EA Forum Podcast (Curated & popular)

This is a link post. Open Philanthropy strives to help others as much as we can with the resources available to us. To find the best opportunities to help others, we rely heavily on scientific and social scientific research. In some cases, we would find it helpful to have more research in order to evaluate a particular grant or cause area. Below, we’ve listed a set of social scientific questions for which we are actively seeking more evidence.[1] We believe the answers to these questions have the potential to impact our grantmaking. (See also our list of research topics for animal welfare.) If you know of any research that touches on these questions, we would welcome hearing from you. At this point, we are not actively making grants to further investigate these questions. It is possible we may do so in the future, though, so if you plan to research [...] ---Outline:(01:05) Land Use Reform(06:09) Health(16:20) Migration(18:08) Education(20:19) Science and Metascience(30:31) Global Development(32:47) OtherThe original text contained 4 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: February 15th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/3Y7c7MXf3BzgruTWv/social-science-research-we-d-like-to-see-on-global-health Linkpost URL:https://www.openphilanthropy.org/research/social-science-research-topics-for-global-health-and-wellbeing/ --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Google cofounder Larry Page thinks superintelligent AI is “just the next step in evolution.” In fact, Page, who's worth about $120 billion, has reportedly argued that efforts to prevent AI-driven extinction and protect human consciousness are “speciesist” and “sentimental nonsense.” In July, former Google DeepMind senior scientist Richard Sutton — one of the pioneers of reinforcement learning, a major subfield of AI — said that the technology “could displace us from existence,” and that “we should not resist succession.” In a 2015 talk, Sutton said, suppose “everything fails” and AI “kill[s] us all”; he asked, “Is it so bad that humans are not the final form of intelligent life in the universe?” This is how I begin the cover story for Jacobin's winter issue on AI. Some very influential people openly welcome an AI-driven future, even if humans aren’t part of it. Whether you're new to the topic [...] --- First published: February 12th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/pRAjLTQxWJJkygWwK/my-cover-story-in-jacobin-on-ai-capitalism-and-the-x-risk Linkpost URL:https://jacobin.com/2024/01/can-humanity-survive-ai --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

A friend sent me on a lovely trip down memory lane last week. She forwarded me an email chain from 12 years ago in which we all pretended we left the EA community, and explained why. We were partly thinking through what might cause us to drift in order that we could do something to make that less likely, and partly joking around. It was a really nice reminder of how uncertain things felt back then, and how far we’ve come. Although the emails hadn’t led us to take any specific actions, almost everyone on the thread was still devoting their time to helping others as much as they can. We’re also, for the most part, still supporting each other in doing so. Of the 10 or so people on there, for example, Niel Bowerman is now my boss - CEO of 80k. Will MacAskill and Toby Ord [...] The original text contained 3 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: February 12th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/zEMvHK9Qa4pczWbJg/on-being-an-ea-for-decades --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

A lot of great projects have started in informal ways: a startup in someone's garage, or a scrappy project run by volunteers. Sometimes people jump into these and are happy they did so. But I’ve also seen people caught off-guard by arrangements that weren’t what they expected, especially early in their careers. I’ve been there, when I was a new graduate interning at a religious center that came with room, board, and $200 a month. I remember my horror when my dentist checkup cost most of a month's income, or when I found out that my nine-month internship came with zero vacation days. It was an overall positive experience for me (after we worked out the vacation thing), but it's better to go in clear-eyed. First, I’ve listed a bunch of things to consider. These are drawn from several different situations I’ve heard about, both inside and outside EA. [...] ---Outline:(01:15) Things to consider(08:26) Advice from a few EAs--- First published: February 12th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/RXFcmrf7E5fLhb43e/things-to-check-about-a-job-or-internship --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Summary $8003.98 Charity Entrepreneurship $5000 Insect Institute $5000 Shrimp Welfare Project $5000 Rethink Priorities $5000 Animal Ethics $1000 Wild Animal Initiative Background I think it's good to keep track of and explain donations. It creates a record to get better over time and gives others insights into how you donate. I officially made $45000 in 2023. I earned some investment income from some other sources though this is hard to quantify. I also had some savings from previous years so don’t come away from this thinking that I gave such a substantial portion of my income. That said, I am still giving away a significant portion of my income this year. I think this is a good thing and hopefully, I can serve as an example to others to give away a significant portion of their income, even if it isn’t that high. In total, I am [...] --- First published: February 11th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/EkKYqeAy3ArupKuYn/my-donations-2023-marcus-abramovitch --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Sam Altman, former president of Y Combinator, discusses the potential risks of developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) and OpenAI's strategy. Topics include the concept of an 'intelligence explosion,' the dangers of a large number of human-level AI systems, and the relationship between computing power and AI take-off speed.

