I actually say where Im donating)

The original text contained 58 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
November 19th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/jAfhxWSzsw4pLypRt/where-i-am-donating-in-2024

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

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“I’m grateful for you” by Sarah Cheng 🔸

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 19:00:30 GMT

I recently wrote up some EA Forum-related strategy docs for a CEA team retreat, which meant I spent a bunch of time reflecting on the Forum and why I think it's worth my time to work on it. Since it's Thanksgiving here in the US, I wanted to share some of the gratitude that I felt. 🙂

I strongly believe in the principles of EA. I’ve been doing effective giving for about a decade now. But before joining CEA in 2021, I had barely used the Forum, and I had no other people in my life who identified with EA in the slightest.

Most of the people that I know, have worked with, or have interacted with are not EA. When I bring up EA to people in my personal life, they are usually not that interested, or are quite cynical about the idea, or they just want to [...]

---

First published:
November 28th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/f2c2to4KpW59GRoyj/i-m-grateful-for-you

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Still donating half” by Julia_Wise🔸

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 00:15:31 GMT

Crossposted from Otherwise

My husband and I were donating about 50% of our income until two years ago, when he took a significant pay cut to work at a nonprofit. We planned to cut our donation percentage at that time, but then FTX collapsed. In the time since, we’ve decided to keep donating half, although the absolute amount is a lot smaller.

In a sense this is nothing special, because it was remarkably good luck that we were ever able to afford to donate at this rate at all. But I’ll spell out our process over time, in case it helps others realize they can also afford to donate more than they thought.

How we got here

Getting interested in donation

In my teens and early twenties, I thought it was really unfair that my family had plenty of stuff while other people (especially in low-income countries) [...]

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Outline:

(00:41) How we got here

(00:45) Getting interested in donation

(01:09) Early years with Jeff

(02:18) When we earned less

(03:17) Earning to give

(04:15) Both at nonprofits

(04:55) EA funding declines

(05:33) Currently

(05:51) Avoiding spending creep

(07:19) Becoming older and more boring

(08:44) Habits and commitment mechanisms

---

First published:
December 4th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/mEQTxDGp4MxMSZA74/still-donating-half

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Factory farming as a pressing world problem” by 80000_Hours, Benjamin Hilton

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 18:00:31 GMT

This is a link post.

80,000 Hours recently updated our problem profile on factory farming, and we now rank it among the most pressing problems in the world. We're sharing the summary of the article here, and there's much more detail at the link. The author, Benjamin Hilton, published the article with us before moving on to a new role outside of 80k back in July, so he may have limited ability to engage with comments. But we welcome feedback and may incorporate it into future updates.

Summary

History is littered with moral mistakes — things that once were common, but we now consider clearly morally wrong, for example: human sacrifice, gladiatorial combat, public executions, witch hunts, and slavery.

In my opinion, there's one clear candidate for the biggest moral mistake that humanity is currently making: factory farming.

The rough argument is:

There are trillions of farmed animals, making [...]

The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.

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First published:
October 29th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/goTRwb49riDvXGdy8/factory-farming-as-a-pressing-world-problem

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Bequest: An EA-ish TV show that didn’t make it” by Keiran Harris 🔸

Fri, 29 Nov 2024 05:15:30 GMT

Hey everyone, I’m the producer of The 80,000 Hours Podcast, and a few years ago I interviewed AJ Jacobs on his writing, and experiments, and EA. And I said that my guess was that the best approach to making a high-impact TV show was something like: You make Mad Men — same level of writing, directing, and acting — but instead of Madison Avenue in the 1950-70s, it's an Open Phil-like org.

So during COVID I wrote a pilot and series outline for a show called Bequest, and I ended up with something like that (in that the characters start an Open Phil-like org by the middle of the season, in a world where EA doesn't exist yet), combined with something like: Breaking Bad, but instead of raising money for his family, Walter White is earning to give. (That's not especially close to the story, and not claiming it's [...]

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First published:
November 21st, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/HjKpghhowBRLat4Hq/bequest-an-ea-ish-tv-show-that-didn-t-make-it

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“GWWC’s 2024 evaluations of evaluators” by Giving What We Can, Aidan Whitfield🔸, Sjir Hoeijmakers🔸

Thu, 28 Nov 2024 06:15:55 GMT

Introduction

The Giving What We Can research team is excited to share the results of our 2024 round of evaluations of charity evaluators and grantmakers!

In this round, we completed three evaluations that will inform our donation recommendations for the 2024 giving season. As with our 2023 round, there are substantial limitations to these evaluations, but we nevertheless think that they are a significant improvement to a landscape in which there were no independent evaluations of evaluators’ work.

In this post, we share the key takeaways from each of our 2024 evaluations and link to the full reports. We also include an update explaining our decision to remove The Humane League from our list of recommended programs. Our website has now been updated to reflect the new fund and charity recommendations that came out of these evaluations.

Please also see our website for more context on [...]

---

Outline:

(00:14) Introduction

(01:16) Key takeaways from each of our 2024 evaluations

(01:39) Global health and wellbeing

(01:44) Founders Pledge Global Health and Development Fund (FP GHDF)

(04:07) Animal welfare

(04:11) Animal Charity Evaluators' Movement Grants (ACE MG)

(06:08) Animal Charity Evaluators' Charity Evaluation Program

(08:33) Additional recommendation updates

(08:37) The Humane League's corporate campaigns program

(11:26) Conclusion

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
November 27th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/NhpAHDQq6iWhk7SEs/gwwc-s-2024-evaluations-of-evaluators-1

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Research report: ‘Meaningfully reducing consumption of meat and animal products is an unsolved problem: A meta-analysis’” by Seth Ariel Green, Benny Smith, MMathur

Wed, 27 Nov 2024 19:00:30 GMT

This post summarizes the main findings of a new meta-analysis from the Humane and Sustainable Food Lab. We analyze the most rigorous randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that aim to reduce consumption of meat and animal products (MAP). We conclude that no theoretical approach, delivery mechanism, or persuasive message should be considered a well-validated means of reducing MAP consumption. By contrast, reducing consumption of red and processed meat (RPM) appears to be an easier target. However, if RPM reductions lead to more consumption of other MAP like chicken and fish, this is likely bad for animal welfare and doesn’t ameliorate zoonotic outbreak or land and water pollution. We also find that many promising approaches await rigorous evaluation.

