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Patrick Brinich-Langlois
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EA Talks
Goals for university groups | Joan Gass
Joan explains why university groups are a focus area for CEA and gives some suggested goals for university groups to produce value.Joan Gass is the Managing Director for Centre for Effective Altruism. Joan works with Max on the executive team. Her roles include overseeing the Groups team, leading CEA’s work on the growth and onboarding of new community members, and providing input on organization-wide strategy. She has an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and an MPA in International Development from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She previously worked at the strategy consul...
2021-06-01
22 min
EA Talks
What happens if you decide to start a charity? | Karolina Sarek & Nikita Patel
Karolina introduces Charity Entrepreneurship (CE), an organization dedicated to helping found and mentor new effective charities. Learn about the nonprofits CE has launched through its annual Incubation Program, and about the process of starting up and growing. Hear stories about the challenges and successes that a typical charity entrepreneur could face. Finally, discover how you can start your own career as a charity entrepreneur through the 2021 Program. Karolina is co-founder and Director of Research at Charity Entrepreneurship. There, she creates a research agenda and processes and leads the research team, aiming to find and compare the most...
2021-05-28
51 min
EA Talks
Fireside Chat | Nick Beckstead
Nick Beckstead oversees a substantial part of Open Philanthropy’s research and grantmaking related to global catastrophic risk reduction. Previously, Nick led the creation of their grantmaking programs in scientific research and effective altruism. Prior to that, he was a research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University.This talk was taken from EA Global Asia and Pacific 2020. Click here to watch the talk with the PowerPoint presentation.Effective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer pr...
2021-05-21
25 min
EA Talks
Estimation and forecasting: an overview | Amanda Ngo | EA Student Summit
Amanda shares reasons to be excited about forecasting, walks through a process to forecast questions you care about, and shows how Ought’s tool, Elicit, can be helpful for this.From Amanda’s Website: Amanda Ngo works at Ought, a startup building tools to automate complex reasoning. Check out their forecasting product, Elicit! She love co-opting friends into social experiments, understanding how brains work, and figuring out what it means to live a good life.”This talk was taken from EA Student Summit 2020. Click here to watch the talk with the PowerPoint presentation.Effect...
2021-05-18
21 min
EA Talks
How to make a difference by pledging to give more, and more effectively | Luke Freeman
We have an amazing opportunity to significantly improve the world with the resources we have, if we use them effectively. Giving What We Can is a community of people committed to giving more, and giving more effectively.Luke Freeman manages Giving What We Can. He is also an active volunteer with various social impact focused projects (EAGxAustralia, Effective Altruism Australia, EA Sydney, Global Shapers Community). He has a background in marketing with a focus on growing early-stage technology startups (Positly, Sendle, TuShare, Coviu). He holds degrees and diplomas in media and communications from Macquarie University and Simon...
2021-05-14
25 min
EA Talks
How to help group members make effective career plans | Huw Thomas & Alex Holness-Tofts
Huw and Alex talk about some of the resources and events they’ve found most useful for helping group members with career planning. The workshop aims to be a broad overview, particularly for group leaders without much previous experience of guiding group members through career decisions.Huw Thomas develops resources for EA university groups, and assists them with strategy and planning. Before joining CEA, he studied mathematics and philosophy at the University of Oxford. He has been funded by a CEA community building grant to work on various projects, including leading the EA Oxford student group and la...
2021-05-11
23 min
EA Talks
Bringing techno-globalism back: a romantically realist reframing of the US-China tech relationship | Jeffrey Ding
Talk of decoupling, an AI arms race, and a tech Cold War abounds. These prominent narratives are rooted in the core assumption of techno-nationalism – that the nation-state is the key unit of analysis for understanding the global technology landscape. Yet, technology advances in a globalizing world. Jeffrey Ding outlines the case for bringing techno-globalism back – not the “end of geography” version, which is an easy target, but a romantically realist version – into debates about the US-China tech relationship.As the China lead for the Centre for the Governance of AI, Jeffrey Ding researches China’s development of AI at the Fu...
2021-05-07
24 min
EA Talks
Fireside Chat | Jaan Tallinn
Jaan Tallinn is a founding engineer of Skype and Kazaa. He is a co-founder of the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, Future of Life Institute, and philanthropically supports other existential risk research organisations. Jaan is on the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (thebulletin.org), and has served on the High-Level Expert Group on AI at the European Commission, as well as on the Estonian President’s Academic Advisory Board. He is also an active angel investor, a partner at Ambient Sound Investments, and a former investor director of the AI company De...
2021-05-04
25 min
EA Talks
International agreements to spend percentage of GDP on global public goods | Hauke Hillebrandt
Hauke reviews international agreements to spend a percentage of GDP on public goods such as aid (0.7%), defence (NATO’s 2% target), R&D, global governance, etc. He shows how these agreements interact with priorities in effective altruism because they are large in scale, solve (global) public good dilemmas, and relate to differential technological development. Finally, he argues that we should advocate for a new international agreement to spend 1% of GDP on global risk reduction.Hauke Hillebrandt is a research associate at the Center for Global Development. His focus is on global cooperation and the Commitment to Development Index, wh...
2021-04-30
29 min
EA Talks
Against Malaria Foundation: the impact of accountability | Rob Mather
The Against Malaria Foundation is one of the most effective global health charities in the world, and the single most common donation target for EA Survey respondents (2018 and 2019). What makes this organization so special? How do they approach their work, and what challenges do they face? Founder and CEO Rob Mather answers these questions.Rob Mather is the founder and CEO of The Against Malaria Foundation. AMF has now raised more than $190 million, funding 86 million anti-mosquito bed nets protecting 155 million people in 35 countries, mainly in Africa.AMF uses technology, rigorous processes and clear accountability to e...
2021-04-27
25 min
EA Talks
Why effective altruism is central to rebuilding social capital and egalitarianism | Andrew Leigh MP
Over the past few decades, many advanced nations have become more disconnected. People have fewer friends, join fewer organisations, and are less likely to be members of political parties, churches and unions. At the same time, inequality is on the rise. By focusing on rigorous impact, effective altruism can boost the quality and quantity of philanthropy, helping to replace individualism and isolation with collectivism and cooperation.Andrew Leigh is the Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury and Charities, and Federal Member for Fenner in the ACT. Prior to being elected in 2010, Andrew was a professor of economics at...
