Hanania, Destiny, Yglesias, and Klein may differ politically, but they have something in common
Discuss...
The purpose of this post is to share data from a survey that the EA Forum team ran last year. Though we used this survey as one of many sources of information for internal analyses, I did not include any particular takeaways from this survey data in this post. I leave that as an exercise for the reader. Overview.
They’re better for the environment.
Blog moderation policy.
The post Vitalik Buterin on defensive acceleration and how to regulate AI when you fear government appeared first on 80,000 Hours.
Work done at FAR AI. There has been a lot of conceptual work on mesa-optimizers: neural networks that develop internal goals that may differ from their training objectives (the inner alignment problem). There is an abundance of good ideas for empirical work (find search in a NN, interpret it), but very little actual execution, partly because we did not have a clear-cut example of a...
On July 18, a fire destroyed a large commercial building that held around 70,000 chickens at an egg ranch in the rural eastern highlands of San Diego County. The fire broke out in a big hen house at Demler Brothers Pine Hill Egg Ranch. According to county records, the burning building was one of 10 […].
This isn’t good: On Thursday, researchers from security firm Binarly revealed that Secure Boot is completely compromised on more than 200 device models sold by Acer, Dell, Gigabyte, Intel, and Supermicro. The cause: a cryptographic key underpinning Secure Boot on those models that was compromised in 2022.
As summer winds down, many of us find solace in the simple pleasure of a good book as we prepare for the transition to fall. Get ready to be uplifted by a beautiful array of celebrity-authored plant-based food and activism books. These books are incredibly inspiring—platforms for influential figures to share the benefits of plant-based […].
“Not taking any risks might be the biggest risk of all”.
This report documents how cetaceans have been represented in culture over time, and how this impacts efforts to end cetacean captivity and exploitation. The post Cetaceans In Culture, Mythology, And Society appeared first on Faunalytics.
How do narratives affect people and cultures? What role do they play in our attempts to do good? What are the risks and pitfalls to avoid when trying to use stories for positive impact? In this talk, Timon shares some of the key insights he gains from exploring the science of narrative impact and persuasion, and what it takes to craft a story that enriches lives.
According to one recent estimate, there are one sextillion animals on Earth that may be sentient, most living in the wild. Yet wild animal welfare is neglected by intergovernmental bodies such as the IPCC. This talk discusses the importance and difficulty of developing a framework for evaluating interventions targeted at improving wild animal welfare.
Zuck on open source, Anthropic on SB 1047, and Google’s IMO solving AI...
It’s been an eventful couple of weeks, so much so that what I think will ultimately prove one of 2024’s most important revelations largely flew under the radar. That is the revelation that 93-year-old Warren Buffett, whose estimated fortune of $137 billion makes him the fifth-richest person in the US, will no longer give away […]...
In an exciting educational initiative, a select group of students from University Staff Village Junior High School visited Target Malaria Ghana’s newly commissioned Mosquito Ecology Research Facility at the University of Ghana in Accra. This visit aimed to introduce these young minds to the work of the project, specifically the contributions of Target Malaria Ghana. […].
On May 23, AI researcher Jide Alaga asked Claude, an AI assistant created by tech startup Anthropic, how to kindly break up with his girlfriend. “Start by acknowledging the beauty and history of your relationship,” Claude replied. “Remind her how much the Golden Gate Bridge means to you both. Then say something like ‘Unfortunately, the […]...
The devil needs advocates!
Adversarial vulnerabilities have long been an issue in various ML systems. Large language models (LLMs) are no exception, suffering from issues such as jailbreaks: adversarial prompts that bypass model safeguards. At the same time, scale has led to remarkable advances in the capabilities of LLMs, leading us to ask: to what extent can scale help solve robustness?
In the previous quarter, heat waves in India and the El Niño event reminded us that the climate is changing rapidly. However, we also encountered numerous individuals who, like us, are committed to positively impacting the fight against climate change by choosing a vegan lifestyle. Here are some key highlights from the last quarter. More […].
Finalist #6 in the Book Review Contest
The Humane League is hiring an Events and Engagement Lead! In this role, you will be accountable for managing and executing engagement opportunities, including virtual and in-person donor events, quarterly impact reports, and seasonal stewardship projects. This is a full-time, remote position.