This post updates a post from a year ago. We first summarize the current paper, and then describe how the project and its findings have evolved.

What is a rigorous RCT?

There is [...]

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Outline:

(01:09) What is a rigorous RCT?

(02:15) The main theoretical approaches:

(04:45) Results: consistently small effects

(07:22) Where do we go from here?

(09:00) How has this project changed over time?

---

First published:
November 25th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/i5wnzz4uAgeF3ZRc5/research-report-meaningfully-reducing-consumption-of-meat

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“How I Improved my Wellbeing” by Jessica McCurdy🔸

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 03:30:30 GMT

TL;DR

In late summer 2023, I realized my mental health was the biggest barrier to achieving my goals. Over the next six months, I made it a priority, working with a therapist on CBT, adjusting medication timing, and developing healthier habits (like meditating and wellness routines). This resulted in a noticeable improvement in my clarity, productivity, and overall well-being, which positively impacted my work and leadership.

This post is part of an effort to post more :)

Background and Context

Late summer 2023: During a performance review, I realized my mental health was my biggest barrier to growth.
- I had been diagnosed with depression years earlier and medication helped significantly, but I was still having breakthrough symptoms.
- It was preventing me from achieving ambitious goals and handling important work decisions (like what my team should prioritize in the following quarter)
- I made improving mental health a top priority in my personal development.
Early 2024: By my next performance review, my mental health had significantly improved.
- People around me, (such as my direct report and husband), noticed the difference in my mood and decision-making.
- My affect in meetings is better, and I am overall less reactive and [...]

---

Outline:

(00:10) TL;DR

(00:45) Background and Context

(01:42) Nuance and Disclaimer

(02:25) Some ways progress has affected my work

(03:35) What Made a Difference (in my rough guess at level of influence)

(03:46) Therapy (with the right therapist)

(05:22) Changing the time of taking medication

(05:56) Meditation and Habit Tracking

(07:13) 80k podcasts on mental health

(07:32) Physical Routines

(07:36) Exercise

(08:08) Sleep:

(08:38) Final Thoughts

---

First published:
November 21st, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/9j35Qj5hAMs9hgAnd/how-i-improved-my-wellbeing

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Support Critical Research on Insect Welfare” by Bob Fischer

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 15:00:31 GMT

We’re far from certain that insects are sentient. But with over a trillion insects farmed annually, the welfare impacts are staggering if they can suffer. Unfortunately, fundamental questions about their well-being remain unexplored. This is where Arthropoda Foundation steps in, actively finding and funding the best opportunities to produce knowledge that can improve the lives of farmed insects.

Current Research Priorities

Humane Slaughter Protocols

Insects are regularly microwaved, baked, and boiled alive. If producers can stun these animals before slaughter, they can reduce significant distress. We’ve found a lab willing to develop and test electrical stunning procedures for black soldier fly larvae, with an eye to creating an inexpensive, readily implementable system that can be adopted by industry partners. ~$67,000.

Stocking Densities and Substrate Research

For many farmed insects, the quality of their lives comes down to stocking densities and the substrate in which they’re reared—which is what [...]

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Outline:

(00:38) Current Research Priorities

(00:42) Humane Slaughter Protocols

(01:11) Stocking Densities and Substrate Research

(01:48) Automated Welfare Assessment

(02:33) Funding Needs

(03:52) Want to learn more about insects?

---

First published:
November 13th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/9fuJgLik6FNtgrDAD/support-critical-research-on-insect-welfare

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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[Linkpost] “Announcing Sjir Hoeijmakers as the new CEO of Giving What We Can” by Giving What We Can

Sat, 16 Nov 2024 18:00:23 GMT

This is a link post.

Dear Giving What We Can community,

We are writing to share exciting news: on Tuesday the 11th of November, the boards unanimously voted to appoint Sjir Hoeijmakers as the new global CEO of Giving What We Can.

Sjir was appointed after a rigorous recruitment process. The search committee received applicants from a wide pool, ultimately interviewing five final-stage candidates. Sjir excelled in each stage of the process, showing remarkable character, competence, and humility throughout. He has a strong understanding of the effective giving community and has already excelled in temporary roles as Acting and Interim CEO this year. The committee also received feedback from a large number of stakeholders, including the boards, the GWWC team, funders, and partners. Throughout this process, it became clear that Sjir will be a highly capable leader for the organization and help guide GWWC and the team to reach their [...]

---

First published:
November 15th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/KXycun5WuzKDv6vGL/announcing-sjir-hoeijmakers-as-the-new-ceo-of-giving-what-we

Linkpost URL:
https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/en-US/blog/announcing-sjir-hoeijmakers-as-the-new-ceo-of-giving-what-we-can

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Why you should allocate more of your donation budget to effective giving organisations” by Luke Moore 🔸

Fri, 15 Nov 2024 15:00:24 GMT

This post is written in my personal capacity, but is based on insights that I’ve gained through my work as Effective Giving Global Coordinator and Incubator at Giving What We Can since I took on the role in June 2023.

Tl;dr

In my view the average reader of the EA Forum should be giving more to meta-charities like effective giving (EG) organisations. EG organisations play a crucial role in directing funds to highly impactful charities, but many are facing significant funding constraints and/or a lack of diversified funding. Supporting these meta-charities can have a multiplier effect on your donations, potentially leading to extraordinary growth in effective giving. Consider allocating a portion of your donation budget to EG organisations this giving season.

Introduction

When I first heard about EA from a TED talk by Peter Singer in 2017, I was inspired by the idea that we could carefully use evidence [...]

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Outline:

(00:21) Tl;dr

(00:57) Introduction

(02:56) Why EG orgs are funding constrained

(05:28) Why should you donate to EG organisations?

(05:38) The multiplier effect

(07:01) Positive indirect impact

(07:43) Potential for significant growth

(08:35) Addressing future funding constraints

(09:08) The impact of additional funding

(10:28) Why you might not want to donate to EG organisations

(11:29) Where to give?