2021-04-23
25 min
EA Talks
Operations Career Stories | Alfredo Parra, Marisa Jurczyk, Anne le Roux
Alfredo supports the Legal Priorities Project in operations. Before joining, he worked as Operations Analyst and then COO at the Center on Long-Term Risk and its parent organization, the Effective Altruism Foundation. He has a BSc in Engineering Physics from Tec de Monterrey, Mexico, and an MSc and a PhD in Computational Science from the … Operations Career Stories | Alfredo Parra, Marisa Jurczyk, Anne le Roux Read More »
2021-04-20
15 min
EA Talks
Meeting corporate cage-free egg pledges through impact incentives | Jayasimha Nuggehalli
Jayasimha talks about the work of Global Food Partners to build the capacity of producers and provide them with financial incentives to transition to cage-free egg production successfully.From Jayasimha’s bio: “Currently, I am the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Global Food Partners. Under my leadership, I conceptualize, plan, and implement key initiatives to promote higher welfare production systems in the food sector. I also spearhead the development of innovative traceability and supply chain solutions for animal-sourced protein. In addition, I liaise with senior staff, stakeholders, and donors to ensure that the organisation’s support struct...
2021-04-16
22 min
EA Talks
Seizing opportunities to improve animal welfare in Taiwan | Jonathon Tree
Work to improve the welfare of farmed animals is in its infancy; this is especially the case in the Asia Pacific. Thus, it is likely the most effective solutions lie ahead of us. Jonathon shares reflections on novel strategies based on EAST’s (benevolently) opportunistic approach to achieving change for animals in Taiwan.This episode relies more on the PowerPoint, so feel free to click below to watch Jonathon’s talk on YouTube.This talk was taken from EA Global Asia and Pacific 2020. Click here to watch the talk with the PowerPoint presentation.Effe...
2021-04-13
24 min
EA Talks
Australians’ perceptions of global catastrophic risks | Emily Grundy
Emily provides an introduction to the research collaboration READI – an organisation that conducts collaborative research to further the aims of the effective altruism movement. She outlines recent findings from the Survey of COVID-19 Responses to Understand Behaviour (SCRUB), which grew out of READI, regarding what the Australian public thinks about global catastrophic risks.This talk relies much on the PowerPoint presentation, so feel free to watch the presentation on YouTube via the link below.This talk was taken from EA Global Asia and Pacific 2020. Click here to watch the talk with the PowerPoint presentation....
2021-04-09
24 min
EA Talks
Transforming how data drives decision-making in global development | Tony Senanayake
Despite the buzz around data-driven decision-making, it’s much easier to say than to do. Tony shares how IDinsight developed its Learning Partnership model to enable global development decision-makers – from government ministers to NGO leaders – to use real-time data to inform their policies and programs. He shares how IDinsight’s embedded teams are able to be reactive to changing social and political landscapes, transforming how poverty is addressed globally. Prior to joining IDinsight, Tony worked as a researcher with the International Growth Center in partnership with Yale University on the design of evaluations looking at the impact of rural...
2021-04-06
22 min
EA Talks
Starting a charity: the power of contextual expertise | Nikita Patel & Corrina Vali
Considering starting your own charity? Nikita and Corrina discuss Fortify Health‘s startup journey, and the room for improvement in one important part of the current charity-startup landscape: contextual expertise. They make the call for more country-based founders to consider starting new, effective organisations and applying to the Charity Entrepreneurship programme.Nikita Patel previously worked in global health communications at Malaria Consortium. She’s also worked as Research & Outreach Intern at the Centre for Effective Altruism, and Project Manager at Voenna Rampa Refugee Camp in Bulgaria. She graduated from University of Oxford with a BA in French and G...
2021-04-02
25 min
EA Talks
Our latest research and recommendations on climate change | Johannes Ackva
In this episode, Johannes shares his thoughts on climate from an EA perspective including the latest recommendations from Founders Pledge on how to have an outsized impact through donations, as well as reflections on opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region.Johannes joined the research team of Founders Pledge in 2019. He brings five years of experience working in a think tank advising decision-makers on climate policy, and has also researched the intersection between effective and feasible climate policies. Johannes holds an M.A. in social sciences from the University of Chicago and an M.Sc. in Sociology with a...
2021-03-30
26 min
EA Talks
Moral standing and cause prioritization | Jason Schukraft
In this episode, Jason explains why it’s important to determine which creatures have moral standing and how that knowledge might affect the way we prioritize interventions and causes. He showcases one method for grappling with this problem, and outlines what skills are necessary to make progress in this area.Jason Schukraft is a Senior Research Manager at Rethink Priorities. Before joining the RP team, Jason earned his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin. Jason specializes in questions at the intersection of epistemology and applied ethics.This talk was taken from EA...
2021-03-26
22 min
EA Talks
Journalism and accurately communicating EA ideas | Rob Wiblin, Michael Levine, and Kelsey Piper
A journalist, podcaster and communications expert talk about how to best explain EA ideas to the public — maximising understanding and minimising frustration.Rob Wiblin studied both genetics and economics at the Australian National University (ANU), graduating top of his class and being named Young Alumnus of the Year in 2015. He worked as a research economist in various Australian Government agencies, and then moved to the UK to work at the Centre for Effective Altruism, first as Research Director, then Executive Director, then Research Director for 80,000 Hours. He was founding board Secretary for Animal Charity Evaluators and is a...
2021-03-23
22 min
EA Talks
Naïve effective altruism and the danger of neglecting psychology | Stefan Schubert
Stefan discusses the importance of considering our own and others’ emotions and psychological limits when practising effective altruism.Stephan Schubert is a researcher at the Social Behaviour and Ethics Lab, University of Oxford, working in the intersection of moral psychology and philosophy. He focuses on psychological questions of relevance to effective altruism, such as why our altruistic actions are often ineffective, and why we don’t invest more in safe-guarding our common future. He was previously a researcher at the Centre for Effective Altruism, and a postdoc in philosophy at the London School of Economics. This...
2021-03-19
17 min
EA Talks
Self-care: balancing sacrifice and renewal | Daniel Kestenholz
Daniel talks about why self-care is challenging yet essential for almost anything you care about, and how you can manage your resources more deliberately.Quote from Daniel’s bio: “In my coaching practice, I help people in the effective altruism community face difficult challenges and make their biggest contribution to the world while taking care of themselves. I love to enter someone’s world and help them do what they’re capable of. It’s one of the most fulfilling things for me. Besides, coaching also pushes me into my own learning zone very consistently. I’ve grown just a...
2021-03-16
24 min
EA Talks
Artificial Intelligence Career Stories | Evan Hubinger and Caroline Jeanmaire
In this episode, Evan and Caroline share personal stories about their careers surrounding artificial intelligence.Evan Hubinger was an AI safety research intern at OpenAI before joining MIRI. His current work is aimed at solving inner alignment for iterated amplification. Evan was an author on “Risks from Learned Optimization in Advanced Machine Learning Systems,” was previously a MIRI intern, designed the functional programming language Coconut, and has done software engineering work at Google, Yelp, and Ripple. Evan studied math and computer science at Harvey Mudd College.Caroline Jeanmaire leads CHAI’s partnership and external relations strate...
2021-03-12
11 min
EA Talks
How students will lead the alternative protein revolution | Amy Huang
Industrial animal agriculture sits at the intersection of many of the most pressing challenges facing human and non-human animal kind. To alleviate these pressures in the wake of rising global meat demand, we must accelerate the development of alternative proteins that compete with their conventional animal counterparts on the basis of taste, price, and convenience. Students are uniquely positioned to drive this food system transformation by influencing some of the most powerful institutions in our economy—colleges and universities. Join The Good Food Institute’s Amy Huang to learn about how you can turn your university into a powerhouse for...