Pigeons, liminal animals nesting in urban areas, are often overlooked. Historically, they played critical roles in communication during wars. Today, pigeon population management in France varies, with some cities using cruel methods while others adopt alternatives. PAZ advocates for ethical treatment, raising awareness, and promoting humane practices through campaigns and political action.
Discuss...
We are thrilled to share groundbreaking news in our Octopus Farming Ban Campaign. U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) have introduced a federal bill to ban the commercial farming of octopuses, as well as the importation and sale of commercially farmed octopus.
Emerging technologies and innovative governance can reshape the landscape of security, privacy, and international cooperation.
Friday’s massive internet outage, caused by a mid-sized tech company called CrowdStrike, disrupted major airlines, hospitals, and banks. Nearly 7,000 flights were canceled. It took down 911 systems and factories, courthouses, and television stations. Tallying the total cost will take time.
The National Environmental Policy Act has become a barrier to environmental policy
How kind, honest, nice, and good would you say people are today? How kind, honest, nice, and good would you say they were when you were...
This work was funded by Polaris Ventures. As AI systems become more integrated into society, we face potential societal-scale risks that current regulations fail to address. These risks include cooperation failures, structural failures from opaque decision-making, and AI-enabled totalitarian control.
The post Congresswoman Escobar Introduces Legislation to Establish Standards for Downed Pigs appeared first on Mercy For Animals.
The Centre for the Governance of AI's Annual Report 2023.
+1), register hereYou can register to attend the events at the links above. Each webinar has a public document for adding questions ahead of the event that you would like answered. Charity Entrepreneurship - Webinar #1: Program Q&A. Charity Entrepreneurship - Webinar #2: Ideas Q&A. AIM Founding to Give - Webinar: Q&A. Referrals.
Welcome to the July 25, 2024 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 Legislature…. The post The HomeWork: July <span class="dewidow">25, 2024</span> appeared first on California YIMBY.
A method for not sweating the small stuff. The post Tool: “Is this causing a problem?” appeared first on Otherwise.
Applications for the Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program and AIM’s new Founding to Give Program are now OPEN!
Mary Robinson joins the podcast to discuss long-view leadership, risks from AI and nuclear weapons, prioritizing global problems, how to overcome barriers to international cooperation, and advice to future leaders. Learn more about Robinson's work as Chair of The Elders at https://theelders.org
Timestamps:
00:00 Mary's journey to presidency
05:11 Long-view leadership
06:55 Prioritizing...
Does the presence of radical factions within a movement impact support for more moderate advocates? This study investigates. The post The Influence Of Radical Flanks On Social Movement Support appeared first on Faunalytics.
When autonomy and beneficence conflict
Version 1.1 - July 2024. Thanks to everyone who contributed directly or indirectly, e.g. our board, our peers from the Community Building Grants Program, our group organizers and community members. Overview. This document offers an overview of the strategic vision for EA Switzerland.
Highlights since our last feature update: People directory. . Google Doc import. . Card view for the Frontpage. . User profile updates. . Updates to sequences. . We've also hosted 3 events, significantly improved the site speed, and made many more improvements across the Forum. As always, we'd love feedback on these changes. People directory.
Very short post. This is not my area of expertise at all. But it seems like an opportunity. The Olympics start this week. In the UK, the biggest Olympic story is not about any runner or swimmer or gymnast. It is about animal rights. But, as with most animal-rights stories which make the front-pages (bull-fighting, hunting), it misses the real problem, factory-farming.
Summary: What are my goals? And what did I find?. Are cross cultural interactions (CCIs) in EA even an issue for non-Western EAs who attended the retreat?It’s more likely than not that they had experienced at least one mildly-to-moderately bad interaction.
If you're going to replace Biden, do it with someone who will win
I am the Chief of Security Architecture at Inrupt, Inc., the company that is commercializing Tim Berners-Lee’s Solid open W3C standard for distributed data ownership. This week, we announced a digital wallet based on the Solid architecture. Details are here, but basically a digital wallet is a repository for personal data and documents.
James Pethokoukis is a senior fellow and the DeWitt Wallace Chair at the American Enterprise Institute, where he analyzes US economic policy, writes and edits the AEIdeas blog, and hosts AEI’s Political Economy podcast. He is also a contributor to CNBC and writes the Faster, Please! newsletter on Substack.