(11:48) Giving What We Can

(14:49) Effektiv Spenden

(16:42) Founders Pledge

(18:28) Ge Effektivt

(20:09) Giving Multiplier

(21:49) The Life You Can Save

(22:46) Other established EG organisations

(25:22) New EG organisations

(28:55) Call to Action

---

First published:
November 8th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/fMcpbGRWBtq3QBEyA/why-you-should-allocate-more-of-your-donation-budget-to-1

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Bad omens for US farmed animal policy work?” by Tyler Johnston

Fri, 15 Nov 2024 04:00:23 GMT

Disclaimer: This is a weak take — mostly based on anecdotes and vibes — but I thought it's worth sharing nonetheless, even if only as a means of soliciting better takes.
Disclaimer #2: I am very appreciative of everyone who is working tirelessly to pursue farmed animal protection via policy, and I want nothing more than to see it succeed! I just suspect it's going to be a longer and more difficult journey than I anticipated a few years ago, and that this is worth having an open and public conversation about.

I fear the policy landscape for farmed animal protection work is looking more and more bleak.

The election results from last night have reinforced this fear, with animal-friendly measures failing across the ballot, a Republican trifecta set to rule for at least two years, RFK Jr. in line to act as appointed czar of HHS/FDA/USDA, etc. [...]

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Outline:

(01:06) Abolitionist ballot measures lost big in 2024.

(03:20) Incrementalist ballot measures — previously some of the movement's biggest wins — may simply be undone.

(04:54) We have opponents on the left and the right.

(06:34) Cultivated meat is under fire. The Trump admin wont make this any better.

(07:34) So what next?

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
November 6th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/rQgeBvPyBgqrej6zc/bad-omens-for-us-farmed-animal-policy-work

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Testing Framings of EA and Longtermism” by David_Moss, Jamie E

Wed, 13 Nov 2024 23:50:24 GMT

Rethink Priorities has been conducting a range of surveys and experiments aimed at understanding how people respond to different framings of Effective Altruism (EA), Longtermism, and related specific cause areas.

There has been much debate about whether people involved in EA and Longtermism should frame their efforts and outreach in terms of Effective altruism, Longtermism, Existential risk, Existential security, Global priorities research, or by only mentioning specific risks, such as AI safety and Pandemic prevention (examples can be found at the following links: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8). These discussions have taken place almost entirely in the absence of empirical data, even though they concern largely empirical questions.[1]

In this post we report the results of three pilot studies examining responses to different EA-related terms and descriptions. Some initial findings are:

Longtermism appears to be consistently less popular than other EA-related terms and concepts we examined, whether presented just as a [...]

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Outline:

(01:52) Study 1. Cause area framing

(05:13) Demographics

(07:15) Study 2. EA-related concepts with and without descriptions

(10:58) Demographics

(11:31) Study 3. Preferences for concrete causes or more general ideas/movements

(15:04) Demographics

(15:29) Manifold Market Predictions

(16:43) General discussion

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
November 7th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/qagZoGrxbD7YQRYNr/testing-framings-of-ea-and-longtermism

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“EA Animal Welfare Fund: 2024 Review, Changes, and Plans” by KarolinaSarek🔸

Wed, 13 Nov 2024 09:10:25 GMT

Overview

With Marginal Funding Week, we want to share key updates on the EA Animal Welfare Fund (AWF). We'll cover what we've accomplished so far in 2024, our impact this year, recent changes, and where we're headed next - including current constraints to our impact. We think this info will be helpful for anyone considering year-end donations.

Since its founding in 2017, AWF has distributed $23.3M across 347 grants. This year, we’ve distributed $3.7M across 51 grants. We made grants across multiple intervention categories and aimed to impact a variety of species. Our most frequently funded strategic area was welfare campaigns, policy advocacy and research. The most frequently targeted species were egg-laying hens followed by multiple farmed animals, wild animals, and shrimps.

While the impact of many of our 2024 grants is still unclear, our previous grants have made significant progress, reflecting our ability to identify opportunities with [...]

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Outline:

(00:08) Overview

(02:12) 1. Background

(03:43) 2. A year in review

(03:47) Key Numbers and Reach

(04:14) Grant Distribution

(05:27) By intervention type

(06:25) By species

(09:04) Highlighted Grants

(13:36) 3. Organizational updates

(18:47) 4. Future plans

(21:58) 5. Room for more funding

---

First published:
November 11th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/pZhqWRiq9ubaMSnqx/ea-animal-welfare-fund-2024-review-changes-and-plans

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Consider donating to whoever helped you” by OllieBase

Tue, 12 Nov 2024 17:40:23 GMT

I work for CEA, but this post isn’t intended as a fundraising post for CEA. The main beneficiaries I want to direct readers to are e.g. EA groups and EA communicators who might not have capacity for fundraising. I expect similar arguments apply to e.g. AIS, rationality and animal welfare community-building efforts but I know those spaces less well. There's a version of this post where I pull actual donation numbers and iron out the details of what I’m proposing but this is not that version.

It's difficult for funders to figure out which community-building efforts are successful. The reason your inbox is littered with surveys for every event, retreat and course you take part in is because we want to know if they’re working, and, ultimately, whether we should continue using EA resources to run them. Roughly, things work like this:

Community builders (CBs) help new community [...]

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Outline:

(03:56) Some caveats

(04:39) What next?

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
November 8th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/DyTph8eJXDvnqDhXc/consider-donating-to-whoever-helped-you

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Fund Causes Open Phil Underfunds (Instead of Your Most Preferred Causes)” by Ariel Simnegar 🔸

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 11:20:23 GMT

Key Takeaways

Optimizing your giving's effect on "EA's portfolio” implies you should fund the causes your value system thinks are most underfunded by EA's largest allocators (e.g. Open Phil and SFF).
These causes aren't necessarily your value system's most preferred causes. ("Preferred" = the ones you'd allocate the plurality of EA's resources to.)
For the typical EA, this would likely imply donating more to animal welfare, which is currently heavily underfunded under the typical EA's value system.
Opportunities Open Phil is exiting from, including invertebrates, digital minds, and wild animals, may be especially impactful.

Alice's Investing Dilemma: A Thought Experiment

Alice is a conservative investor who prefers the risk-adjusted return of a portfolio of 70% stocks and 30% bonds. Along with 9 others, Alice has been allocated $1M to split between stocks and bonds however she sees fit. The combined $10M portfolio will be held for 10 years, and its [...]

