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  • The abrupt end of USAID-funded clinical trials is profoundly unethical
    It’s also dangerous to the health of thousands of trial participants. The path from the atrocities of Nuremberg and Tuskegee to today’s robust ethics of medical research has not been easy. In response to these horrific events, a remarkable global consensus emerged, across countries in very different parts of the world and with very different types of governments: Medical researchers, and...
  • Strategic Planning for Animal Activism (SPAA) course for 2025 is now open!
    An announcement from Dr. Krista Hiddema: Strategic Planning for Animal Activism (SPAA) course for 2025 is now open!This is your opportunity to be part of a transformational experience designed to amplify your impact within the realm of animal rights and vegan advocacy.
  • Vote for videos to raise funds for effective animal charities! (Project for Awesome 2025)
    Project for Awesome (P4A) is a charity video contest running from February 11th to February 19th, 2025. The public can vote on videos supporting various charities, and the ones with the most votes receive donations. Thanks to the support of the EA community, three EA charities, including ProVeg International, received $37,000 each last year.
  • Kindness
    Monday, February 17th
  • Is American democracy at risk? Should we work on this?
    Status of this post: in writing this I prioritised speed over quality. I'm not particularly expert on this topic. I fully expect there to be things I’m missing or have got wrong. This post is more a request for feedback than a statement of a high-conviction claim... . Summary: I think it's moderately likely that action to bolster American democracy may be high impact.
  • Report: Pugwash activities in 2024
    17 February 2025 Pugwash is pleased to present a summary report of the activities and changes that took place during … More...
  • Victory: VPJ Alimentos makes a public commitment to crate-free production in Brazil!
    We are happy to share that VPJ Alimentos, a Brazilian cold cut and meat processing company, publicized its decision to work exclusively with suppliers that keep sows in group pens throughout gestation, in the ‘preimplantation’ system, along other animal welfare standards. You can see their public commitment in Portuguese here.
  • Victory: Pizza Prime goes cage-free in Brazil!
    We are happy to share that Pizza Prime, one of the largest pizza franchises in Brazil, with 70 restaurants in various states, has committed to go cage-free by 2026. You can see their commitment in portuguese here. Scale: We estimate this commitment will benefit over 1431 hens per year. Timeline: 6 months. Who: Fórum Animal.
  • A History of the Future, 2025-2040
    This is an all-in-one crosspost of a scenario I originally published in three parts on my blog, No Set Gauge. Links to the originals: A History of the Future, 2025-2027. A History of the Future, 2027-2030. A History of the Future, 2030-2040. . Thanks to Luke Drago, Duncan McClements, Theo Horsley, and Bilal Chughtai for comments... .
  • Thermodynamic entropy = Kolmogorov complexity
    Direct PDF link for non-subscribers. Information theory must precede probability theory, and not be based on it. By the very essence of this discipline, the foundations of information theory have a finite combinatorial character. - Andrey Kolmogorov. Many alignment researchers borrow intuitions from thermodynamics: entropy relates to information, which relates to learning and epistemology.
  • Ask a career advisor: how mid-career people can help with AI and how to survive a job hunt
    The post Ask a career advisor: how mid-career people can help with AI and how to survive a job hunt appeared first on 80,000 Hours.
  • Ban Ventilation Shutdown!
    Hundreds of millions of birds are being roasted and choked to death
  • Trans Identity
    David Halperin’s How To Be Gay is an insightful work of queer theory by the only queer theorist who understands how to write a coherent English sentence.
  • The European Union Is Failing Animals On Industrial Farms
    Despite scientific advancements and citizens calling for change, laws in the European Union fall short of providing farmed animals the good welfare they deserve. The post The European Union Is Failing Animals On Industrial Farms appeared first on Faunalytics.
  • Rothbard vs. Cornuelle: Understanding the New Right’s Antipathy toward Civil Society
    Editors’ Note: John Miles Branch explores the feud between two prominent mid-century libertarian thinkers, Murray Rothbard and Richard Cornuelle, as a way of understanding the contemporary right’s growing antipathy toward nonprofits writ large. On February 6, the White House published a memo entitled “Advancing United States Interests When Funding Nongovernmental Organizations” that directs...