2021-03-09
26 min
EA Talks
CEA strategy update | Max Dalton & Joan Gass
Max Dalton (Executive Director) and Joan Gass (Managing Director) from the Centre for Effective Altruism provide an update on CEA’s movement building strategy and answer questions from the audience.Centre for Effective Altruism, or CEA, is an organization whose mission is to build a community of students and professionals acting on EA principles, by creating and sustaining high-quality discussion spaces. CEA believes that by connecting students and young professionals with relevant experts, they can help them consider their values and find an effective way to contribute that is a good fit for their skills and inclinations.
2021-03-05
28 min
EA Talks
80,000 Hours: Key Ideas with Ben Todd
80,000 Hours is a non-profit that provides research and support to help people switch into careers that effectively tackle the world’s most pressing problems. Ben discusses the most useful things they’ve learned so far.Ben Todd managed 80,000 Hours while it grew from a lecture, to a student society, to the organisation it is today. Before 80,000 Hours, he was the first undergraduate to intern as an analyst at a top investment fund. He has a 1st from Oxford in Physics and Philosophy, and has published in Climate Physics.This talk was taken from EA Student Summ...
2021-03-02
22 min
EA Talks
How I think students should orient to AI safety | Buck Shlegeris
Buck argues that students should engage with AI safety by trying to actually assess the arguments and the safety proposals. He claims that this is doable and useful.Buck Shlegeris is a researcher at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute. Buck works to make the future good for sentient beings; at the moment he believes that working on existential risk from artificial intelligence is my best bet for doing this.This talk was taken from EA Student Summit 2020. Click here to watch the talk with the PowerPoint presentation.Effective Altruism is a social movement...
2021-02-26
14 min
EA Talks
SCI Foundation: deworming done differently | Katie Fantaguzzi
SCI Foundation has been selected by GiveWell as one of its most effective charities every year since 2009. How does SCI reach and improve the lives of the poorest of the poor? What is unique about this organisation’s approach and outsized impact? Senior Monitoring, Evaluation, and Research Advisor Katie Fantaguzzi discusses SCI’s progress toward its vision to eliminate preventable disease.This talk was taken from EA Global Asia and Pacific 2020. Click here to watch the talk with the PowerPoint presentation.Effective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good...
2021-02-23
22 min
EA Talks
Global Health and Development Career Stories | Nikita Patel
Nikita co-founded Fortify Health, a wheat flour fortification initiative based in India, with Brendan Eappen in 2017. They launched Fortify Health with a seed grant and support from what was to become Charity Entrepreneurship, and have since received two GiveWell incubation grants to scale up wheat flour fortification in Maharashtra and West Bengal, India. Nikita previously worked in communications at Malaria Consortium, and has also been a Research and Outreach Intern at the Centre for Effective Altruism. She graduated from Oxford University with a BA in French and German, and enjoys cooking, language learning, and cycling.This talk w...
2021-02-19
07 min
EA Talks
Getting a career in global development | Tony Senanayake
Are you thinking about how to practically pursue a career with an effective altruism aligned organization but do not come from a traditional background? Tony has lived many lives including as a management consultant, lawyer and now global development practitioner. Tony discusses the role that active experimentation has had in shaping his current world view as an effective altruist.This talk was taken from EA Student Summit 2020. Click here to watch the talk with the PowerPoint presentation.Effective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through...
2021-02-16
24 min
EA Talks
Building a strong community through effective altruism groups | Catherine Low
Catherine shares the Centre for Effective Altruism’s latest thinking about the key role that EA groups play in building our community, suggests possible goals for groups, and outlines the support available to groups if you’re currently organising a group or keen to learn more about how to start one.Catherine Low is a Groups Support Contractor for Center for Effective Altruism. Catherine provides support to effective altruism groups around the world. Before joining CEA, she managed the Students for High-Impact Charity program and taught science, physics, and ethics at the high school level. She is also...
2021-02-12
22 min
EA Talks
Doing good as a student: tradeoffs and project ideas | Claire Zabel
Claire discusses different potential high-impact approaches to one’s time as a student, and the tradeoffs between them, such as pursuing opportunities to gain career capital vs. doing directly impactful research. She focuses on the conditions under which she thinks students should and shouldn’t try to do community building and high-impact projects as students, and some particular project options she thinks are potentially promising for some students, largely from a longtermist perspective.Claire Zabel is a program officer on global catastrophic risks for Open Philanthropy. She leads Open Philanthropy’s grantmaking on effective altruism and does resear...
2021-02-09
22 min
EA Talks
Which cause to work on? | Kit Harris
This is a talk for people who want to figure out which cause to work on and are just getting started in doing so.Kit Harris leads on grant investigations and researches promising fields at Longview Philanthropy. He also writes about our recommendations and research for our philanthropists. Prior to focusing on high-impact philanthropic work, Kit worked as a credit derivatives trader with J.P. Morgan. During that time, he donated the majority of his income to high-impact charities. Kit holds a first class degree in mathematics from the University of Oxford.This talk was t...
2021-02-05
22 min
EA Talks
WANBAM: Our successes, challenges, and opportunities to get involved | Kathryn Mecrow-Flynn
Kathryn Mecrow-Flynn, the Founder and CEO of WANBAM, discusses the lessons learnt during WANBAM’s first year of operation. She talks about the opportunities for getting involved and the possibilities for similar mentorship schemes in the community.Founded in 2019, WANBAM connects and supports a global network of women, trans people of any gender, and non-binary people interested in effective altruism through mentorship.This talk was taken from EA Global Asia and Pacific 2020. Click here to watch the talk with the PowerPoint presentation.Effective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do...
2021-02-02
26 min
EA Talks
Dual moral obligations and international cooperation against global catastrophic risks | Jenny Xiao
The fight against global catastrophic risks (GCRs) requires international cooperation, yet it is often challenging to foster genuine collaboration among different countries. Jenny Xiao, a PhD student at Columbia University, reconceptualizes international cooperation decisions as a tradeoff between “dual moral obligations” towards the nation and humanity as a whole. How countries think about this tradeoff shapes their willingness to contribute to collective efforts against GCRs.This talk was taken from EA Global Asia and Pacific 2020. Click here to watch the talk with the PowerPoint presentation.Effective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to d...
2021-01-29
24 min
EA Talks
Fireside chat | Peter Singer
In this episode, Peter and Wanyi have a brief conversation about the direction of EA, movement building strategies, and how to feel about people who do not donate money.Peter Singer has written, co-authored, edited or co-edited more than 40 books, including Animal Liberation, Practical Ethics, The Life You Can Save, and The Most Good You Can Do. His writings have inspired both the animal rights movement and effective altruism, and he is the founder of the charity The Life You Can Save.This talk was taken from EA Global Asia and Pacific 2020. Click here to...