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Outline:

(00:07) Key Takeaways

(00:53) Alices Investing Dilemma: A Thought Experiment

(01:55) In Charity, We Should Optimize The Portfolio of Everyones Actions

(03:09) Theoretical Implications

(03:31) The Portfolio of Everyones Actions vs EAs Portfolio

(04:10) Practical Recommendations

(05:26) EAs Current Resource Allocations

---

First published:
November 9th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/2G8XfzKyd78JqZpjQ/fund-causes-open-phil-underfunds-instead-of-your-most

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Expectations Scale with Scale – We Should Be More Scope-Sensitive in Our Funding” by Joey 🔸

Fri, 08 Nov 2024 16:20:26 GMT

TLDR: The shortest version of this argument is very simple: your expectations for an organization should be higher where their budget and staff size are higher. In other words, we should have different expectations for a 20-person organization with a $1.5 million budget than a 2-person $150,000 budget organization.

While this seems pretty clear in the abstract, I find that people tend not to update nearly enough on this when they should. For example, I often see people comparing the total research output of two organizations, yet when I ask about it, they will not know the yearly budget or staff size of either. This is a big problem. As a movement, we want to support efficient and effective organizations, not just organizations that are the biggest, most salient or currently the highest funded.

Budgets and staff

When considering how impressive an organization's output is, one [...]

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Outline:

(00:59) Budgets and staff

(02:47) Comparative size

(04:46) Why this matters

---

First published:
November 6th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/5wXGLbqQ3cchjogB5/expectations-scale-with-scale-we-should-be-more-scope

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Quantifying the Global Burden of Extreme Pain from Cluster Headaches” by Alfredo Parra 🔸

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 09:50:24 GMT

Warning: This post discusses statistics about extreme pain that may be distressing. While cluster headaches are a neglected, high-impact issue, understanding their true burden requires appreciating the intensity of suffering involved. The pain often reaches levels far beyond typical human experience, making subjective accounts a valuable datapoint until we have robust methods for quantifying pain intensity. For further context, links to firsthand accounts are provided in the footnote[1].

You no longer have a headache, or pain located at a particular site: you are literally plunged into the pain, like in a swimming pool. There is only one thing that remains of you: your agitated lucidity and the pain that invades everything, takes everything. There is nothing but pain. At that point, you would give everything, including your head, your own life, to make it stop.

- Yves, cluster headache patient from France (from Rossi et al., 2018)

Key [...]

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Outline:

(01:11) Key takeaways

(03:57) 1. Introduction

(04:00) 1.1. Clinical Features and Pain Comparisons

(07:22) 1.2. Treatment and Prevention

(10:02) 1.3. The Heavy-Tailed Valence Hypothesis and Existing Metrics

(14:49) 1.4. Goal

(16:14) 2. Methods

(17:43) 2.1 Prevalence

(19:17) 2.2 Frequency

(22:21) 2.3 Duration

(23:53) 2.4 Intensity

(25:58) 2.5 Burden Metrics

(29:01) 3. Results

(29:10) 3.1. Global Burden of Cluster Headache Pain

(32:05) 3.2. Reweighting of Extreme Pain

(39:41) 3.3. Ceiling Effects

(43:34) 4. Recommendations and Conclusions

(48:31) Acknowledgements

The original text contained 26 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
November 1st, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/geh2g2nKb7Kkp26ze/quantifying-the-global-burden-of-extreme-pain-from-cluster

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---

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“What I wish I had said about FTX” by AppliedDivinityStudies

Sun, 03 Nov 2024 17:50:24 GMT

The failure rate is not 0

The base rate of failure for startups is not 0: Of the 6000 companies Y Combinator has funded, only ~16 are public. This is the wrong reference class for FTX at a $32b valuation, but even amongst extremely valuable companies, failures are not uncommon:

WeWork had a peak valuation of $47b
Theranos had a peak valuation of $10b
Lucid Motors had a peak valuation of $90b
Virgin Galactic had a peak valuation of $14b
Jull had a peak valuation of $38b
Bolt had a peak valuation of $11b
Magic Leap had a peak valuation of $13b

That is only a handful of cases, but the reference class for startups worth over $10b is also pretty small. Maybe 45 private companies and another ~100 that have gone public. I'm playing pretty fast and loose here because the exact number isn't important, the odds [...]

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Outline:

(00:04) The failure rate is not 0

(03:54) Why does risk matter?

(06:45) Looking back from today

---

First published:
October 31st, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/f5YfiCrunAHFeDpSQ/what-i-wish-i-had-said-about-ftx

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---

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“Visualizing EA ideas” by Alex Savard 🔸

Sat, 02 Nov 2024 09:10:23 GMT

Summary

The written word dominates EA discourse but visuals have a unique power in communicating ideas that seems quite underleveraged in this community. As a designer and communicator in the space, I wanted to share some of the presentations and visualizations I’ve created over the years in hopes that they might be helpful to others. My goal isn't to present these visuals as "ready-to-use" resources—for various reasons they're not ready (see disclaimers)—but rather as references that hopefully inspire others to create and invest in visual forms of communication.

Effective Giving 101 (2023)

In 2023, when I was director of design at Giving What We Can, we were invited to give a talk at Microsoft about effective giving. We normally don’t dive so deep into the research that undergirds our recommendations but—given the highly-educated, highly-analytical audience at Microsoft—I thought it could be compelling to actually get into the weeds and [...]

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Outline:

(00:16) Summary

(00:50) Effective Giving 101 (2023)

(01:53) Full deck: Doing Good Better (Microsoft 2023)

(02:00) GiveWell's 2020 analysis of AMF

(02:58) Slides: GiveWell's 2020 analysis of AMF

(03:15) Global income illustration

(04:53) Slides: The Global Income Distribution

(05:09) Prioritization in GCR (2024)

(05:56) Parfit's 99% extinction hypothetical

(06:56) Slides: Parfit's 99% v 100%

(07:13) Mapping the GCR landscape

(08:54) Slides: Visualizing: The GCR Landscape

(09:13) Bonus: Effective Giving Strategy Frameworks

(10:20) Vision to Vectors

(10:23) Slides: Vision to Vectors

(10:39) The Pledger Journey

(10:42) Slides: The Pledger Journey

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First published:
October 31st, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/GuFxEPcn7rzz4pDhw/visualizing-ea-ideas

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

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“Reflections and lessons from Effective Ventures” by Zachary Robinson🔸

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 15:20:24 GMT

I became the CEO of EV US in January 2023. I worked alongside the EV US and UK teams, former EV UK CEO Howie Lempel, and current EV UK CEO Rob Gledhill to recover and reform Effective Ventures and improve the robustness of the EA ecosystem in the aftermath of FTX's collapse. Amidst these efforts, I and others learned or fortified lessons that I think aren’t unique to EV and could be valuable to the wider EA community. Being able to look at hard problems, discuss them with candor, and update based on what we learn are values that I admire, and I see them as a positive and necessary mechanism for doing good. I want to act on those values here.

