Over the last few years, progress has been made in estimating the density of intelligent life in the universe (e.g., Olson 2015, Sandberg 2018, Hanson 2021). Bits of progress have been made in using these results to update longtermist macrostrategy, but these results are partial and stopped short of their potential (Finnveden 2019, Olson 2020, Olson 2021, Cook 2022).
One of the big challenges of reporting on the new administration is that it’s hard to figure out who’s really calling the shots. Take AI. In his comments to world leaders at the AI Action Summit in Paris last week, Vice President JD Vance laid out one view of where the Trump administration should go […]...
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.
The Georgetown Initiative for Innovation, Development and Evaluation (gui2de) is looking for two undergraduate research assistants (RAs) interested in getting a hands-on data analysis experience this summer, by working with gui2de affiliated professors on data-related tasks, descriptive analysis, blog-writing or report-writing.
The Georgetown Initiative for Innovation, Development and Evaluation (gui2de) is looking for two undergraduate research assistants (RAs) interested in getting a hands-on data analysis experience this summer, by working with gui2de affiliated professors on data-related tasks, descriptive analysis, blog-writing or report-writing.
The Georgetown Initiative for Innovation, Development and Evaluation (gui2de) is looking for interns during summer 2025 to support several empirical field-based research projects for approximately 8-10 weeks this summer. Rising undergraduate juniors and seniors, and rising second-year Masters students are eligible to apply.
The Georgetown Initiative for Innovation, Development and Evaluation (gui2de) is looking for interns during summer 2025 to support several empirical field-based research projects for approximately 8-10 weeks this summer. Rising undergraduate juniors and seniors, and rising second-year Masters students are eligible to apply.
Meanwhile, people like Amba Kak see opportunities for gains by workers against technological threats but said that it may require strategically picking the right battles. Kak previously advised the Federal Trade Commission and is executive director of the AI Now Institute, a nonprofit that researches the human rights impact of the technology. — Kak told […].
In the quest for supremacy in a purported technological arms race, it would be unwise to overlook the risks that A.I.’s current reliance on sensitive data poses to national security or to ignore its core technical vulnerabilities. If our leaders barrel ahead with their plans to implement A.I. across our critical infrastructures, they risk undermining […]. The post The Rush to A.I.
DeepSeek’s recent breakthrough has sent shockwaves around the world. Does a more volatile AI market mean Europe now has a fleeting chance to compete? For more, click here. The post Europe between DeepSeek and Trump appeared first on AI Now Institute.
“I don’t think we can separate Trump’s policy of AI boosterism from his policy of energy dominance,” said Kate Brennan, associate director of the New York-based AI Now Institute, which studies the social implications of the coming AI boom. — Brennan of the AI Now Institute said that a fast-charging approach to artificial intelligence that […]. The post Energy is AI’s barrier to entry.
Frederike Kaltheuner, senior EU and global governance lead at the AI Now Institute, an AI research body, added that following the launch of DeepSeek, Europeans had fleetingly thought they had a chance to compete in AI. For more, click here. The post US and UK refuse to sign summit declaration on AI appeared first on AI Now Institute.
“This is the first confirmation we have gotten that commercial AI models are directly being used in warfare,” said Heidy Khlaaf, chief AI scientist at the AI Now Institute and former senior safety engineer at OpenAI. “The implications are enormous for the role of tech in enabling this type of unethical and unlawful warfare going forward.” For […].
Friday, February 21st
Introduction. Vetted Causes writes reviews of charities. Thus far, we have published reviews of two charities. In both cases, we did not reach out to the charities before publishing reviews on them. We did consider doing so for our most recent review, but did not due to concerns which we've described below.
Correcting against three common errors
The disappointing news is that, according to the author of White Collar Crime In Modern England, modernity ended in 1929. So if you’re looking to hear about Nick Leeson or LIBOR I can’t help you.
This study explores the gender differences in empathy, speciesism, and social dominance orientation to better understand why men typically support animal experimentation more than women. The post Why Men Support Animal Experimentation More Than Women appeared first on Faunalytics.