  • Futarchy And Self-Dealing Governance
    Compared to a more divided government, a more central government has stronger incentives to help the polity as a whole.
  • The EU AI Act Newsletter #71: Wealth of Commission Guidelines
    The European Commission publishes guidelines on AI system definition, prohibited AI practices and a living repository on AI literacy. Legislative Process Commission publishes guidelines on AI system definition: The European Commission has published guidelines explaining the definition of AI systems under the AI Act, aiming to help providers and other stakeholders determine whether their...
  • Import AI 400: Distillation scaling laws; recursive GPU kernel improvement; and wafer-scale computation
    The hardest thing about seeing a portal is getting others to see it
  • The EU AI Act Newsletter #71: Wealth of Commission Guidelines
    The European Commission publishes guidelines on AI system definition, prohibited AI practices and a living repository on AI literacy.
  • ChinAI #300: Artificial Challenged Intelligence [人工智障] in China's most humble profession
    How long does it take to transfer to a human customer service agent?
  • Options and Motivations for International AI Benefit Sharing | GovAI Blog
    Despite increasing interest in international AI benefit sharing, fundamental questions regarding motivations, mechanisms, and feasibility remain unexplored. In a new GovAI report, we describe three...
  • I work in global health. Trump ditching the World Health Organization might be the wake-up call it needs.
    Shortly after his inauguration, President Donald Trump took a set of thick, black permanent markers and signed a sweeping set of executive orders that took aim at everything from immigration and gender to TikTok and climate change. One of his first moves was to withdraw the US from the World Health Organization (WHO), the United […]...
  • The Case for Supervising Frontier AI Developers | GovAI Blog
    Improvements in the capabilities of frontier AI systems present policymakers with a classic challenge: how to preserve the benefits of innovation while mitigating attendant risks. Certain...
  • AI excels at code competitions, struggles with real work
    What CodeForces rankings reveal about AI capabilities
  • In many countries, people breathe the cleanest air in centuries. What can the rest of the world learn from this?
    Air pollution tends to get worse before it gets better, but how can we accelerate this transition?
  • It's been ten years. I propose HPMOR Anniversary Parties.
    On March 14th, 2015, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality made its final post. Wrap parties were held all across the world to read the ending and talk about the story, in some cases sparking groups that would continue to meet for years. It’s been ten years, and think that's a good reason for a round of parties.
  • Meta humanoid robots 🤖, Reddit paywalls 🛑, Create React App deprecated 👨‍💻
  • Comission and Omission
    Sunday, February 16th
  • Open Thread 369
  • Essere Animali is hiring a campaign manager
    At Essere Animali we are looking for a person to coordinate our institutional and corporate campaigns. As campaign manager you will have the opportunity to plan and manage the organisation's campaigns, both at Italian level and as part of the international coalitions Essere Animali is part of.
  • Trump Biblical Commentary
    In which I do an impression of Trump talking about the first six books of the Bible
  • this week in security — february 16 edition
    this week in security — february 16 edition CISA layoffs, Patch Tuesday fixes zero-days, Phobos ransomware gang arrested, and more. ~this week in security~. a cybersecurity newsletter by @zackwhittaker volume 8, issue 7 View this email in your browser | RSS ~ ~ THIS WEEK, TL;DR. Bruce Schneier: 'DOGE is hacking America'; as CISA hit by layoffs Foreign Policy:
  • Toward simpler funerals
    Meeting families' needs with less financial and logistical burden. The post Toward simpler funerals appeared first on Otherwise.
  • Futarchy and the Transfer Problem
    I recently tweeted on the ineffectiveness of Medicine, and thus on waste we could cut.