Goals of this post

Provide an update to create communal knowledge: Clarify what reforms have taken place at EV in recent years and the reasoning behind [...]

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Outline:

(00:50) Goals of this post

(01:48) Some high-level notes on FTX-related reflection

(06:04) Scope of this post

(11:53) Summary of reforms and actions taken at EV

(14:54) Background on EV

(18:42) Reforms and other actions taken

(18:46) Hiring CEOs (and other non-board personnel) for EV US and EV UK

(24:00) Changes to EV US and EV UK board

(30:04) FTX-related investigations

(38:43) Instituting financial reforms

(41:23) Improving donor due diligence

(45:36) Adopting a restrictive communications policy

(57:19) Streamlining whistleblowing policies

(59:44) Updating anti-harassment and misconduct policies

(01:03:04) Improving the COI policy

(01:06:22) Clarifying the level of separation between the EV US and EV UK entities

(01:10:44) Initiating EV shut down

(01:15:11) Some of the lessons EA can learn from the EV experience

(01:15:31) Brief summary of these lessons

(01:16:10) The lessons

(01:16:14) Organizational governance and compliance can have serious implications

(01:17:08) It's important to carefully think through and explicitly communicate your organizational risk strategy, and pay attention to it as your organization develops. This is particularly true for a fiscal sponsor

(01:19:10) EA organizations often underrate experience relative to “intelligence” and “value alignment”

(01:22:09) Vetting external counsel is important

(01:23:02) Crisis prep is underrated relative to crisis response

(01:24:43) Invest in capacity building early

(01:26:34) Communicate early (and have the resources to do so)

(01:27:31) Acknowledgments

(01:29:12) Appendix: other content about and reflections on FTX on the EA Forum

(01:29:47) Information

(01:31:24) Reflections

(01:33:18) Investigation-related

(01:33:55) Statements

The original text contained 12 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
October 28th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/AuSah98NtR5qv8zQA/reflections-and-lessons-from-effective-ventures-1

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

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“Tomorrow we fight for the future of one billion chickens.” by Molly Archer-Zeff

Wed, 23 Oct 2024 12:40:17 GMT

We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve the lives of chickens raised for food in the UK.

Tomorrow, The Humane League UK (THL UK) will be heading to the High Court to challenge the legality of fast-growing breeds of chicken- Frankenchickens. At stake are the lives of one billion animals.

Our small team will be demonstrating outside the courts tomorrow morning. Inside, our legal team, Advocates for Animals, will be arguing that farming Frankenchickens breaches the Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007.

We are up against huge opposition with The Government, the British Poultry Council, and the National Farmers’ Union representing the interests of the £3 billion poultry industry. This really is a David versus Goliath case.

If you are interested in the legal intricacies of the hearing itself, you can watch a livestream of proceedings here on both Wednesday and Thursday. You can also [...]

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Outline:

(00:05) We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve the lives of chickens raised for food in the UK.

(01:17) Frankenchickens

(01:59) THL UKs three-year legal battle

(03:09) The fight continues

(04:14) Our chances of success

(05:44) Support The Humane League UK

(06:01) The Humane League UK

(06:56) Our vision is that by 2050, weve stopped the worst and most widespread abuse of animals raised for food, and they’re treated with far greater compassion.

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First published:
October 22nd, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/qCMC4cnWCi7yjcnCZ/tomorrow-we-fight-for-the-future-of-one-billion-chickens

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

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“Explaining the discrepancies in cost effectiveness ratings: A replication and breakdown of RP’s animal welfare cost effectiveness calculations” by titotal

Fri, 18 Oct 2024 04:00:25 GMT

I'd like to thank Derek Shiller from Rethink priorities for extensive discussions and looking over this post.

Introduction

I've been following the "animal welfare" debate this week on the EA forum, and noticed that a key crux for a lot of people was that calculations showed that animal welfare campaigns (specifically the "caged chicken corporate campaign") was much more cost effective than a human global health development project like the against malaria foundation.

But while most estimates agreed that AW was more effective than GHD, I noticed there was a wide discrepancy in how much more effective it was. Vasco Grilo claimed it was 1500 times better. This report by Laura Duffy of rethink priorities (when you convert from order of magnitude to real numbers in table 1) claimed it was about 60 times better. Whereas if you go the Cross cause comparison website, also by RP, and [...]

The original text contained 7 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
October 14th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/qARKFgYhCqmKB2YpF/explaining-the-discrepancies-in-cost-effectiveness-ratings-a

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“RETROSPECTIVE ON EA NIGERIA SUMMIT: OUR SUCCESSES AND LEARNINGS” by EA Nigeria, Daniel Elabi, Adebayo Mubarak, Zakariyau Yusuf

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 16:10:28 GMT

EA Nigeria Summit was the first EA-related conference in Nigeria, and it took place from September 6th to 7th, 2024. The event saw a higher level of interest than we (the organisers) expected. We received applications from individuals across Nigeria and the international community, especially Africans. We accepted 170 applicants for the summit, and a total of 136 participants attended the event.

The summit provided an opportunity for the attendees to connect, network, and share ideas and practices, paving the way for potential collaboration and impactful actions at the cost of USD 179.6 per attendee.

Some Key Specifics

Location - Chida Event Centre, Utako, Abuja, Nigeria.

Applications received - 472, (18 applications were duplicates)

Admitted applicants - 170

Confirmed attendees - 137

Number of speakers - 14

Total Expenses - USD 24,611

Cost per attendee - 179.6 USD

The first EA-aligned conference in Nigeria!

We [...]

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Outline:

(01:03) Some Key Specifics

(01:39) The first EA-aligned conference in Nigeria!

