Effective Altruism News
Effective Altruism News
- Photographer and curator Sarah Waiswa has long been a leading voice in the push to redefine how African stories are told—and who gets to tell them. As the founder of African Women Photography (AWP), she helped build a community that supports and showcases the work of women photographers across the continent, challenging stereotypes and expanding the visual narrative of Africa from the inside...
- Forget guilt. Giving can be one of the most joyful, meaningful things you ever do. At Giving What We Can, we help people use their resources to create real change — and experience more purpose in the process. Giving isn't a burden. It’s a chance to live out your values, build a fairer world, and feel more connected doing it. Join us at givingwhatwecan.org...
- You can view and download our full 2024 annual report here. In 2024, our team worked to do our part in the broader AI governance landscape…
- Discuss...
- Above the Fold's Palindromic Edition
- If you want to get paid for abstract analysis that is not mainly organized around current cultural or political fights, academia is pretty much the only game in town.
- Listen up, 7 Brew fans. We have some mug-nificent news! You can officially run (or drive) to your nearest 7 Brew location for your favorite coffee beverage with plant-based milk at no extra charge. The upcharge has been dropped at all 360+ locations nationwide, including the new 7 Brew stands that are popping up around […].
- Summary: We have previously argued that scalable oversight methods can be used to provide guarantees on low-stakes safety – settings where individual failures are non-catastrophic. However, if your reward function (e.g. honesty) is compatible with many possible solutions then you also need to avoid having free parameters exploited over time. We call this the exploitable search problem.
- On seeing and not seeing souls.
- On seeing and not seeing souls. Text version here: https://joecarlsmith.com/2025/05/21/the-stakes-of-ai-moral-status/
- A fairly comprehensive list of my unpublished thoughts
- This Faunalytics report dives into the murky world of USDA subsidies, where multimillion dollar grants create an uneven playing field, supporting already massive animal agriculture enterprises with taxpayer money. The post Big Ag, Big Bucks: How USDA Subsidies Feed Market Inequality And Political Influence appeared first on Faunalytics.
- A host of new evidence shows that misalignment is possible — but it's unclear whether harm will follow...
- What is it about the Bay?
- A “working cat” program in Florida offers a lifeline to unsocialized cats who can’t be adopted traditionally or safely returned outdoors. The post No Cat Left Behind: How Creative Placements Save Lives appeared first on Faunalytics.
- The following statement regarding 7 Brew Coffee removing their plant-based milk upcharge may be attributed to Jennifer Behr, Director of Plant Based Initiatives at Mercy For Animals: By offering plant-based milks at no additional charge, 7 Brew is doing right by its customers, the animals and the planet. The company has joined hundreds of other […].
- A diagnosis and a solution.
- some fiction
- A while back (as I've just been reminded by a discussion on another thread), David Thorstad wrote a bunch of posts critiquing the idea that small reductions in extinction risk have very high value, because the expected number of people who will exist in the future is very high: https://reflectivealtruism.com/category/my-papers/mistakes-in-moral-mathematics/.
- EA Forum Digest #241 Hello!. You have until Sunday to sign up for EAG London (June 6-8) — it’ll be one of the biggest EAGs ever, so if you’re in the UK, don’t miss it. Apply now Also, a reminder that there is a free Feedback service subsidised by CEA, for Forum authors with at least 200 karma.
- We farm billions of insects today. Soon it might be trillions. View this email in your browser Hello! Our favourite links this month include: An interview on Anthropic's AI model welfare research. A new global health initiative looks to fight sepsis, a condition that kills half a million children a year.
- On April Fools’ Day, I called my mom. I told her that for a month, I was “going flip phone” — meaning, abandoning my iPhone for one with no access to social media apps. And no, it wasn’t a joke. My discontent with my screen time reached new peaks in late March after a stint in […]...
- ⬇️⬇️⬇️ L'épisode entier ⬇️⬇️⬇️ https://youtu.be/WKWytFlZGbI
- The original 1992 version of the USDA Food Pyramid was bad. So bad that people who scrupulously followed the guidelines were barely healthier than the people who ignored them. 1. But the Food Pyramid was not just wrong: it was marvelously wrong. It was wrong in many ways simultaneously. It achieved levels of wrongness hitherto undreamed of. What was wrong about it?
- Are you looking to shake up your workout routine? These 10 plant-based protein powders are raising the bar(bell). Made with clean ingredients like mung beans, pumpkin seeds, chickpeas, and more, these products will have you tofu-tally crushing it in the gym. Just One Known for their delicious plant-based egg products, JUST recently released a one-ingredient […].
- He has a new book out that you should read!
- Order Rutger’s new book https://www.amazon.co.uk/Moral-Ambition-Wasting-Talent-Difference/dp/1526680602. And here’s a link to his moral ambition website https://www.moralambition.org/. Here's my blog https://benthams.substack.com/...