  • Microplastics: Much Less Than You Wanted To Know
    Microplastics have been in the news and the local rationalist discord with increasing frequency over the past few months. Of note are Nat Friedman's PlasticList, and this 2024 preprint demonstrating that some human brains are now 0.5% plastic by weight. There was also an article on black plastic cookware that was quickly retracted .
  • Take action to help insects: UK government consultation [5-10 minutes]
    Why it’s important to fill out this consultation. The UK Government is currently consulting on allowing insects to be fed to chickens and pigs. This is worrying as the government explicitly says changes would “enable investment in the insect protein sector”.
  • Particular and Real
    Saturday, February 15th
  • God's Existence Is The Best Possible News
    Theism is the coolest imaginable worldview
  • First World Problems: Dating
    “First world problems” are problems that only become salient when your basic physical needs are met.
  • Weekend Links #3: Dario + DeepSeek, Dirty Data, Democracy
    Also the world's blackest black vs. the world's brightest light - who will win?
  • Introducing FoodFacts.org: Navigating Facts in the Age of Nutrition Misinformation
    Introducing FoodFacts.org: Navigating Facts in the Age of Nutrition Misinformation. In a digital landscape where the lines between fact and fiction are increasingly blurred, the recent decision by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to end third-party fact-checking on platforms like Facebook and Instagram has raised significant concerns.
  • Philosophie, conscience et statut moral de l’IA avec Aïda Elamrani
    ⚠️ Découvrez du contenu EXCLUSIF (pas sur la chaîne) ⚠️ ⇒ https://the-flares.com/y/bonus/ ⬇️⬇️⬇️ Infos complémentaires : sources, références, liens... ⬇️⬇️⬇️ Le contenu vous intéresse ? Abonnez-vous et cliquez sur la 🔔 Vous avez aimé cette vidéo ? Pensez à mettre un 👍 et à la partager.
  • Statement on proposals for the taking over of Gaza and the resettlements of Palestinians
    14 February 2025 The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs is gravely concerned by U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent … More...
  • A computational no-coincidence principle
    This post presents a conjecture formulated at the Alignment Research Center in 2023. Our belief in the conjecture is at least partly load-bearing for our belief in ARC's overall agenda. We haven't directly worked on the conjecture for a while now, but we believe the conjecture is interesting in its own right... .
  • A Review of The Case for Colonialism
    The Case for Colonialism is a 2017 article by political scientist Bruce Gilley.
  • Predicting who will live the longest
    How the longevity community and prediction markets answer long-term questions without waiting decades
  • Murder plots are infohazards
    Hi all. I've been hanging around the rationalist-sphere for many years now, mostly writing about transhumanism, until things started to change in 2016 after my Wikipedia writing habit shifted from writing up cybercrime topics, through to actively debunking the numerous dark web urban legends. After breaking into what I believe to be the most successful ever fake murder for hire website ever...
  • Higher Forms
    Friday, February 14th
  • A short course on AGI safety from the GDM Alignment team
    We are excited to release a short course on AGI safety for students, researchers and professionals interested in this topic. The course offers a concise and accessible introduction to AI alignment, consisting of short recorded talks and exercises (75 minutes total) with an accompanying slide deck and exercise workbook.
  • A short course on AGI safety from the GDM Alignment team
    We are excited to release a short course on AGI safety for students, researchers and professionals interested in this topic. The course offers a concise and accessible introduction to AI alignment, consisting of short recorded talks and exercises (75 minutes total) with an accompanying slide deck and exercise workbook.
  • Donating to climate nonprofits? Think systems change
    To solve climate change, we need to think big: beyond our individual consumption, we need to affect change at the level of systems.
  • Quick nudge to apply to the LTFF grant round (closing on Saturday)
    The LTFF recently switched to doing grant rounds, our first round closes on Saturday (deadline EOD anywhere 2025-Feb-15). I think you should consider submitting a quick application in the next 24 hours. We will likely consider applications submitted over the next few days in this round (unless we are overwhelmed with applications).