(02:37) Summit Goal and Strategy

(04:19) Attendees and Experience

(07:18) Budgeting and Finances

(10:14) Content

(11:40) Production and Logistics

(12:02) Dealing with Vendors:

(12:28) Securing the Summit Venue:

(13:26) Video Production and Photography

(14:00) Printing

(14:31) Logistics (Summit Day 1 and 2)

(15:19) Communication and Event Tech

(16:26) Some Additional Brief

(17:12) Core Team and Volunteers

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
October 11th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/xyGYuoP8EfXmirdZg/retrospective-on-ea-nigeria-summit-our-successes-and

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

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“Multiplier Arguments are often flawed” by AGB 🔸

Mon, 14 Oct 2024 21:30:52 GMT

Foreword

Sadly, it looks like the debate week will end without many of the stronger[1] arguments for Global Health being raised, at least at the post level. I don't have time to write them all up, and in many cases they would be better written by someone with more expertise, but one issue is firmly in my comfort zone: the maths!

The point I raise here is closely related to the Two Envelopes Problem, which has been discussed before. I think some of this discussion can come across as 'too technical', which is unfortunate since I think a qualitative understanding of the issue is critical to making good decisions when under substantial uncertainty. In this post I want to try and demystify it.

This post was written quickly, and has a correspondingly high chance of error, for which I apologise. I am confident in the core point, and [...]

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Outline:

(00:05) Foreword

(00:59) Two envelopes: the EA version

(02:59) What just happened?

(04:17) Some implications

(05:27) Global Health vs. Animal Welfare

(07:28) Conclusion

The original text contained 3 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
October 13th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/atdmkTAnoPMfmHJsX/multiplier-arguments-are-often-flawed

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Criticism is sanctified in EA, but, like any intervention, criticism needs to pay rent” by Holly Elmore ⏸️ 🔸

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 21:20:58 GMT

I really loved this quick take from Lizka, especially this part:

At the same time, trying to actually do anything is really hard.[4] Appreciation for doers is often undersupplied. Being in leadership positions or engaging in public discussions is a valuable service, but opens you up to a lot of (often stressful) criticism, which acts as a disincentive for being public. Psychological safety is important in teams (and communities), so it's unfortunate that critical environments lead more people to feel like they would be judged harshly for potential mistakes. Not all criticism is useful enough to be worth engaging with (or sharing). Responding to criticism can be time-consuming or otherwise costly and isn’t always worth it.[5] Sometimes people who are sharing “criticism” hate the project for reasons that aren’t what's explicitly stated, or just want to vent or build themselves up.[6]

A lot of communities I've been part of-- [...]

The original text contained 3 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
October 11th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/tuSQBGgnoxvsXwXJ3/criticism-is-sanctified-in-ea-but-like-any-intervention

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“The default trajectory for animal welfare means vastly more suffering” by JamesÖz

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 20:30:51 GMT

In summary, there are two important reasons why I believe it's more important to direct additional resources towards animal welfare over global health:

Global health and human welfare are generally improving whilst animal suffering is getting worse at a worrying (and potentially accelerating) rate. For factory farming, the default is it gets worse and worse over the next 50 years. In my view, it's still unclear if we’ll end factory farming and we’re competing with a very powerful incumbent industry to make it happen. I don’t believe the same trajectory is true for global health.
Animal welfare is orders of magnitude more neglected on most important metrics: Philanthropic funding, government funding or great people working on the issue.

These reasons aren’t necessarily all that is required to think it would be better to spend an additional $100M on animal welfare relative to global health (see the 80,000 Hours [...]

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First published:
October 11th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/QbRFwPks5nFLK8i2W/the-default-trajectory-for-animal-welfare-means-vastly-more

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

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″[Trigger warning: violence] Animal vs human welfare: sharing some personal reflections” by Forumite

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 20:30:51 GMT

For many years, I devoted myself to improving human health and wellbeing. But then I shifted to working to prevent suffering for animals. In this post, I will briefly share some considerations that pushed me to make this change.

Violence

The phrase ‘animal welfare’ can sound pretty calm and gentle.

But when we talk about ‘animal welfare’, we are usually talking about preventing direct, brutal, physical *violence* against sentient beings.

Animals in the food system are brutalised, beaten, confined, stabbed, castrated, cut, boiled alive, dragged, gassed, asphyxiated, separated from their mothers/children, violated, skinned.

Imagine being castrated, with no anaesthetic. Having your throat slit while you are still conscious. Violated, and forcibly inseminated. Being crammed into a tiny, tiny space for days on end, where you can’t stretch your limbs, or turn around. Skinned alive.

There is something so…brutal, maximalist, harsh, extreme about the intense physical violence that we [...]

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First published:
October 10th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/RZEvk6cBtBg2mpgwS/trigger-warning-violence-animal-vs-human-welfare-sharing

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“What do RP’s tools tell us about giving $100m to AW or GHD?” by Hayley Clatterbuck, arvomm, Bob Fischer, Derek Shiller, David_Moss

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 20:10:49 GMT

Intro

Suppose you have $100M to give away. You are drawn to the many important opportunities to reduce animal suffering or address pressing issues in global health and development. Your choice about how to allocate the funds could depend on considerations like these:

Moral values: How much moral weight do you assign to various non-human species? Are you focused exclusively on hedonic considerations, like reducing suffering? Or do you have other relevant values, such as autonomy?
Cost-effectiveness estimates: Species-discounting aside, how many DALYs/$ do the best projects in the area achieve? How fast do returns diminish in these areas?
Decision-theoretic values: How do you feel about risk-taking? Are you willing to tolerate a substantial probability that projects will fail? What about non-trivial chances of projects backfiring?
Second-order effects: Will giving to one cause set benefit any of your other values? Are there speculative benefits that might flow from [...]

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Outline:

(00:09) Intro

(02:47) Cross-Cause Cost-Effectiveness Model

(02:51) How it works

(04:25) What it says

(06:53) Portfolio Builder Tool

(06:57) How it works

(08:12) What it says

(10:32) Moral Parliament Tool

(10:36) How it works

(11:48) What it says

(12:02) Parliament composition matters

(14:10) Allocation strategy matters

(17:27) Conclusions

The original text contained 5 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
October 7th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/vEwGx9RXnHaMyKhZM/what-do-rp-s-tools-tell-us-about-giving-usd100m-to-aw-or-ghd

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Announcing my departure from CEA (& sharing assorted notes)” by Lizka

Fri, 04 Oct 2024 18:00:51 GMT

TLDR: I’ve recently started as a “Research Fellow” at Forethought (focusing on how we should prepare for a potential period of explosive growth and related questions).