- No obviously everything isn't political!
- Underpinning the exploitation of animals across various industries is the belief that their lives are of lesser worth. Researchers investigate the efficacy of an intervention to shift this attitude and the behaviors that stem from it. The post What Are Effective Interventions To Shift Speciesist Attitudes And Behaviors? appeared first on Faunalytics.
- How gypsum changed construction
- Editors’ Note: Allison Tait revisits Henry Hansmann’s 1990 law review article, Why Do Universities Have Endowments?, at a moment when university endowments face unprecedented threats, elevating Hansmann’s question about their fundamental purpose. Endowments, currently under attack and facing proposals that increase the tax on them in some higher education institutions from 1.4% to 21%, have …...
- Following the Global Disability Summit, Sightsavers and the Global Partnership for Education share how world leaders can achieve quality schooling for children with disabilities.
- This is a crosspost for Where’s my ten minute AGI? by Anson Ho, which was originally published on Gradient Updates on 2 May 2025. Recently, METR released a paper arguing that the length of tasks that AIs can do is doubling every 7 months. We can see this in the following graph, where the best AI system is able to do roughly hour-long tasks at a 50% success rate on average: .
- “A Giant of Science and Arms Control left us” The Pugwash Council and community are deeply saddened to learn of … More...
- Let’s face them for one last time. Here are 10 of the most silly arguments by meat eaters that I never want to hear again. 1. “Want to eat plants? First grow four stomachs, like cows!” Want to eat meat? … Lees verder →...
- You’ll be surprised about how rich you are compared to the rest of the world - this primary school teacher definitely was! 🤯 Find out where you stack up in the full video: https://youtu.be/ekIRVhbpiQw
- And how to speak them
- Executive summary. Moody’s downgraded the US credit rating as the US budget deficit grows and US borrowing costs rise. House Republicans are advancing a budget that would increase the deficit further. Meanwhile, China is reducing its holdings of US Treasuries and its dependencies on foreign components in its supply chains as it seeks to de-risk its economy from the US and the West. Google...
- Crossposted from world spirit sock puppet.
- Crossposted from world spirit sock puppet.
- (h/t Otis Reid). I think this post captures a lot of important features of the US policymaking system. Pulling out a few especially relevant/broadly applicable sections: 1. There's No Efficient Market For Policy. There can be a huge problem that nobody is working on; that is not evidence that it's not a huge problem.
- As the CEO of an activist organization working to end factory farming, Mercy For Animals, I’ve been worried since March’s $660 million damages verdict in a frivolous lawsuit against Greenpeace, a leading environmental organization. I feared that verdict — which many believe could halt an organization that has inspired countless activists like me — would […].
- As the CEO of an activist organization working to end factory farming, Mercy For Animals, I’ve been worried since March’s $660 million damages verdict in a frivolous lawsuit against Greenpeace, a leading environmental organization. I feared that verdict — which many believe could halt an organization that has inspired countless activists like me — would […].
- Every month we send an email newsletter to our supporters sharing recent updates from our work. We publish selected portions of the newsletter on our blog to make this news more accessible to people who visit our website. For key updates from the latest installment, please see below!. If you’d like to receive the complete newsletter in your inbox each month, you can subscribe here. Read More.
- California lets homebuilders fast-track housing in certain “low-VMT neighborhoods”—areas where new residents are expected to drive less than average (low vehicle miles traveled). The idea: support climate goals and housing access at the same time. But a new report shows….
- If slower employees would be much worse wouldn't automated faster ones be much better?
- Moody’s downgraded the US credit rating, Gulf states agreed to more than $1T in US investments and joint enterprises during a visit by Trump to the Middle East...
- A conversation with Astera Resident Dakota Gruener on uncovering answers and driving action on how we can address our rapidly warming climate
- We haven't figured out the science of alignment yet. We need time to build institutions and figure out the technical solutions to make AI go well for humanity. #ai #artificialintelligence #animation #science #extinction #rationalanimations #singularity...
- May 19, 2025 By Mona Hanna and Miriam Laker-Oketta Bill Gates recently pledged to give away nearly all his $200 billion in wealth by 2045, aspiring to have no mom, child or baby die from a preventable cause. As two physicians — one in Michigan, one in Uganda — we know accomplishing such a bold goal will […]...
- Discuss...
- After multiple rounds of stakeholder consultations, the co-facilitators from Spain and Costa Rica have published Revision 1 for the…
- Policymakers, technologists, and academics gathered at UC Berkeley on April 22 for the 2025 AI Policy Research Symposium, spotlighting the university’s leadership in shaping the future of responsible…. The post Berkeley AI Policy Symposium Showcases Next-Gen Research on Effective AI Governance appeared first on CLTC.
- Why do some societies leap forward whilst others stagnate?