Hi everyone!. I have just published a report with Convergence Analysis exploring how transformative AI (TAI) could be developed within the next ten years. It’s called Pathways to short TAI timelines (pdf version; Google Doc version).
The AI world is moving so fast that it’s easy to get lost amid the flurry of shiny new products. OpenAI announces one, then the Chinese startup DeepSeek releases one, then OpenAI immediately puts out another one. Each is important, but focus too much on any one of them and you’ll miss the really big […]...
Jennifer Garrison, PhD, is Co-Founder and Director of the Global Consortium for Reproductive Longevity and Equality (GCRLE) and an Assistant Professor at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. She also holds appointments in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at the University...
Last month, Yog Foods, a mill based in Ranjangaon near Pune, launched the production of their fortified chakki atta (wheat flour) with support from Fortify Health. Members of the Program and Quality team and the three of us who recently joined Fortify Health - Rebecca from Kenya, Beth from the UK, and Janani from India - all joined the launch.We were greeted by Mr. Yogesh Bhos who generously...
The Life You Can Save, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting extreme poverty, and Founders Pledge, a global nonprofit empowering entrepreneurs to do the most good possible with their charitable giving, have announced today the formation of their Rapid Response Fund.
Markets react to foreign policy shifts and new chatbot launches
In the past decade, the AI revolution has kicked into high gear. Artificial intelligence is playing strategy games, writing news articles, folding proteins, and teaching grandmasters new moves in Go. AI systems determine what you’ll see in a Google search or in your Facebook Newsfeed. They are being developed to improve drone targeting and detect missiles.
This is a quick take, not a research report, reflecting the current thoughts and impressions of (some) members of Rethink Priorities' Worldview Investigation Team. We plan to occasionally post views we have (like this one) that we think are important but which we haven't had time to focus on in depth... .
Today, AI Now—along with a group of experts and civil society organizations—released a report outlining how surveillance of prices and wages harms the public. Read it here: The post AI Now Coauthors Report on Surveillance Prices and Wages appeared first on AI Now Institute.
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.
H5N1, a highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza known as bird flu, continues to wreak havoc on the nation’s egg farms. In just the last month, more than 21.2 million egg-laying hens — about 7 percent of the national flock — have fallen prey to the virus or been brutally killed by egg producers in […]...
Contra Carrier concerning cosmology, constants, categorization
Mercy For Animals celebrates another major victory as Dunkin’, the second largest coffee chain in the United States, eliminates the plant-based upcharge at all locations. LOS ANGELES — Dunkin’, the second-largest coffee chain in the country, has removed the upcharge for plant-based milk at its 9,500+ locations. This decision follows discussions with Mercy For Animals’ […].
Facts!
Not all images of animal farming have the same impact on people's emotional reactions — and not all people see them the same way. The post Worth A Thousand Words? Emotional Responses To Pictures Of Farmed Animals appeared first on Faunalytics.
Plus: My 100th post and other blog updates
Hi everyone,. Recently we discovered Sinergia has been making false claims about helping millions of animals. We believe this is an important issue because Sinergia receives millions of dollars in grants from EA organizations. Just recently, Open Philanthropy awarded them a $3.3 million grant. We hope you find time to read our article. Discuss...
Plus: The DeepSeek frenzy — sorting through the takeaways, and OpenAI looks to stay top dog with new product releases and a tease of GPT-5. The post U.S. AI policy in Trump’s first month — VP Vance lays out AI plan at Paris summit, workforce cuts hit science and AI staff, Trump’s AI EO, an “America First Trade Policy,” and Stargate appeared first on Center for Security and Emerging Technology.
In Q4 we ran the second tournament in the AI Benchmarking Series which aims to assess how the best bots compare to the best humans on real-world forecasting questions, like those found on Metaculus. Over the quarter we had 44 bots compete for $30,000 on 402 questions with a team of ten Pros serving as a human benchmark on 122 of those 402. We found that:
Q1. Did you see Microsoft’s announcement?A. Yes, thanks, you can stop emailing to ask! Microsoft’s Chetan Nayak was even kind enough to give me a personal briefing a few weeks ago. Yesterday I did a brief interview on this for the BBC’s World Business Report, and I also commented for MIT Technology Review. Q2. What […]...