It is with great sadness that we share with you the passing of our fellow community member and beloved friend Mathilde Danès, at age 29. A dedicated EA, animal advocate, and children's rights supporter, Mathilde had discovered the effective altruism community in 2016-2017, and the farm animal advocacy movement not long after. In 2018, she co-founded a local EA chapter in Lille, where she then lived. Other notable accomplishments of hers, among the many altruistic actions she took, include catering for several animal advocacy and EA events in France between 2020 and 2023, as well as co-organizing the 2022 edition of the Estivales de la question animale, an annual French-speaking effective animal advocacy summit. With steadfast sentientist and antinatalist beliefs, she was particularly dedicated to the idea of reducing suffering whenever possible. Over the course of her advocacy years, she strived to live her life in accordance with [...] --- First published: February 8th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/CeCKGfDzYsrvhJPFa/mathilde-danes-1994-2024 --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

I'm posting this as part of the Forum's Benjamin Lay Day celebration — consider writing a reflection of your own! The “official dates” for this reflection are February 8 - 15 (but you can write about this topic whenever you want). I've cross-posted this to my substack, Raising Dust, where I sometimes write less EA Forum-y content. TL;DR:  Tragic beliefs are beliefs that make the world seem worse, and give us partial responsibility for it. These are beliefs such as: “insect suffering matters” or “people dying of preventable diseases could be saved by my donations”. Sometimes, to do good, we need to accept tragic beliefs.  We need to find ways to stay open to these beliefs in a healthy way. I outline two approaches, pragmatism and righteousness, which help, but can both be carried to excess. Why I ignored insects for so long I’ve been trying not to [...] ---Outline:(00:37) Why I ignored insects for so long(03:06) What is a tragic belief?(03:46) How can we open ourselves up to tragic beliefs?(04:00) Opportunity framing, or pragmatism(06:02) The joy in righteousnessThe original text contained 4 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: February 8th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/dy5h9Ly8osZEiFkru/tragic-beliefs --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

TLDR: Given Charity Entrepreneurship's recent scaling, we are changing our brand to call our extended ecosystem “Ambitious Impact (AIM).” Our new AIM umbrella brand will include the classic CE program as well as recent additional programs connected to grantmaking, research, and effective giving. We are also planning to launch new programs soon. We feel AIM being able to create onramps for other career paths (similar to what we have done for nonprofit entrepreneurship) is the most plausible way of doubling our impact. A quick history of Charity Entrepreneurship Inspired by the early success of a few nonprofits identified by evaluators such as GiveWell, we decided to take a systematic approach to researching and then launching new impact-focused nonprofits (Charity Science Health, Fortify Health). After some initial successes, Charity Entrepreneurship was started in 2018 as a formal Incubation Program to get more field-leading charities started. 31 projects were founded [...] ---Outline:(00:43) A quick history of Charity Entrepreneurship(02:00) What will AIM look like  going forward(03:25) Why we are launching AIM--- First published: February 8th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/cpuFnLtppbsLKcbbq/ambitious-impact-aim-a-new-brand-for-charity --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Quaker abolitionist Benjamin Lay died exactly 265 years ago today (on February 8, 1759). I’m using the anniversary of his death to reflect on his life and invite you to join me by sharing your thoughts sometime this week. Lay was a radical anti-slavery advocate and an important figure in the Quaker abolitionist movement. He's been described as a moral weirdo; besides viewing slavery as a great sin, he opposed the death penalty, was vegetarian, believed that men and women were equal in the eyes of God, and more. He didn’t hide his views and was known for his “guerrilla theater” protests, which included splashing fake blood on slave-owners and forcing people to step over him as they exited a meeting. Expulsion from various communities, ridicule for his beliefs or appearance (he had dwarfism), and the offended sensibilities of those around him didn’t seem to seriously slow him down. [...] ---Outline:(01:37) Protests against slavery: shocking people into awareness(05:55) Life(10:57) Role in the broader abolition movement(13:10) Concluding notesThe original text contained 13 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: February 8th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/dM93vHvLTgpk8pLSX/celebrating-benjamin-lay-died-on-this-day-265-years-ago --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.