- Crabs and lobsters can feel pain, yet they’re still used in UK labs without legal protection. On World Day for Laboratory Animals, we urged the Home Office: protect decapods from unregulated suffering. It’s time to act.
- As the AI industry’s insatiable energy demands collide with infrastructure limits, there is mounting pressure to accelerate the deployment of nuclear energy sources, often at the expense of safety and oversight. There are major nuclear deployment efforts underway to meet this recent surge in demand, but speed comes with risk. Nuclear development timelines – often […].
- This is surprisingly intuitive once one corrects for bias
- Battery cages for laying hens are increasingly recognized as cruel, but India’s cage-free egg sector remains in its infancy. The post Developing India’s Cage-Free Egg Sector appeared first on Faunalytics.
- Two new books try to unmask Sam Altman and OpenAI, to varying degrees of success
- How to mass-produce new substances
- Don Moore studies overconfidence in its many forms—including when people overestimate their abilities, their knowledge, or how they compare to others. This type of bias can show up everywhere from daily decision-making to published research findings.
- One that's actually happy, for a start.
- Plus, two special events for Import AI readers
- Against zero-sum thinking
- Reducing emissions and air pollution from informal brick kilns: Evidence from Bangladesh In many low- and middle-income countries, it is commonly believed that weak state and regulatory capacities limit the ability to reduce pollution and mitigate climate impact.
- Resistance to current tools, extreme weather events, humanitarian crises and a global funding crisis — is putting our hard-won gains at risk. Change the Story is a campaign which puts children at the heart of the fight, amplifying their voices to inspire global action. Malaria No More UK has launched the latest chapter of its […].
- Greetings from a world where…...
- By Greg Porter. The post One man’s work has saved thousands of lives in Uganda and now a renewed strategy to eliminate a deadly parasite appeared first on The END Fund.
- Sowing Success: The Journey of High Iron Beans in Tanzania gloireri Mon, 05/19/2025 - 07:51 . In Tanzania, 85- 90% of the land is cultivated by smallholder farmers majority of whom face challenges in getting access to quality seeds and assured markets for their produce, thus limiting their capabilities to produce quality produce and generate steady income.
- Measles once killed millions every year. Vaccines changed this, preventing disease, long-term immune damage, and deadly outbreaks.
- At the Happier Lives Institute, we want to help people do as much good as possible with their resources. Charitable giving has the power to transform lives—but the evidence is clear: where and how you give matters enormously. That’s why we focus on understanding which causes and charities improve people’s wellbeing the most.
- Epistemic status: I feel that naming this axis deconfuses me about agent foundations about as much as writing the rest of this sequence so far - so it is worth a post even though I have less to say about it. I think my goal in studying agent foundations is a little atypical.
- 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...
- (Sorry to those who didn't make the list)
- Notes. The following text explores, in a speculative manner, the evolutionary question: Did high-intensity affective states, specifically Pain, emerge early in evolutionary history, or did they develop gradually over time?. Note: We are not neuroscientists; our work draws on our evolutionary biology background and our efforts to develop welfare metrics that accurately reflect reality and...
- this week in security — may 18 edition Coinbase data breach, UK retailers confirm customer data stolen, SAP zero-days under attack, and more. ~this week in security~. a cybersecurity newsletter by @zackwhittaker volume 8, issue 20 View this email in your browser | past issues | RSS ~ ~ THIS WEEK, TL;DR. Coinbase hit by 'insider' data breach, refuses to pay...
- Fill a plane with chimps, and most might be dead before it lands.
- Spotify is very bad at searching for classical music recordings. For example: if I search Spotify for “telemann oboe concerto in a major”, my top results are Telemann’s Oboe Concerto in E Minor, Telemann’s Concerto for Flute… [TWV 54], Vivaldi’s Oboe Concerto in C Major, and many other other pieces I wasn’t looking for. If […]...
- 1 The Christian duty to give to the poor. (This is a crosspost from my blog). Most Christians aren’t effective altruists and most effective altruists aren’t Christians. But in my view, the reason for this is sociological; there’s no deep conflict between the two ideas.
- In a previously unreported letter, the AI company defends its restructuring plan while attacking critics and making surprising admissions. This is the full text of a post first published on Obsolete, a Substack that I write about the intersection of capitalism, geopolitics, and artificial intelligence.
- A recording from Bentham's Bulldog's live video
- After artificial superintelligence, AI will bump against the only limit left: the laws of physics. At the moment, we're nowhere near those limits. #ai #artificialintelligence #animation #science #extinction #rationalanimations #singularity...
- There's a deep concordance rather than a conflict
- Here, I respond to Walter Block about ethical vegetarianism. * Block is a libertarian economist whom I met when I spent a year (on sabbatical) in New Orleans.
- The right to know what an AI is doing
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