

Benjamin Todd on what the effective altruism community most needs (80k team chat #4)
Nov 12, 2020
Ben Todd, CEO of 80,000 Hours, joins researcher Arden Koehler to discuss the evolving needs of the effective altruism community. They highlight the transition from needing money to requiring skilled individuals, especially in vital areas like AI safety research. The conversation underscores the significance of specific skills and organizational capacity over mere financial resources. They also examine the complexities of talent attraction and the importance of motivation in driving meaningful impact, ultimately paving the path for better coordination in altruistic efforts.
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Talent Bottlenecks
- Global problems are constrained by different bottlenecks, like money or talent.
- Adding one unit of a scarce resource yields more progress than other resources.
AI Safety: A Talent Bottleneck
- AI safety research, like at DeepMind and OpenAI, illustrates a talent bottleneck.
- Funding is available, but finding researchers with sufficient skills and motivation is challenging.
Open Philanthropy's Skill Bottleneck
- Open Philanthropy's hiring challenges highlight specific skill bottlenecks.
- They had many applicants but struggled to find those who could start immediately.