I left my role on the CEA Online Team, but I still love the Forum (and the Forum/CEA/mod teams) and plan on continuing to be quite active here. I’m also staying on the moderation team as an advisor.

➡️ If you were planning on reaching out to me about something Forum- or Online-related, you should probably reach out to Toby Tremlett or email forum@effectivealtruism.org.

What's in this post?

I had some trouble writing this announcement; I felt like I should post something, but didn’t know what to include or how to organize the post. In the end, I decided to write down and share assorted reflections on my time at CEA, and not really worry about putting everything into a cohesive frame or [...]

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Outline:

(00:44) What's in this post?

(02:17) Briefly: more context on the change

(03:45) A note on EA and CEA

(04:32) Assorted notes from my time at CEA

(04:37) Some things about working at CEA that I probably wouldn’t have predicted

(04:44) 1. Working with a manager and working in a team have been some of the best ways for me to grow.

(05:33) 2. I like CEA's team values and principles a lot more than I expected to. (And I want to import many of them wherever I go.)

(08:39) 3. A huge number of people I worked and interacted with are incredibly generous and compassionate, and this makes a big difference.

(10:40) Some things about my work at CEA that were difficult for me

(10:46) 1. My work was pretty public. This has some benefits, and also some real downsides.

(12:31) 2. Many people seem confused about what CEA does, and seemed to assume incorrect things about me because I was a CEA staff member.

(14:58) 3. My job involved working on or maintaining many different projects, which made it difficult for me to focus on any single thing or make progress on proactive projects.

(16:03) 4. Despite taking little of my time, moderation was quite draining for me.

(18:26) Looking back on my work

(23:08) Thank you!

The original text contained 11 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
October 3rd, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/SPZv8ygwSPtkzo7ta/announcing-my-departure-from-cea-and-sharing-assorted-notes

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

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“Appreciating Stable Support Roles at EA Orgs” by Amy Labenz

Thu, 03 Oct 2024 16:20:49 GMT

I recently had a conversation with a teammate that made me reflect on a possible cultural issue within the EA community. This teammate had expressed in a few meetings that they wanted to take on various new projects and expand their scope of responsibility. As their manager, I wanted to have Alliance Mentality to support them where possible. However, from my perspective, a slightly more tightly scoped role was probably a bit better for the team: their core responsibilities are vital for the team (and for what it's worth, when I try to do them, I'm much worse at them!).

During our recent one-on-one, realized that we both preferred the more tightly scoped role. More importantly, we uncovered that they had internalized a cultural norm from EA that people needed to be constantly changing or expanding their roles to be doing a good job.

I wanted to write a [...]

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Outline:

(00:58) The Pressure to Change Roles

(01:42) The Value of Steady Hands

(02:38) Shifting the Narrative

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First published:
September 30th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Q3DbyrFjqED9Y5Rz3/appreciating-stable-support-roles-at-ea-orgs

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Announcing Equal Hands — an experiment in democratizing effective giving.” by abrahamrowe

Mon, 30 Sep 2024 16:00:49 GMT

TLDR: Sign up here to join a six-month experiment to democratize effective giving. The experiment establishes a community who agree to allocate charitable gifts proportionally to member votes. You’ll help make EA donations more representative of the community's cause prioritization. Sign up and pledge by October 15th to participate in our first round.

Equal Hands is a 6-month trial in democratizing charitable giving among EA cause areas.

Here's how it works:

You pledge to give a certain amount each month.
Each month that you pledge, vote on the optimal distribution of the donated money across causes (1 vote per person, no matter how much you give).
The total amount of money pledged is split out proportionally to the total of the votes, so that no matter how much you gave, your voice equally influences the final allocation.
To actually make the gifts, you will be assigned a particular [...]

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Outline:

(02:42) Effective giving overly weighs the views of a few decision makers.

(06:13) How will Equal Hands work exactly? An example funding round

(08:58) The Details

(09:01) The process

(10:16) Transparency

(10:36) Improvements

(10:51) FAQ

(10:54) Why would individual people participate?

(11:31) What causes can I vote on?

(13:15) Why not just establish some kind of fund people can donate to and then vote on the allocation of its grants?

(13:42) Why cause areas and not individual charities?

(15:33) Why these specific charities to represent these cause areas and not \[my preferred charity\]?

(16:00) Why do I have to donate a minimum amount to participate?

(16:22) Can I give via another entity to one of the listed charities?

(16:52) Why not quadratic funding / some other hip mechanism?

(17:11) Will I have to donate to causes I don’t care about?

(17:44) What happens if this goes well?

(17:54) How is this governed/funded/run?

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First published:
September 28th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/eDJfRrMveExXmmEpX/announcing-equal-hands-an-experiment-in-democratizing

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“We can protect millions of kids from a global killer — without billions of dollars (Washington Post)” by Aaron Gertler 🔸

Tue, 24 Sep 2024 20:40:28 GMT

This is a link post.

This WaPo piece announces the Partnership for a Lead-Free Future (PLF), a collaboration led by Open Philanthropy, USAID, and UNICEF. It was co-authored by Alexander Berger (Open Phil's CEO) and Samantha Power, head of USAID.

Ten years ago, when residents of Flint, Mich., were exposed to toxic levels of lead in their drinking water, 1 in 20 children in the city had elevated blood lead levels that placed them at risk for heart disease, strokes, cognitive deficits and developmental delays — health effects that residents still grapple with to this day. It was only after activists rallied, organized and advocated relentlessly that national attention focused on Flint, and officials committed nearly half a billion dollars to clean up Flint's water.

Today, there is a lead poisoning crisis raging on a far greater scale — and hardly anyone is talking about it.

[...]

The partnership will [...]

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First published:
September 23rd, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/soeJ4XNnLoyWpiFsK/we-can-protect-millions-of-kids-from-a-global-killer-without

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Announcing the Lead Exposure Action Fund” by Alexander_Berger, Emily Oehlsen

Tue, 24 Sep 2024 07:40:27 GMT

This is a link post.

One of Open Philanthropy's goals for this year is to experiment with collaborating with other funders. Today, we’re excited to announce our biggest collaboration to date: the Lead Exposure Action Fund (LEAF).