Applications are currently open for the next cohort of AIM's Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program in August 2025. We've just published our in-depth research reports on the new ideas for charities we're recommending for people to launch through the program. This article provides an introduction to each idea, and a link to the full report.
[Launch post of the funding circle here for those who want a bit more context]. The Strategic Animal Funding Circle (a new group of donors supporting high-impact farmed animal advocacy) is running its second round of grantmaking. You can see the full Request for Proposals and application guidance here. The deadline to apply is March 10th.
Did Anthropic's CEO just admit AI companies have been enjoying fat margins?
I'm writing this in my personal capacity as someone who recently began working at the Tarbell Center for AI Journalism—my colleagues might see things differently and haven’t reviewed this post. The rapid development of artificial intelligence could prove to be one of the most consequential technological transitions in human history.
(Audio version here (read by the author), or search for "Joe Carlsmith Audio" on your podcast app. This is the second essay in a series that I’m calling “How do we solve the alignment problem?”.
With many thanks to Sasha Frangulov for comments and editing. Before publishing their o1-preview model system card on Sep 12, 2024, OpenAI tested the model on various safety benchmarks which they had constructed. These included benchmarks which aimed to evaluate whether the model could help with the development of Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) weapons.
My goal as an AI safety researcher is to put myself out of a job. I don’t worry too much about how planet sized brains will shape galaxies in 100 years. That’s something for AI systems to figure out.
The Center for Open Science (COS) is seeking new members for its Preregistration Template Working Group, with terms beginning in
March 2025. Preregistration enhances research transparency by allowing researchers to disclose their research study designs and analysis plans before data collection.
EA Forum Digest #228
Hello!. No news this week. Enjoy the posts! — JP (for the Forum team)
We recommend: Teaching AI to reason: this year's most important story (Benjamin_Todd, 10 min, link-post). Policy advocacy against salmon stocking in Canada does not seem worth it (Thijs Jacobs, 28 min).
Examining the conditions for rogue AI behavior.
In this comprehensive recap, we reflect on Animal Welfare League’s work throughout 2024, share our vision for 2025 and beyond. This effort is part of our dedication to open communication, enabling our partners, donors, and other supporters to learn about our achievements, challenges, and strategic goals, as well as to offer feedback on our future direction.
Wednesday, February 19th
Identity in the Age of Neural Media
Examining the conditions required for rogue AI behavior. Text version here: https://joecarlsmith.substack.com/p/when-should-we-worry-about-ai-power
God>Math
In this blog, Maho Uehara-Cavalier of Japan Animal Welfare Corporate Partners (AWCP) provides crucial cultural context for effective animal advocacy in Japan. The post Bridging Cultures For Animal Welfare: Effective Advocacy In Japan appeared first on Faunalytics.
Researchers identify which factors influence consumers’ willingness to try plant-based milk alternatives and share their opinion through word-of-mouth. The post Marketing Plant-Based Milk Alternatives To Different Consumer Groups appeared first on Faunalytics.
AGI is not the real benchmark: 10% economic growth is
Hi Everyone. I'm Carley, Director of the Open Wing Alliance. I wanted to share our Year in Review blog post with you. Highlights of 2024 include: - Almost 150 new cage-free corporate commitments gained by groups around the world. In often very challenging conditions, groups are taking on corporations and winning.
TLDR: Be gracious to yourself. Enough can be enough even when it isn’t everything. A note on pseudo-anonymity: I’m posting this without my name but with identifying info (read on). I don’t feel a need to hide from the community, and I expect it will make a difference to some readers that I’m a senior member of staff at a famous EA org.
Consultants for Impact is hiring! | Job Blast 🚀
From subscriber to strategist: help grow what you already love. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ...
Elon Musk has arguably been the boldest broligarch when it comes to brain-machine interfaces. But Mark Zuckerberg is hot on his heels. Shortly after Musk co-founded Neuralink — the company that’s put chips in three human brains, and counting — in 2016, Meta (then Facebook) also ventured into neurotechnology research, announcing plans to build tech that […]...