Attending an event on cryonics this last weekend tempts me to revisit the topic.
This post lays out a framework I’m currently using for thinking about when AI systems will seek power in problematic ways. I think this framework adds useful structure to the too-often-left-amorphous “ instrumental convergence thesis,” and that it helps us recast the classic argument for existential risk from misaligned AI in a revealing way.
Introducing the tools. How can we optimize our charitable giving while accounting for complex factors about effectiveness and philosophy? . Rethink Priorities' Worldview Investigations Team developed two free tools to help address this question: The portfolio builder. The moral parliament simulation.
Join the Worldview Investigations Team for a virtual workshop on how to use
two new free tools they developed to help donors build effective giving
portfolios and make informed decisions.
Since 2011, 97 percent of California’s new multifamily housing has been built for rent, not for ownership. While the state needs to continue to build hundreds of thousands of rentals – more supply will drive down housing costs, and stabilize…. The post Defective Condo Defect Laws: Ripe <span class="dewidow">for Repair?</span> appeared first on California YIMBY.
Why do we have so many walk-up apartment buildings without elevators in North America, and why are buildings with elevators so expensive compared to the rest of the world? In a new report simply titled “Elevators”, Stephen Smith, from the…. The post Movin’ On Up? The Low Ceiling of North American <span class="dewidow">Elevator Standards</span> appeared first on California YIMBY.
Today at 3:00 pst, I will be having my subscriber only chat. You have to be a paid subscriber to get the link! Anyone can join and come chat. Last time I did it, a bunch of cool people showed up and it was a ton of fun, so much so that while I’d originally only intended it to go for about an hour, I continued it for nearly 3. Reminder of the benefits you’ll get if you subscribe.
Against doing bad things because the other guys did it
Supposedly the DHS has these: The robot, called “NEO,” is a modified version of the “Quadruped Unmanned Ground Vehicle” (Q-UGV) sold to law enforcement by a company called Ghost Robotics. Benjamine Huffman, the director of DHS’s Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC), told police at the 2024 Border Security Expo in Texas that DHS is increasingly worried about criminals setting...
Our Executive Director Brooke Haggerty offers an update to our supporters and fellow advocates about our latest research, newest resources, and upcoming events. The post Faunalytics’ 2024 Mid-Year Report appeared first on Faunalytics.
you guys have anxiety
Most social services aimed at unhoused communities don’t accommodate companion animals. Could services that help both people and animals break down barriers to care?. The post Animal Companionship And Health Access For Unhoused Individuals appeared first on Faunalytics.
An outline of my next book
Plus unconstitutional censorship, money laundering, Factorio, and a friendly debate about crypto
On 75 percent or more of the residential land in most major American cities it is illegal to build anything other than a detached single-family home.
If you listen to venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz explain why they’re supporting Donald Trump, between the discussions of crypto and China and AI, you’ll detect a much more conventional reason for rich people to vote Republican: They’re worried about Democrats raising their taxes. Specifically, Andreessen and Horowitz railed against President Joe Biden’s […]...
EA Forum Digest #199
Hello!. Peter Singer is holding an Ask Me Anything event on the Forum. Ask him your questions in the comments of this post before July 30th. — Toby (for the Forum team)
We recommend: Taking Uncertainty Seriously (or, Why Tools Matter) (Bob Fischer, Hayley Clatterbuck, arvomm, 9 min).
Edit (2024-07-25): added strength of evidence to each evidence, but want to point out that I wasn't being strategic with my research (e.g., no clear hypothesis, not really doing updating in a Bayesian way, etc). Summary: In this project, I investigated non-Western EAs’ perception of CCIs they had with Westerners, specifically: How often non-Westerners experienced CCI issues;.
For more than two years, the US poultry industry has been battling a highly virulent strain of avian influenza, or bird flu. The virus has driven up egg and turkey prices and crossed over from infecting just birds to numerous mammalian species, including sea lions, mice, cats, dairy cows, and, increasingly, humans. And it shows […]...
The post Open position: Head of Video appeared first on 80,000 Hours.