2021-01-26
24 min
EA Talks
Using “Back of the Envelope Calculations” (BOTECs) to prioritize interventions | Zachary Robinson
Zach talks about why, when, and how to use “Back Of The Envelope Calculations” (BOTECs) to inform altruistic decision-making and walks through an example to demonstrate key concepts.Zachary Robinson is a research fellow at open philanthropy. Open Philanthropy is an organization whose mission is to give as effectively as they can and share their findings openly so that anyone can build on their work. Through research and grantmaking, Open Philanthropy hopes to learn how to make philanthropy go especially far in terms of improving lives. They are passionate about maximizing the impact of our giving, and are...
2021-01-22
23 min
EA Talks
Expansion of animal advocacy and concern for wild animal suffering in India | Aditya SK
Aditya examines ways to expand animal advocacy in India; especially concern and research about wild animal suffering which has great potential for reducing aggregate suffering. Given the historically positive attitude of the Indian cultural and legal systems towards non-human animals, strategic outreach to advocates, academics and policy-makers by organizations like Animal Ethics could potentially influence structural changes to reduce the suffering of sentient beings in the wild.Aditya is a coordinator at Animal Ethics. Animal Ethics is an organization that was formed to provide information and promote discussion and debate about issues in animal ethics, and to...
2021-01-19
22 min
EA Talks
Decoupling: a technique for reducing bias | David Manley
Overcoming confirmation bias in our thinking requires decoupling: evaluating the strength of new evidence independently from our prior views. David explains how to implement some easy cognitive techniques that have been shown to help us successfully decouple; and how even informal decoupling approximates Bayesian reasoning.David Manley is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His research has been mainly about semantics, ontology, probability, and evidence. But lately He has been thinking about conditions for rationality and well-being—not just for individual people, but also for groups, animals, and other cognitive systems....
2021-01-15
24 min
EA Talks
Outlook on the emerging field of wild animal welfare research | Michelle Graham and Oscar Horta
Michelle and Oscar discuss the wide variety of research areas relevant to wild animal welfare, the career and educational pathways to conducting such research, and how you can support the movement along the way.Michelle Graham is the Executive Director of Wild Animal Initiative. Her projects have included work on prioritizing and categorizing different interventions. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Engineering Mechanics at Virginia Tech; her dissertation concerns the movement behaviors of jumping and gliding snakes. Michelle previously studied physics and philosophy at the University of Oxford, and has worked with animals in shelter, veterinary...
2021-01-12
25 min
EA Talks
Mitigating catastrophic biorisks | Kevin Esvelt
In a world now painfully aware of pandemics, with ever-increasing access to autonomous biological agents, how can we help channel society’s response to COVID-19 to minimize the risk of deliberate misuse? Using the challenge of securing DNA synthesis as an example, Kevin outlines the key norms and incentives governing biotechnology, lays out potential strategies for reform, and suggests ways in which thoughtful individuals might help safely and credibly discuss and mitigate biorisks without spreading information hazards.Kevin Michael Esvelt is an American biologist. He is currently an assistant professor at the MIT Media Lab and leads th...
2021-01-08
25 min
EA Talks
Cellular agriculture: futureproofing our food systems for humans, animals and our planet | Bianca Le
Bianca Le is the founder and director of Cellular Agriculture Australia. CAA is a nonprofit organization with the mission of improving human health and building resilient food systems in Australia. They do this by promoting and accelerating the development of healthy and sustainable animal proteins through research and development in cellular agriculture.Cellular agriculture is an emerging research field dedicated to developing food for our growing population without sacrificing our planet. Modern biomedical technology can be applied to food science to farm meat, eggs and dairy directly from cells, not animals. Cellular agriculture has the potential to...
2021-01-05
24 min
EA Talks
GiveWell’s current progress and priorities | Olivia Larsen
Olivia discusses GiveWell’s current work and forward priorities, including new areas of GiveWell’s research, as well as sharing some updates on some of GiveWell’s projects in Asia.GiveWell is a nonprofit dedicated to finding outstanding giving opportunities and publishing the full details of their analysis to help donors decide where to give. Unlike charity evaluators that focus solely on financials, assessing administrative or fundraising costs, GiveWell conducts in-depth research aiming to determine how much good a given program accomplishes (in terms of lives saved, lives improved, etc.) per dollar spent. Rather than try to...
2021-01-01
25 min
EA Talks
Biosecurity Career Story | Dr Tara Kirk Sell
In this episode, Dr Sell talks about her history with Olympic swimming, how she came to work on biosecurity, and what she is working on now during the pandemic.Dr. Sell is a Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. At the Center, she conducts, manages, and leads research projects to develop a greater understanding of potentially large-scale health events. She also serves as an Associate Editor of the peer-reviewed journal Health Security...
2020-12-29
08 min
EA Talks
Reducing global catastrophic biological risks | Jaime Yassif
Jaime discusses NTI’s new report, “Preventing Global Catastrophic Biological Risks”. In February 2020, during the Munich Security Conference, NTI convened senior leaders from around the world for a scenario-based tabletop exercise designed to identify gaps in global capabilities to prevent and respond to high-consequence biological events. The report summarizes the exercise and provides recommendations from the organizers.Jaime Yassif is a senior fellow for global biological policy and programs at NTI. She is currently leading several major biosecurity projects, with a particular focus on reducing global catastrophic biological risks.The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) is a non...
2020-12-22
24 min
EA Talks
Doing empirical global priorities research: the question of civilizational collapse and recovery| Luisa Rodriguez
Luisa Rodriguez discusses approaches to global priorities research, focusing on answering important empirical questions. She uses her recent work on civilizational collapse and recovery as a case study.Luisa Rodriguez is research fellow at the Forethought Foundation for Global Priorities Research. Previously, she researched nuclear war at Rethink Priorities and as a visiting researcher at the Future of Humanity Institute. Before that, she conducted cost-effectiveness evaluations of nonprofit and government programs at ImpactMatters, Innovations for Poverty Action, and GiveWell (as a summer intern).This talk was taken from EA Student Summit 2020. Click here to watch...
2020-12-18
25 min
EA Talks
Evidence, cluelessness and the long term | Hilary Greaves
Principles of effective altruism counsel paying close attention to the evidence, to find the most cost-effective opportunities to do good. But evidence covers only the more immediate effects of any intervention, and it’s highly likely the vast majority of the value is thereby omitted from the calculation. Hilary discusses the range of possible responses to this fact, and in particular whether it supports or instead undermines “longtermism”.This talk was taken from EA Student Summit 2020. Click here to watch the talk with the PowerPoint presentation.Effective Altruism is a social moveme...
2020-12-15
31 min
EA Talks
A new tool for evaluating opportunities to help farm animals globally | Lucas Alvarenga
How does an EA-minded multinational farmed animal organization evaluate its priorities to have the greatest impact in such a complex global context? Lucas talks about a new tool that Mercy For Animals is developing to help international organizations and globally-minded and impact-driven funders to help make more strategic decisions for animals.Lucas Alvarenga is the Vice President of Mercy For Animals (MFA) Brasil. Mercy For Animals is an organization that exists to end one of the greatest causes of suffering on the planet: the exploitation of animals for food, in particular, industrial animal agriculture, aquaculture, and fishing...
2020-12-11
14 min
EA Talks
Suvita’s first year: Vaccines in the spotlight | Fiona Conlon
In this episode, Fiona Conlon discusses Suvita’s first year as a new nonprofit, highlighting how their work has been shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic and considering its implications for vaccination more broadly.Fiona Conlon is the co-founder of Suvita. Suvita is a nonprofit organization that implements two rigorously tested solutions which have been found to increase uptake of vaccinations in India:• Building a network of carefully selected volunteer immunization ambassadors, who share information with new parents in their community about local vaccine clinics.• Sending personalized SMS reminders to caregivers informing them when their child...
2020-12-08
24 min
EA Talks
EAGxVirtual 2020: Q&A with Toby Ord
Note from EARadio: I originally used the wrong audio for this episode. Instead of this Q&A, it was a talk by Toby that summarized The Precipice. Sorry!Toby Ord is a philosopher at Oxford University’s Future of Humanity Institute. His work focuses on the big picture questions facing humanity. What are the most important issues of our time? How can we best address them?Toby’s earlier work explored the ethics of global health and global poverty. This led him to create an international society called Giving What We Can, whose memb...
2020-07-22
53 min
EA Talks
EAGxVirtual 2020: COVID-19: GiveDirectly’s emergency cash response (Rachel Waddell)
In this talk, Rachel Waddell provides an overview of GiveDirectly’s rapid response to COVID-19 across countries of operation. In particular explaining remote responses launched in Uganda and Kenya, in partnership with local CBOs and telecommunications partners.HomeOriginal VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube.
2020-07-17
41 min
EA Talks
EAGxVirtual 2020: The latest advice from 80,000 Hours (Michelle Hutchinson and Arden Koehler)
Michelle Hutchinson (Head of Advising) and Arden Koehler (Research Analyst) answer questions about 80,000 Hours’ career advice, the career advising programme, and what’s new at the organization.Original VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube.
2020-07-16
51 min
EA Talks
EAGxVirtual 2020: Q&A with Will MacAskill
William MacAskill is an Associate Professor in Philosophy at Oxford University. He was educated at Cambridge, Princeton, and Oxford and is one of the progenitors of the effective altruism movement. His book on the topic, Doing Good Better, was published by Penguin Random House in 2015. He is the co-founder of three non-profits based on effective altruist principles: Giving What We Can, 80,000 Hours and the Centre for Effective Altruism, and is also a research fellow at the Global Priorities Institute.Original VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most...
2020-07-15
51 min
EA Talks
EAGxVirtual 2020: Q&A with Marcus Davis (Co-Executive Director of Rethink Priorities)
Marcus is a co-founder and Co-Executive Director at Rethink Priorities, where he leads research and strategy. He’s also a co-founder of Charity Entrepreneurship and Charity Science Health, where he previously systematically analyzed global poverty interventions, helped manage partnerships, and implemented the technical aspects of the project. Marcus is especially well placed to advise people who: – are considering working for EA organizations – are considering starting EA organizations – are considering becoming researchers at EA organizations – are current or prospective animal welfare researchersOriginal VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most g...
2020-07-14
57 min
EA Talks
EAGxVirtual 2020: Doing the most good for animals post COVID-19 (Lewis Bollard)
How has COVID-19 changed the best way to help animals? Lewis explores the new challenges and opportunities in corporate campaigns, political advocacy, and meat alternatives.https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfareOriginal VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube.
2020-07-13
41 min
EA Talks
EAGxVirtual 2020: Ensuring safety and consistency in the age of machine learning (Chongli Qin)
Machine learning algorithms have become an essential part of technology and this part will only grow in the future. In this talk, Chongli addresses why it is important for us to develop safe machine learning algorithms. The talk covers some of the current work on this topic and highlights what we can do to ensure that the machine learning algorithms being bought into the real world are safe and consistent with desirable specifications.https://deepmind.comOriginal VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good...
2020-07-12
42 min
EA Talks
EAGxVirtual 2020: Identifying the most cost effective programs to improve mental health (Jasper Synowski)
Even though mental disorders account for a considerable burden of disease globally and appear to strongly impact an individuals’ subjective well-being, the EA community has spent relatively little effort on identifying the best mental health giving opportunities. This talk provides an introduction to the Happier Lives Institute’s Mental Health Programme Evaluation Project (MHPEP), which aims to fill this gap. In this talk, Jasper introduces the research process to date and shares preliminary insights, along with limitations of the approach.For in-depth preparation, we recommend reading our latest post about the project on the EA Forum:http...
2020-07-11
40 min
EA Talks
EAGxVirtual 2020: Project Management 101
In this workshop, Habiba gives a run-down of the essentials of project management. The workshop covers the responsibilities of project managers as well as the standard tools and methodologies that can be used for large projects or scaled down for smaller projects. This video will be particularly useful for people interested in operations roles.Link to slidesLink to handoutClarification:The definition of the critical path of a project is the longest sequence of activities in a project plan which must be completed to complete a project. Calculating this gives you...
2020-07-10
1h 00
EA Talks
EAGxVirtual 2020: Mitigating catastrophic biorisks (Kevin Esvelt)
In a world now painfully aware of pandemics, with ever-increasing access to autonomous biological agents, how can we help channel society’s response to COVID-19 to minimize the risk of deliberate misuse? Using the challenge of securing DNA synthesis as an example, Kevin outlines the key norms and incentives governing biotechnology, lays out potential strategies for reform, and suggests ways in which thoughtful individuals might help safely and credibly discuss and mitigate biorisks without spreading information hazards.http://www.sculptingevolution.orgOriginal VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to...
2020-07-09
44 min
EA Talks
EAGxVirtual 2020: Why you (yes, you) should post on the EA Forum (Aaron Gertler)
The EA Forum is the best place to share a message where the EA community will see it. And there’s a very good chance that you have a message worth sharing! Aaron discusses common features of excellent Forum posts and runs a brainstorming session where participants submit post ideas to get live feedback.A companion document for the presentation, which contains additional resources, is available here.Original VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer pr...
2020-07-08
1h 00
EA Talks
EAGxVirtual 2020: How social science research can inform AI governance (Baobao Zhang)
Baobao Zhang explains how social science research can help those in governments, tech companies, and advocacy organizations make decisions regarding AI governance. After explaining her research on public attitudes toward AI and automation, she explores other important topics of research. She also reflects on how researchers could make broad impacts outside of academia.Recommended reading:https://governanceai.github.io/US-Public-Opinion-Report-Jan-2019Public opinion lessons for AI regulationClick to access GovAI-Agenda.pdfOriginal VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways...
2020-07-07
40 min
EA Talks
EAGxVirtual 2020: Maximize your impact for animals (Jamie Harris)
In this talk, Jamie Harris introduces some key concepts involved in planning your career so that you can maximize your impact for animals.Original VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube.
2020-07-06
35 min
EA Talks
EAGxVirtual 2020: Growth and the case against randomista development (Hauke Hillebrandt)
In this talk, which is based on a collaboration with John Halstead, Hauke makes the case against randomista development, a form of development economics which evaluates and promotes interventions that can be tested by randomised controlled trials. He argues that research on and advocacy for economic growth in low-income countries is more effective than randomista development interventions, and that assessing the soundness of these arguments should be a key focus for current generation-focused EAs over the next few years.Hauke and John’s Forum post:https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/bsE5t6qhGC65fEpzN/growth-and-the-case-against-randomista-development...
2020-07-05
38 min
EA Talks
EAGxVirtual 2020: Building a diverse and inclusive movement (Julia Wise)
Why is EA not more demographically diverse? Why does it matter? What can we do?Original VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube.
2020-07-04
40 min
EA Talks
EAGxVirtual 2020: How to guard the guardians themselves—Strategies to support political decision-making (Max Stauffer)
Political institutions, such as governments and international organizations, are instrumental in designing large-scale coordination mechanisms and collective action. However, political decision-making is difficult to both achieve and optimise for many reasons. Examples include their collective nature, their high stakes, the complexity of policy problems and slow feedback loops to learn from implementation. The support and improvement of political decision-making could, therefore, be highly impactful. The ultimate question is: what works? This talk delves into the impact, evidence and implementability of four popular strategies to strengthen political decision-making and delineates recommendations for further work.Original Video...
2020-07-03
41 min
EA Talks
EAGxVirtual 2020: Lightning Talks
Following a rigorous selection process, we’re pleased to present the following five-minute lightning talks.Cecilia TilliAntimicrobial resistance: A cause that joins global health and development with longtermism and biosecurity?Noga AharonyAiming towards a biosecurity career from grad schoolJennifer-Justine KirschThe next frontier: Lessons learned from an EA fish startupSid EfromovichIntroducing Generation PledgeMichael AirdWhy we need a database of existential risk estimatesJessica McCurdyThe case for virtual cross-university fellowshipsRoy Head
2020-07-02
58 min
EA Talks
EAGxVirtual 2020: Evidence-informed decision-making in global health and development (Ruth Levine and Caitlin Tulloch)
This session opens up a conversation about the strengths and limitations of the use of data and evidence for allocating resources to and across priorities within the field of global health and development. Caitlin and Ruth highlight examples where rigorous evidence contributed to high-impact decisions, yielding large benefits. They also address key critiques of the use of evidence, as it has been promoted in the past 15 years, and suggest ways in which the evidence-informed policymaking agenda could evolve.Original VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good...
2020-07-01
44 min
EA Talks
EAGxVirtual 2020: An update to our thinking on climate change (Johannes Ackva)
In this talk, Johannes presents Founders Pledge’s thinking on effective climate solutions including insights from their latest research. This includes a novel framing of the issue, key conclusions from their recent report on climate and lifestyle, updates on their research on high-impact charities, and more.https://founderspledge.com/stories/climate-and-lifestyle-reportOriginal VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this ta...
2020-06-30
40 min
EA Talks
EAGxVirtual 2020: Persistence and reversibility of wild animal welfare interventions (Simon Eckerström-Liedholm)
When we try to improve wild animal welfare, we want the effects of our efforts to persist long into the future, rather than to wash out. However, we also want to maintain the ability to undo our actions if they turn out to be harmful. In this talk, Simon outlines how we can optimise these two objectives, and apply the framework to some specific examples.https://www.wildanimalinitiative.orgOriginal VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices...
2020-06-29
41 min
EA Talks
EAGxVirtual 2020: Reasons you might think human level AI soon is unlikely (Asya Bergal)
If we knew that human-level AI was implausible within the next 20 years, we would take different actions to improve the long-term future. Asya talks about her investigations into reasons people say we won’t have human-level AI soon, including survey data, trends in compute, and arguments that current machine learning techniques are insufficient.AI ImpactsOriginal VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can al...
2020-06-28
36 min
EA Talks
EAGxVirtual 2020: Developing a research agenda for bridging peace and conflict studies and existential risk (Noah Taylor)
In this talk, Noah Taylor explores the importance of bridging the fields of peace and conflict studies with existential risk and proposes a preliminary research agenda.Original VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube.
2020-06-27
39 min
EA Talks
EAGxVirtual 2020: Tools for decision making (Joey Savoie)
In order to be effective at any job, particularly one where you make many high-stakes decisions such as founding or leading a charity, you must be a good decision-maker. A good decision-maker needs to implement a number of strategies and decision-making heuristics. In this talk, Joey discusses the benefits of using multiple different systems and heuristics when making important decisions and apply different frameworks to an example decision.Recommended reading:Sequence thinking vs. cluster thinkinghttps://www.charityentrepreneurship.com/blog/using-a-spreadsheet-to-make-good-decisions-five-examplesOriginal VideoEffective Altruism is a...
2020-06-26
39 min
EA Talks
EAGxVirtual 2020: Animal advocacy in a global context (Marianne van der Werf)
Animal suffering is a global problem that requires action on a global level. How can we think about effectiveness across geographical and cultural contexts? How can North American and European advocates support advocacy in other parts of the world, such as India and China, in responsible and impactful ways? This talk explores the pros and cons of different approaches to international advocacy.Original VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for...
2020-06-25
42 min
EA Talks
Q & A with Peter Singer (University of Melbourne Effective Altruism)
This is a recording of a video-chat Q&A session with Peter Singer, hosted by the Effective Altruism University of Melbourne club. Topics covered include animal welfare, extreme poverty, and Effective Altruism and its critics, mostly at an introductory to intermediate level.Original VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube.
2020-05-31
1h 44
EA Talks
Virtual EAG 2020: Closing remarks (Will MacAskill)
William MacAskill is an Associate Professor in Philosophy at Oxford University. He was educated at Cambridge, Princeton, and Oxford and is one of the progenitors of the effective altruism movement. His book on the topic, Doing Good Better, was published by Penguin Random House in 2015.He is the cofounder of three non-profits based on effective altruist principles: Giving What We Can, 80,000 Hours, and the Centre for Effective Altruism. He is also a research fellow at the Global Priorities Institute.Original VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do...