  • The AI Security era has begun
    Transformer Weekly: AISI rebrands, Elon meddles, and new models are imminent
  • 2024 ACE Year In Review
    Addressing the hidden and extreme suffering of animals is a difficult challenge for both our minds and our hearts. The cruelty we witness is heartbreaking, and the complexities surrounding potential solutions can be overwhelming. What is clear, however, is that the sooner we address these issues,... Read more...
  • Allan Dafoe on why technology is unstoppable & how to shape AI development anyway
    The post Allan Dafoe on why technology is unstoppable & how to shape AI development anyway appeared first on 80,000 Hours.
  • The Homework: February 14, 2025
    Welcome to the February 14, 2025 Main edition of The Homework, the official newsletter of California YIMBY — legislative updates, news clips, housing research and analysis, and the latest writings from the California YIMBY team. News from Sacramento The deadline…. The post The Homework: February <span class="dewidow">14, 2025</span> appeared first on California YIMBY.
  • AI this week: Trump, Musk, and Altman's High Stakes Games
    How political realignment and corporate maneuvering are reshaping the future of AI
  • Improving Large Carnivore Translocations
    What helps large carnivores such as lions and wolves survive when they’re moved to new homes? This study takes a closer look at the factors affecting the success of these translocations in the hopes of improving future conservation efforts. The post Improving Large Carnivore Translocations appeared first on Faunalytics.
  • AI Now Statement on the UK AI Safety Institute transition to the UK AI Security Institute
    On February 14th, 2025 the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology announced the UK AI Safety Institute’s transition to the UK AI Security Institute. Read AI Now’s statement on the transition below. AISI’s partnership with the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, the Ministry of Defence’s science and technology organisation, heralds the UK government turning […].
  • Why Elon Musk offered to buy the OpenAI nonprofit
    It’s been a busy week for Elon Musk. He says he’s saving taxpayers billions of dollars (though outlays from the Treasury Department are public and make it pretty clear he hasn’t); he bragged that he fed USAID “into the woodchipper,” an aide on his Department of Government Efficiency was revealed to have said this summer […]...
  • GAIN's Keeping Food Markets Working (KFMW) Programme: Tanzania Buruguni Market Impact Story
    GAIN's Keeping Food Markets Working (KFMW) Programme: Tanzania Buruguni Market Impact Story gloireri Fri, 02/14/2025 - 14:18 .video-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; /* 16:9 aspect ratio */ height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; background: #000; } .video-container iframe { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } . .
  • Explaining EA: What I learned from giving a TEDx talk
    How to explain Effective Altruism to someone who’s never heard of it—and make them interested?. A few months ago, I was given the opportunity to give a TEDx talk about Effective Altruism. As a former community manager of EA Israel, I’ve spent years explaining EA to newcomers, refining how I communicate its principles, and observing the common misconceptions that make it harder for people to...
  • Explaining EA: What I learned from giving a TEDx talk about EA
    How to explain Effective Altruism to someone who’s never heard of it—and make them interested?. A few months ago, I was given the opportunity to give a TEDx talk about Effective Altruism. As a former community manager of EA Israel, I’ve spent years explaining EA to newcomers, refining how I communicate its principles, and observing the common misconceptions that make it harder for people to...
  • Policy advocacy against salmon stocking in Canada does not seem worth it
    TL;DR: During a research stint at AIM the idea of a policy charity advocating for a ban or limitation of fish stocking in Canada was evaluated. Fish stocking is the practice of releasing cultured fish into natural water bodies to maintain or enhance fish populations.
  • Project Assistant, Workforce Nutrition
    Project Assistant, Workforce Nutrition admin_inox Fri, 02/14/2025 - 11:30 vacancy_id SYS-1265 location Dhaka, Bangladesh Contract type Fixed Term Duration 24 Months Frontend apply URL https://jobs.gainhealth.org/vacancies/1265/apply/ Closing date Sat, 02/22/2025 - 12:00 Department Programmes about_the_role <p>The Global Alliance for...