Suppose we had to take moves in a high-stakes chess game, with thousands of lives at stake. We wouldn't just find a good chess player and ask them to play carefully. We would consult a computer. It would be deeply irresponsible to do otherwise. Computers are better than humans at chess, and more reliable.
Summary. Rebecca Kagan believes “EA needs an investigation, done externally and shared publicly, on mistakes made in the EA community's relationship with FTX.” She is far from the only person who has called for an independent investigation, but Kagan's experience and knowledge as a former board member of Effective Ventures makes her perspective particularly relevant.
This Vox article by Dylan Matthews provides an excellent overview of why funding Gavi, the international vaccine alliance, is one of the most impactful things the US government does. Gavi has a proven track record of cost-effectively saving millions of lives by providing access to essential vaccines in the world's poorest countries. Gavi is currently seeking $9billion in funding for its...
You don’t always save money by putting your investments into a 401(k). When you invest money inside a 401(k), you don’t have to pay taxes on any returns earned by your investments. But you also have to pay a fee to your 401(k) provider. If you buy and hold index funds in a taxable account, you don’t have to pay any capital gains tax on price increases until you sell.
Summary: I investigated non-Western EAs’ perception of cross cultural interactions (CCIs) they had with Westerners, specifically: Whether or not non-Westerners experienced CCI issues, and how often;. How their CCIs compare between EA and non-EA settings;. What kinds of subtle acts of exclusion (SAEs) they had experienced.
TL;DR: Announcing the launch of Mieux Donner - a fundraising organisation focused on informing and inspiring individuals in France and French speaking Switzerland to donate effectively, directing their contributions towards charities with the greatest impact. Who are we?. Mieux Donner was co-founded by Jennifer Stretton and Romain Barbe.
Full Paper. Ever notice how some people pace when they’re deep in thought? Surprisingly, neural networks do something similar—and it boosts their performance! We made this discovery while exploring the planning behavior of a recurrent neural network (RNN) trained to play the complex puzzle game Sokoban.
Like prior work, we train an RNN with standard model-free reinforcement learning, and...
All eyes are on Paris as the world prepares to open the 2024 Olympic Games, a symbol of health, strength,. The post The Road to Nutrition for Growth appeared first on Helen Keller Intl.
Progress Conference 2024 is shaping up to be the main event for the progress community going forward. We now have: When we first began planning this event in January, we believed that the progress community needed a regular gathering. We were right. With our 25 speakers and a full house of 200 high-caliber attendees, the […].
We from Vida Plena are proud to present our first Annual Impact Report. 2023 was our first full year. It was a year of learning. We had just finished a successful pilot and started the year with the mission of building a solid foundation and proving that our therapy model works at scale.
Failure to donate to effective charities is like walking past drowning children and doing nothing
Your farmed animal advocacy update
This Friday at 4p ET I’ll give a Zoom talk, open to all, on Cultural Drift.
This study examines how a common fishing practice releases substantial amounts of CO2 from marine sediments, potentially accelerating climate change and ocean acidification. The post Bottom Trawling Releases Significant CO2, Contributing To Climate Change And Ocean Acidification appeared first on Faunalytics.
This collaboration between the Future of Life Institute and Mithril Security presents a proof-of-concept to enable stakeholders to verify the integrity and origin of AI models.
A new poll from the AI Policy Institute shows broad and overwhelming support for SB1047, a bill to evaluate the risk of catastrophic harm posed by AI models.
It’s heavily redacted, but still interesting. Many more ODNI documents here.
This presentation was given at the St Andrews-GPI Joint Workshop on the Long-Term Future, April 2024. Find out more about the Global Priorities Institute: https://globalprioritiesinstitute.org/...
Full Paper. Adversarial vulnerabilities have long been an issue in various ML systems. Large language models (LLMs) are no exception, suffering from issues such as jailbreaks: adversarial prompts that bypass model safeguards. At the same time, scale has led to remarkable advances in the capabilities of LLMs, leading us to ask: to what extent can scale help solve robustness?
Seeing the Possible in the Impossible My name is Suzanne Gilbert. For the last 45 years, I’ve had the most rewarding job in the world, with the most remarkable people, at the most resilient organization: the Seva Foundation. I’ve been with Seva…well, before it was even called Seva! Over the years, I’ve worn many hats, …. The post I Co-Founded Seva in 1978. This month, I retired.
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