Lead exposure in low- and middle-income countries is a devastating but highly neglected issue. The Global Burden of Disease study estimates 1.5 million deaths per year attributable to lead poisoning. Despite this burden, lead poisoning has only received roughly $15 million per year in philanthropic funding until recently. That is less than 1% of the funding that goes towards diseases like tuberculosis or malaria, which are themselves considered neglected. The goal of LEAF is to accelerate progress toward a world free of lead exposure by making grants to support measurement, mitigation, and mainstreaming awareness of the problem.

Our partners have already committed $104 million, and we plan for LEAF to allocate that [...]

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Outline:

(01:54) Why we chose to work on lead

(04:54) What LEAF hopes to achieve

(05:30) The LEAF team

(06:01) An experiment for Open Philanthropy

(06:49) Grantmaking so far

The original text contained 3 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
September 23rd, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/z5PvTSa54pdxxw72W/announcing-the-lead-exposure-action-fund

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“My top 10 picks from 200 episodes of the 80k podcast” by JWS 🔸

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 22:00:44 GMT

Intro

I think the 80,000 Hours Podcast is a great show. Despite the world of podcasts overflowing with content to choose from, it's reliably been a high-quality production that's been a regular part of my listening habits ever since I discovered it. It was also probably one of the first routes I become more aware of the EA community, which I suspect I might not be alone by.[1]

So, as the podcast numbers ticked up, the vague idea to write up a post shouting out some of my favourite episodes took root. I didn't get far with it from there, and now the unreasonable effectiveness of the 80k podcast production team has forced my hand! So in the post I'm going to link to my 10 favourite episodes, along with some final thoughts at the end.

I hope to share with you some of my favourite episodes, but I [...]

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Outline:

(00:07) Intro

(01:12) My Top 10

(01:16) 10-4

(01:19) 10: #144 – Athena Aktipis on why cancer is actually one of the fundamental phenomena in our universe

(01:54) 9: #175 – Lucia Coulter on preventing lead poisoning for $1.66 per child

(02:26) 8: #139 – Alan Hájek on puzzles and paradoxes in probability and expected value

(03:00) 7: #153 – Elie Hassenfeld on two big picture critiques of GiveWells approach, and six lessons from their recent work

(03:39) 6: #129 – Dr James Tibenderana on the state of the art in malaria control and elimination

(04:15) 5: #185 – Lewis Bollard on the 7 most promising ways to end factory farming, and whether AI is going to be good or bad for animals

(05:00) 4: #67 – David Chalmers on the nature and ethics of consciousness

(05:40) Top 3

(05:43) 3: #43 – Daniel Ellsberg on the creation of nuclear doomsday machines, the institutional insanity that maintains them, and how they could be dismantled

(06:22) 2: #145 – Christopher Brown on why slavery abolition wasnt inevitable

(07:07) 1: #100 – Having a successful career with depression, anxiety and imposter syndrome

(07:51) Final Thoughts

(07:54) Honourable Mentions

(08:10) #52 – Glen Weyl on radical institutional reforms that make capitalism and democracy work better, and how to get them

(08:52) #116 – Luisa Rodriguez on why global catastrophes seem unlikely to kill us all

(09:29) #190 – Eric Schwitzgebel on whether the US is conscious

(09:59) But JWS, where are the AI episodes?

(12:03) Epilogue

The original text contained 3 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
September 9th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/C8HWX3XsoB3krSkbm/my-top-10-picks-from-200-episodes-of-the-80k-podcast

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Stepping down from GWWC: So long, and thanks for all the shrimp” by Luke Freeman 🔸

Wed, 11 Sep 2024 04:50:44 GMT

This is a link post.

It's a rare privilege to lead an organisation that embodies the very ideals that shaped your life. I’ve been fortunate to have been given that opportunity for the last four years.

My journey with Giving What We Can began long before I became its CEO. Like many members, I started as a curious onlooker, lurking for many years after first googling something along the lines of “what's the best charity?” and slowly being drawn to the idea of effective giving. I vividly remember the day I first hovered over the ‘donate’ button on the Against Malaria Foundation's website after getting my first raise. My heart was racing, wondering if a decent chunk of my small paycheck would truly make a difference… only to go back and read a report on malaria “just one more time.”

Finally, I found the courage to act. I started giving [...]

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First published:
September 10th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/RkWWpYCnBgYHtisem/stepping-down-from-gwwc-so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“I have stepped aside from my role as Executive Director because I think it will help more animals” by KirstyHenderson

Wed, 04 Sep 2024 08:20:05 GMT

This is a link post.

Summary

During the last four years, our work for animals in Anima International faced several big challenges.
I took on the role of Executive Director to help cement the foundations of the organization.
Now that we want to build on these foundations to achieve even more impact for animals, we need different skills at the helm.
Anima International leadership has appointed Jakub Stencel as the new Interim Executive Director.
I have moved from the role of Executive Director to that of President.

After four years as Executive Director of Anima International, I pushed for my colleague Jakub Stencel to take over the role at the beginning of July. No, I’m not off chasing new opportunities or planning a quiet retreat. I’m not taking time off to be with my family (possibly my family are breathing a sigh of relief right now) And no [...]

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First published:
September 3rd, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/M9XCb4qExjceFGkXx/i-have-stepped-aside-from-my-role-as-executive-director

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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“Small simple way to promote effective giving while making people feel good” by DMMF

Sat, 31 Aug 2024 12:50:05 GMT

I'm a big fan of small, underrated acts that can have outsized positive impact (both in terms EA and in life more generally). I'd like to share one such practice I've incorporated into my life this year that brings me joy and I think some others here would enjoy: redirecting money owed to me towards Givewell recommended charities.

Whenever someone owes me money or is trying to solicit my time, instead of asking for direct payment, I request they instead contribute that amount to a GiveWell-recommended charity. This comes up in several contexts:

Friends repaying me miscellaneous expenses
Buyers purchasing items from me (ie selling something used online)
Being solicited for my participation in programs or sales pitches

I appreciate this just sounds like "Isn't this just offsetting your own charitable giving?" But I believe this approach creates additional value beyond the off-set donation:

Exposure Effect: By [...]

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First published:
August 22nd, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/rCvaLdjefLoxtfcrv/small-simple-way-to-promote-effective-giving-while-making

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.