  • Senior Programme Assistant, Policy and Food Systems
    Senior Programme Assistant, Policy and Food Systems admin_inox Fri, 02/14/2025 - 11:30 vacancy_id SYS-1264 location Dhaka, Bangladesh Contract type Fixed Term Duration 24 Months Frontend apply URL https://jobs.gainhealth.org/vacancies/1264/apply/ Closing date Sat, 02/22/2025 - 12:00 Department Advocacy, policy and external relations...
  • Ambiguous out-of-distribution generalization on an algorithmic task
    Introduction. It's now well known that simple neural network models often "grok" algorithmic tasks. That is, when trained for many epochs on a subset of the full input space, the model quickly attains perfect train accuracy and then, much later, near-perfect test accuracy.
  • Ann Pace on using Biobanking and Genomic Sequencing to Conserve Biodiversity
    Ann Pace joins the podcast to discuss the work of Wise Ancestors. We explore how biobanking could help humanity recover from global catastrophes, how to conduct decentralized science, and how to collaborate with local communities on conservation efforts. You can learn more about Ann's work here: https://www.wiseancestors.org Timestamps: 00:00 What is Wise Ancestors?
  • Egypt’s new Hub of Advanced Policy Innovation for the Environment launches to improve clean air and water access
    Egypt’s new Hub of Advanced Policy Innovation for the Environment launches to improve clean air and water access The lab will partner with local policymakers and researchers to generate evidence-based solutions to improve climate policies and programs in Egypt. nwael Fri, 02/14/2025 - 04:13...
  • ≤10-year Timelines Remain Unlikely Despite DeepSeek and o3
    [Thanks to Steven Byrnes for feedback and the idea for section §3.1. Also thanks to Justis from the LW feedback team.]. Remember this?. . Or this?. . . The images are from WaitButWhy, but the idea was voiced by many prominent alignment people, including Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nick Bostrom.
  • Strengthening Primary Health Care in Kenya: CHU4UHC’s Impact and Future Plans
  • How do we solve the alignment problem?
    Discuss...
  • Only About 40% Of The Cruz "Woke Science" Database Is Woke Science
  • AI Safety and Governance: A Guide to High Impact Careers
    The last several years have seen a rapid increase in the capability of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Over the coming decades, there are likely to be even more significant advances in this technology. This could drastically change society—both for the better and for the worse. This path profile will cover... Read more...
  • Self-dialogue: Do behaviorist rewards make scheming AGIs?
    Introduction. I have long felt confused about the question of whether brain-like AGI would be likely to scheme, given behaviorist rewards. …Pause to explain jargon: “Brain-like AGI” means Artificial General Intelligence—AI that does impressive things like inventing technologies and executing complex projects—that works via similar algorithmic techniques that the human brain uses to do those...
  • The Impact of Land Use Planning on Wildfire Risk: A Study in Southern California ​
    Over the past three decades, most new homes in California have been built in or near the wildland-urban interface (WUI). As catastrophic fires in the WUI grow worse with climate change, effective fire-risk reduction strategies are essential. In Land Use….
  • Calling the Bluff: First the Reforms, Then the Funds
    Housing costs are a contentious political issue in most American cities. Demands for building more “affordable housing” run up against a variety of politically-powerful stakeholders, who are ambivalent (at best) about neighborhood change; many constituents are fiercely opposed to even….
  • Reasons to have higher L1 gas limits even in an L2-heavy Ethereum
  • Elon's OpenAI offer letter 📝, TikTok's app store return 📱, macOS Folder Actions 👨‍💻
  • How do we solve the alignment problem?
    Introduction to an essay series about paths to safe, useful superintelligence.
  • Teaching AI to reason: this year's most important story
    I wrote this to try to explain the key thing going on with AI right now to a broader audience. Feedback welcome. Most people think of AI as a pattern-matching chatbot – good at writing emails, terrible at real thinking. They've missed something huge.
  • How do we solve the alignment problem?