2020-05-22
10 min
EA Talks
Virtual EAG 2020: Q&A with Leah Edgerton, executive director at Animal Charity Evaluators
Animal suffering is a global problem that requires action on a global level. How can we think about effectiveness across geographical and cultural contexts? How can North American and European advocates support advocacy in other parts of the world in responsible and impactful ways? In this talk, Leah explores the pros and cons of different approaches to international advocacy.Leah has been involved in the effective altruism community since 2011 and has been an animal advocate her whole life. From 2015 to 2017, she was an integral part of ACE’s communications team, building up their social media channels, growing th...
2020-05-21
41 min
EA Talks
Virtual EAG 2020: Q&A with Elie Hassenfeld, co-founder and CEO at GiveWell
Elie, the CEO and co-founder of GiveWell, discusses his organization’s latest research, his views on economic growth, and what he’s changed his mind on lately (among other topics).Elie co-founded GiveWell in 2007 alongside Holden Karnofsky. He also helps to set the strategy and oversee the work of Open Philanthropy, and chairs EA Funds’ Global Health and Development Fund.Before launching GiveWell, Elie graduated from Columbia University with a degree in religion and spent several years in the hedge fund industry.Original VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to fin...
2020-05-20
53 min
EA Talks
Virtual EAG 2020: Fireside chat—AI governance (Markus Anderljung and Ben Garfinkel)
Markus Anderljung and Ben Garfinkel discuss how they got into the field of AI governance and how the field has developed over the past few years. They discuss the question, “How sure are we about this AI stuff?”, and finish with an update on GovAI’s latest research and how to pursue a career in AI governance.Markus is a Project Manager at the Centre for the Governance of AI (“GovAI”). He is focused on growing GovAI and making their research relevant to important stakeholders. He has a background in history and philosophy of science, with a focus on e...
2020-05-19
41 min
EA Talks
Virtual EAG 2020: Identifying opportunities for farmed animals (Garcés, Leah)
What if a single tool could utilize animal numbers as well as economic, political, and cultural data from a multitude of countries to help effective altruists identify where and how they can make the greatest impact for animals? Learn about the new Farmed Animal Opportunities Index, an open-source tool that offers a research-backed formula for evaluating high-impact opportunities to help animals.Leah is an animal advocate who has partnered with some of the largest food companies in the world with a mission to end factory farming. She is the President of Mercy for Animals and established, and...
2020-05-18
19 min
EA Talks
Virtual EAG 2020: Facing the risk of nuclear war in the 21st Century (Carl Robichaud)
Nuclear weapons pose a grave threat to civilization. Public awareness of this threat has faded, but the weapons have not gone away. In fact, recent technological and geopolitical trends make nuclear war more likely than it has been in decades. Carl Robichaud discusses these developments and assesses the options for effective altruists seeking to contribute to nuclear risk reduction.As program officer in International Peace and Security at the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Carl manages a portfolio of grants to strengthen nuclear security. In this capacity, he heads the Corporation’s work on strengthening nuclear governance an...
2020-05-17
22 min
EA Talks
Virtual EAG 2020: Taking good food global (Richard Parr)
Richard discusses the international expansion of The Good Food Institute, and some of the special considerations that alternative proteins face in non-US regions.Richard leads GFI’s work in Europe. He worked as Special Adviser to the UK Prime Minister between 2012 and 2016, and as Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for International Development from 2010-12 and 2016-18. In government, his main focus was on international development policy, and he worked closely on the formation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Richard holds an MA in Modern History from Oxford University.View Richard’s slides here...
2020-05-16
32 min
EA Talks
Virtual EAG 2020: Finding equilibrium in a difficult time (Julia Wise)
Thoughts on handling anxiety and loneliness during the coronavirus quarantine.Read Julia’s full post on the EA Forum.Original VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube.
2020-05-15
02 min
EA Talks
Virtual EAG 2020: What’s been happening in AI alignment? (Rohin Shah)
While we haven’t yet built aligned AI, the field of alignment has been chugging along for a few years now, producing many useful outputs. In this talk, Rohin will survey conceptual progress in AI alignment over the last two years. While the talk will assume basic knowledge of the arguments for AI risk, technical knowledge is not necessary.Rohin is a 6th year PhD student in Computer Science working at the Center for Human-Compatible AI (CHAI) at UC Berkeley. While he started his PhD working on program synthesis, he became convinced that it was important for us...
2020-05-14
31 min
EA Talks
Virtual EAG 2020: Growing meat—A market-based approach to building an ethical food system (Zak Weston)
Plant-based, fermented, and cultivated protein technologies hold the potential to shift our food supply away from its dependence on conventional animal agriculture and its consequences on climate change, global food insecurity, public health, and animal welfare. But transforming the food system is a vast, multidisciplinary effort that requires disciplines ranging from synthetic biology and chemical engineering to economics and data science. Zak makes the case for rethinking meat, eggs, and dairy, discusses the levers we can push on to ensure the success of the alternative protein field, and explains how you can make a positive impact.Zak...
2020-05-13
24 min
EA Talks
Virtual EAG 2020: Representing future generations (Tyler John)
Politics is a notoriously short-termist enterprise. Political institutions generally operate on 2-to-4-year timescales (as the issue of climate change has shown). But this is not necessary or inevitable. In principle, the immense wealth, influence, and coercive authority of national governments could be used to vastly improve the long-term future. In this talk, Tyler analyzes major sources of political short-termism and describes high-priority institutional reforms that could improve alignment between the incentives of present governments and the interests of future generations.Tyler John is a PhD Student in Philosophy at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and a Global Priorities...
2020-05-12
31 min
EA Talks
Virtual EAG 2020: Q&A with Toby Ord, senior research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute
If all goes well, human history is just beginning. Humanity could survive for billions of years, reaching heights of flourishing unimaginable today. But this vast future is at risk. For we have gained the power to destroy ourselves, and our entire potential, forever, without the wisdom to ensure we don’t. Toby explains what this entails, with emphasis on the perspective of humanity — a major theme of his new book, The Precipice (https://theprecipice.com).Toby Ord is a philosopher at Oxford University’s Future of Humanity Institute. His work focuses on the big picture questi...
2020-05-11
29 min
EA Talks
Virtual EAG 2020: The Precipice—Existential risk and the future of humanity (Toby Ord)
If all goes well, human history is just beginning. Humanity could survive for billions of years, reaching heights of flourishing unimaginable today. But this vast future is at risk. For we have gained the power to destroy ourselves, and our entire potential, forever, without the wisdom to ensure we don’t. Toby will explain what this entails, with emphasis on the perspective of humanity — a major theme of his new book, The Precipice (https://theprecipice.com).Toby Ord is a philosopher at Oxford University’s Future of Humanity Institute. His work focuses on the big picture questions facing...
2020-05-10
20 min
EA Talks
Virtual EAG 2020: Opening Talk (Joan Gass)
Joan Gass, Managing Director at the Centre for Effective Altruism, gives the opening talk for the EA Global Virtual Conference.Original VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube.