Target Malaria Uganda and Target Malaria Burkina Faso strengthen their ties. Latif Ouedraogo, the Communications Assistant from Target Malaria Burkina Faso recently visited the Target Malaria Uganda teams, paving the way for continuous between the Uganda Virus Research Institute and Burkina Faso’s Research Institute for Science and Health (IRSS). The purpose of Latif’s visit was […].
Target Malaria Uganda and Target Malaria Burkina Faso strengthen their ties. Latif Ouedraogo, the Communications Assistant from Target Malaria Burkina Faso recently visited the Target Malaria Uganda teams, paving the way for continuous collaboration between the Uganda Virus Research Institute and Burkina Faso’s Research Institute for Science and Health (IRSS). The purpose of Latif’s visit […].
The post Expression of interest: writer-researcher appeared first on 80,000 Hours.
How resource constraints and realpolitik are forcing tough choices in US defense strategy
lift up your heels already
⬇️⬇️⬇️ L'épisode entier ⬇️⬇️⬇️
https://youtu.be/l02ARdsRjVM
In the U.S., egg prices have recently skyrocketed. The text below is copied and pasted from a proposition I produced about an idea to replace eggs with plant-based alternatives in New York City businesses that sell baked goods.
The 66th Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS 2025), sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Mathematical Foundations of Computing, will be held in Sydney, Australia, December 14-17. Papers presenting new and original research on theory of computation are sought.
The following statement regarding Tim Hortons’ plant-based milk price parity may be attributed to Jennifer Behr, corporate relations manager at Mercy For Animals: Mercy For Animals commends Tim Hortons for removing the upcharge on plant-based milk, making sustainable choices more affordable and accessible for Canadians. Tim Hortons, Canada’s largest coffee chain, sets an important precedent […].
This presentation provided valuable insights into the novel food framework and its relevance to cellular agriculture products as regulated by Health Canada. Here are the key highlights: The post Key Takeaways from our Third Cell Ag in Canada Virtual Series Event appeared first on New Harvest.
Imagine that one day you open your email inbox and find a promotional email claiming to produce ‘100% accurate stock market predictions’.
Interim research report from the first 4 weeks of the MATS Program Winter 2025 Cohort. The project is supervised by Marius Hobbhahn. Summary: Our goals. Develop techniques to determine whether models believe a situation to be an eval or not and which features of the environment influence that belief.
Tuesday, February 18th
Consider concepts such as "a vector", "a game-theoretic agent", or "a market". Intuitively, those are "purely theoretical" abstractions: they don't refer to any specific real-world system. Those abstractions would be useful even in universes very different from ours, and reasoning about them doesn't necessarily involve reasoning about our world.
Today, all stakeholders are invited to informally share their views on the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI and the Global…
Welcome to the AI Safety Newsletter by the Center for AI Safety. We discuss developments in AI and AI safety. No technical background required. Listen to the AI Safety Newsletter for free on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
And makes major errors
Normal people care about some groups of beings more than others.
This report outlines four high-priority opportunities to advance animal welfare in Zimbabwe while addressing challenges like industrial farming and outdated legislation. The post Animal Advocacy Opportunities In Zimbabwe appeared first on Faunalytics.
I sometimes wish I wrote and thought less about what’s going on in my mind, and more about literally anything else.
PEPFAR's Pause, Paris's Poor Performance, and more. View this email in your browser
Hello! Our favourite links this month include:
A post-mortem of the Paris AI Action Summit.
A piece on the catastrophic potential end of the US Government’s AIDS and HIV reduction program. The pros and cons of ballot initiatives in animal advocacy.
Mild welfarism is a consequentialist welfare ethic according to which we should choose the option that has the highest total discounted welfare. The welfare of a welfare-sensitive individual in an option measures how much that individual prefers or likes that option … Lees verder →...
The post Unlocking Massive User Reach in 2024 appeared first on Precision Development.
Summary: Kidney stones cause an immense amount of suffering worldwide. Weighted by their intensity, and depending on some assumptions, we posit that kidney stones may account for a large fraction of human suffering worldwide. Finding cost-effective solutions for this hedonic catastrophe should be a very high priority in any suffering-focused research agenda.
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