    (Audio version here (read by the author), or search for "Joe Carlsmith Audio" on your podcast app.). We want the benefits that superintelligent AI agents could create. And some people are trying hard to build such agents. I expect efforts like this to succeed – and maybe, very soon. But superintelligent AI agents might also be difficult to control.
  • Virtue signaling, and the "humans-are-wonderful" bias, as a trust exercise
    There's a common thread that runs through a lot of odd human behavior that I've recognized: People often accept surface explanations of their own and others' habits when the nefarious explanations would say something bad about them.
  • My model of what is going on with LLMs
    Epistemic status: You probably already know if you want to read this kind of post, but in case you have not decided: my impression is that people are acting very confused about what we can conclude about scaling LLMs from the evidence, and I believe my mental model cuts through a lot of this confusion - I have tried to rebut what I believe to be misconceptions in a scattershot way, but will...
  • Skepticism towards claims about the views of powerful institutions
    Introduction: some contemporary AI governance context. It’s a confusing time in AI governance. Several countries’ governments recently changed hands. DeepSeek and other technical developments have called into question certain assumptions about the strategic landscape.
  • Self-dialogue: Do behaviorist rewards make scheming AGIs?
    Introduction. I have long felt confused about the question of whether brain-like AGI would be likely to scheme, given behaviorist rewards. …Pause to explain jargon: “Brain-like AGI” means Artificial General Intelligence—AI that does impressive things like inventing technologies and executing complex projects—that works via similar algorithmic techniques that the human brain uses to do those...
  • Extended analogy between humans, corporations, and AIs.
    There are three main ways to try to understand and reason about powerful future AGI agents: Using formal models designed to predict the behavior of powerful general agents, such as expected utility maximization and variants thereof (explored in game theory and decision theory).
  • Ten Takes on the Paris AI Action Summit
    France wants to race, but isn't looking at the road ahead
  • What is it to solve the alignment problem?
    Also: to avoid it? Handle it? Solve it forever? Solve it completely?.
  • What is it to solve the alignment problem?
    Also: to avoid it? Handle it? Solve it forever? Solve it completely? Text version here: https://joecarlsmith.substack.com/p/what-is-it-to-solve-the-alignment
  • How do we solve the alignment problem?
    Sorry it looks like the website version of this post is messed up for some reason.
  • Reenacting Trauma
    So far I’ve watched 34 episodes of Couples Therapy, wherein Dr.
  • Internet & Identity
    Thursday, February 13th
  • How do we solve the alignment problem?
    Introduction to a series of essays about paths to safe and useful superintelligence. Text version here: https://joecarlsmith.substack.com/p/how-do-we-solve-the-alignment-problem...
  • The Impact of AI in Education: Navigating the Imminent Future
    What must be considered to build a safe but effective future for AI in education, and for children to be safe online?
  • Slightly Contra Jesse Singal On Effective Altruism
    Racism against shrimp has gone on for long enough!! !
  • Cultural Differences Impact Perceptions Of Free-Roaming Animals
    A survey reveals cultural differences between India and the U.S. in how free-roaming animals are perceived and what kinds of interventions might be supported by the public. The post Cultural Differences Impact Perceptions Of Free-Roaming Animals appeared first on Faunalytics.
  • Connect For Animals 2025 Strategic Plan
    Connect For Animals is a nonprofit platform for people who want to help end factory farming. Our mission is to find, connect, and empower every person globally who wants to help end factory farming. By doing that, we believe we can accelerate the end of factory farming and work to bring about a better world for animals. Table of Contents. *(SP = Strategic Priority).
  • Decentralized training isn't a policy nightmare — yet
    Governments should still be able to keep track of who's training frontier models — though a shift to reinforcement learning could make that harder...
  • Happier Lives Institute Responds to Trump Administration Shutting Down USAID
    As the only organisation looking to apply wellbeing science to improve happiness globally, we’ve been analysing the recent announcement of USAID funding withdrawal to understand what it means for donors […]. The post Happier Lives Institute Responds to Trump Administration Shutting Down USAID appeared first on Happier Lives Institute.

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