2020-05-09
24 min
EA Talks
EAG London 2019: Is impact investing impactful? (John Halstead)
Impact investing is an increasingly popular approach to doing good. In this talk, John Halstead, head of applied research at Founders Pledge, discusses whether, and in what conditions, impact investing might be thought to succeed. John argues that impact investing is likely to have limited impact in large, highly efficient markets such as public stock markets. However, impact investing stands a better chance of impact if it involves VC or angel investing, includes companies that serve poor consumers or produce positive externalities, and/or exploits an investor’s informational advantage.This talk was filmed at EA Global 2019: Lo...
2020-01-31
30 min
EA Talks
EAG London 2019: DMI—How to put your own charity to the test
Mass media can reach millions of people, but can it improve health and save lives as effectively as other top interventions? Past studies of mass-media campaigns for public health failed to find evidence of strong impact, belying the potential of the medium. In this talk, Roy Head, CEO of Development Media International (DMI), will discuss the randomized controlled trial DMI ran on its own health campaign — and the surprising results.This talk was filmed at EA Global 2019: London. Find out how to attend a future EA Global conference: https://www.eaglobal.org/.Learn more about ef...
2020-01-30
22 min
EA Talks
EAG London 2019: Fireside chat (Bonnie Jenkins)
Bonnie Jenkins, founder and executive director of Women of Color Advancing Peace, shares her thoughts on starting her career at the Department of Defense, current risks and improvements in nuclear security and biosecurity, and her work to advance diversity and inclusion in her field.This talk was filmed at EA Global 2019: London. Find out how to attend a future EA Global conference: https://www.eaglobal.org/.Learn more about effective altruism: https://www.effectivealtruism.org/.Original VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most...
2020-01-28
49 min
EA Talks
EAG London 2019: Biological aging—A new approach to measuring animal welfare (Will Bradshaw)
In order to improve animal welfare, we need to know how different factors affect it. But measuring the cumulative experience of non-human animals is a difficult task. Recent research has suggested that measures of biological aging could provide a promising new way to assess animal welfare. Will Bradshaw, a research fellow at Wild Animal Initiative, outlines the evidence supporting the surprising link between aging and welfare, as well as some potential limitations. He then discusses how this approach could help resolve key questions in the study of animal well-being.This talk was filmed at EA Global 2019: London...
2020-01-27
25 min
EA Talks
EAG London 2019: Fireside chat (Will MacAskill)
Will MacAskill, a key figure in the effective altruism movement, discusses the book he’s currently writing about longtermism, his assessment of challenges and successes in his work at the Global Priorities Institute, how his views have changed over the last year, different approaches to growing the effective altruism community, and more.This talk was filmed at EA Global 2019: London. Find out how to attend a future EA Global conference: https://www.eaglobal.org/.Learn more about effective altruism: https://www.effectivealtruism.org/.Original VideoEffective Altruism is a social movement de...
2020-01-27
25 min
EA Talks
EAG London 2019: Open-source learning—A bargaining approach (Jesse Clifton)
AI systems are much more transparent to one another than humans are to other humans; they can share information about the reward functions that drive their actions. Jesse Clifton, a PhD candidate in statistics at North Carolina State University, presents a framework for using “open-source learning algorithms” — which, thanks to this transparency, can make bargains to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.This talk was filmed at EA Global 2019: London. Find out how to attend a future EA Global conference: https://www.eaglobal.org/.Learn more about effective altruism: https://www.effectivealtruism.org/.Original VideoE...
2020-01-25
22 min
EA Talks
EAG London 2019: Moral weights in the developing world (Alice Redfern)
Even armed with the best intentions and evidence, EA donors must make a moral choice about what “doing the most good” actually means — for example, whether it’s better to save one life or lift many people out of poverty. Alice Redfern, a manager at IDinsight, discusses the organization’s “Beneficiary Preferences Project,” which involved gathering data on the moral preferences of individuals who receive aid funding. The project could influence how governments and NGOs allocate hundreds of billions of dollars.This talk was filmed at EA Global 2019: London. Find out how to attend a future EA Global confere...
2020-01-24
24 min
EA Talks
EAG London 2019: Can we predictably improve the far future? (Christian Tarsney)
Christian Tarsney, a research fellow at the Global Priorities Institute, summarizes some of the key strengths and weaknesses of a common argument against doing EA work focused on the long term: that the far future is too unpredictable to justify spending time on it. Rather than taking a “for” or “against” position, he makes the case that the questions around this argument are underexplored and present many opportunities for high-value research. This talk was filmed at EA Global 2019: London. Find out how to attend a future EA Global conference: https://www.eaglobal.org/.Learn more about eff...
2020-01-23
27 min
EA Talks
EAG London 2019: Understanding the gaps between academia and policymaking (Dan Brown)
Academic studies don’t always estimate the parameters that will be most useful to us as we try to understand the cost-effectiveness of charities’ interventions. Even when they do, it may be difficult to figure out how those estimates apply to a specific charity’s program. Dan Brown, a senior fellow at GiveWell, uses examples from his own projects to demonstrate the depth of this challenge — and suggests ways to get practical value from academic insights.This talk was filmed at EA Global 2019: London. Find out how to attend a future EA Global conference: https://www.eaglobal.org/.
2020-01-22
28 min
EA Talks
EAG London 2019: Taking care of our people—Cultivating a supportive organizational culture (David Coman-Hidy)
A successful culture for effective altruism is one in which many members of the community stay involved for a long time, learning and growing as they go. David Coman-Hidy, president of the Humane League, discusses ways in which organizations in the effective altruism space can nurture such a culture by helping their members feel valued, empowered, and connected.This talk was filmed at EA Global 2019: London. Find out how to attend a future EA Global conference: https://www.eaglobal.org/.Learn more about effective altruism: https://www.effectivealtruism.org/.Original Video...
2020-01-21
29 min
EA Talks
EAG London 2019: Estimating long-term effects without long-term data (David Rhys Bernard)
It’s important to estimate the long-term impacts of our actions, but we often can’t observe long-term outcomes within a decision-relevant time frame. David Rhys Bernard, a PhD candidate at the Paris School of Economics, recently tested an alternative approach — measuring the short-term impacts of different interventions on a variety of “surrogate” outcomes, then using those outcomes to reach a long-term impact estimate. In this talk, he explains his findings and their implications. This talk was filmed at EA Global 2019: London. Find out how to attend a future EA Global conference: https://www.eaglobal.org/.Learn mo...
2020-01-20
28 min
EA Talks
EAG London 2019: Scaling industrial food production in nuclear winter (Jacob Cates and Aron Mill)
Jacob Cates and Aron Mill, research associates at the Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters (ALLFED), explore the scope for industrial production of food should the sun become blocked from soot in a nuclear war. ALLFED considered two methods for constructing facilities producing suitable alternative foods, such as cellulosic sugar: new construction and retrofitting existing plants. Jacob and Aron share how ALLFED compared the costs of these options, estimated the build time and production rates, and concluded that a significant fraction of the global diet could come from these food sources within one year.This talk...
2020-01-18
24 min