EA Talks

In the long run, we want machine learning to help us answer open-ended questions like “Should I get this medical procedure?” or “What are the risks of deploying this AI system?“ Currently, we only know how to train ML systems if we have clear metrics or can easily provide feedback on the outputs. Andreas Stuhmueller, president and founder of Ought, wants to solve this problem. In this talk, he explains the design challenges behind ML’s current limitations, and how we can make progress by studying the way humans tackle open-ended questions.To learn more about effective altruism, visit effectivealtruism.orgThis talk was filmed at EA Global 2019: San Francisco. You can learn more about these conferences at eaglobal.org.Original VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube.

Our elected officials control billions of dollars in spending and make policies that affect millions of people. But we choose them through plurality voting, a system that encourages extremism and forces many voters to choose between their favorite candidates and those who actually stand a chance.In this talk, Aaron Hamlin of the Center for Election Science discusses approval voting, a method which works much better without adding complexity, and how the Center plans to implement it across the country (they’ve already won a landslide victory in Fargo, North Dakota).Aaron also recommends this podcast: https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/aaron-hamlin-voting-reform/To learn more about effective altruism, visit effectivealtruism.orgThis talk was filmed at EA Global 2019: San Francisco. You can learn more about these conferences at eaglobal.org.Original VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube.

Ballot initiatives have allowed many groups in the United States to achieve policy outcomes outside the traditional legislative process. In this talk, Peter Hurford, a co-founder and researcher at Rethink Priorities, describes how the EA movement can generate change through the initiative process by matching effective policies to promising states and cities.To learn more about effective altruism, visit effectivealtruism.orgThis talk was filmed at EA Global 2019: San Francisco. You can learn more about these conferences at eaglobal.org.Original VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube.

If we want to improve the world (and ourselves), we need to start by changing the way we live — our habits and behaviors. In this talk, Spencer Greenberg, founder and CEO of ClearerThinking.org, discusses ways that behavior change matters and techniques we can use to get better at it.To learn more about effective altruism, visit effectivealtruism.orgThis talk was filmed at EA Global 2019: San Francisco. You can learn more about these conferences at eaglobal.org.Original VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube.

The potential upsides of advanced AI are enormous, but there’s no guarantee they’ll be distributed optimally. In this talk, Cullen O’Keefe, a researcher at the Center for the Governance of AI, discusses one way we could work toward equitable distribution of AI’s benefits — the Windfall Clause, a commitment by AI firms to share a significant portion of their future profits — as well as the legal validity of such a policy and some of the challenges to implementing it.To learn more about effective altruism, visit effectivealtruism.orgThis talk was filmed at EA Global 2019: San Francisco. You can learn more about these conferences at eaglobal.org.Original VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube.

Around the world, people are living longer — not just because child mortality is dropping, but also because we’re staying healthy for more years as we age. In the future, regenerative medicine and other new developments may help most people remain youthful much longer than they do today. In this talk, Aubrey de Grey, Chief Science Officer at the SENS Research Foundation, discusses the biology and sociology of what could be a massive shift in the way we live.To learn more about effective altruism, visit effectivealtruism.orgThis talk was filmed at EA Global 2019: San Francisco. You can learn more about these conferences at eaglobal.org.Original VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube.

Being involved in the EA community can be stressful — there are too many problems in the world, and each of us can only do so much. Feeling the need to work harder and do more can easily overwhelm us. So what’s the alternative? In this talk, Helen Toner describes a different way to frame this problem, and suggests how the community can aim for a better way to handle work.To learn more about effective altruism, visit effectivealtruism.orgThis talk was filmed at EA Global 2019: San Francisco. You can learn more about these conferences at eaglobal.org.Original VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube.

In this academic session, Joan Gass, who holds a Masters in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, argues that effective altruists who want to work in global development should adopt a “venture capital” approach, looking for opportunities to make bets on the cause areas with the highest expected value. In particular, she contends that fostering economic growth in emerging markets and building state capability are high-value areas, while discussing other areas in RCT research and social entrepreneurship that are relatively low in value and should be avoided.To learn more about effective altruism, visit effectivealtruism.orgThis talk was filmed at EA Global 2019: San Francisco. You can learn more about these conferences at eaglobal.org.Original VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube.

We must take evolution into account when we consider animal welfare — whether we’re thinking about which animals are sentient or how animals might respond to a given intervention. In this talk, Wild Animal Initiative’s Michelle Graham will present a brief introduction to the theory of evolution, explain how understanding evolution can help us conduct better research, and discuss the ways misconceptions about evolution lead us astray.Michelle also recommends this video.To learn more about effective altruism, visit effectivealtruism.orgThis talk was filmed at EA Global 2019: San Francisco. You can learn more about these conferences at eaglobal.org.Original VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube.

If we want to donate money, should we give it away now, or invest it to give away later? The answer depends on many considerations, including our expected rate of return, the chance of our personal values changing, and the question of whether we live at the “Hinge of History” — a time with high-impact opportunities which will soon vanish.In this talk, Phil Trammell of the Global Priorities Institute discusses how we can evaluate these considerations and change our giving strategy in response to what we learn.To learn more about effective altruism, visit effectivealtruism.orgThis talk was filmed at EA Global 2019: San Francisco. You can learn more about these conferences at eaglobal.org.Original VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube.