EA Updates for June 2021
By DavidNash @ 2021-05-28T14:04 (+25)
Upcoming Virtual Programs
July to August - Four virtual programs, consisting of weekly meetings over two months
- Introductory EA Program - For those new to EA, or who have some familiarity, but want to go through the core ideas
- In-Depth EA Program - For graduates of the intro program or those with a similar level of experience, who want to dive deeper into EA ideas and examine their key uncertainties about how to best improve the world
- The Precipice Reading Group - In this reading group, you will read and engage in structured discussions of Toby Ord’s The Precipice, a book about existential risks and safeguarding the future of humanity
- Alternative Proteins Seminar Programme - Aims to support participants in developing an understanding of alternative protein technologies and their role in solving a range of global problems, and how they can pursue a career in this field
Latest Research and Updates
Meta
- EA Survey 2020
- Kathryn Mecrow-Flynn with insights from the WANBAM mentoring program
- 80,000 Hours have a free weekly career planning course for positive impact, there is also a Facebook group for people who want to find others to go through it together
- An Ask Me Anything about working at the Centre for Effective Altruism
- A post discussing EA as a career endpoint, rather than trying to get an EA related job as soon as possible
- 80,000 Hours podcast on 'Having a successful career with depression, anxiety and imposter syndrome'
- CEA’s Community Building Grants are becoming more targeted
- Benjamin Todd and Max Daniel looking at how much do people differ in productivity
- Michael Aird with a sequence of posts looking at ways to improve the EA research pipeline
- Ben West with 'thoughts on being overqualified for EA positions'
- EA organisation updates for May
- Charity Entrepreneurship are looking for mentors for future charities they incubate
Grants
- Open Phil have made 12 grants recently with a total value of $16,670,000
- $10,950,000 - Global Health & Development
- $6,950,000 - Centre for Pesticide Suicide Prevention
- $3,130,000 - SCI Foundation
- $500,000 - The END Fund
- $375,000 - Effective Altruism Foundation
- $1,500,000 - Founders Pledge
- $1,500,000 - Stanford Existential Risks Initiative
- $1,430,000 - Farm Animal Welfare
- $1,180,000 - Potential Risks from Advanced AI
- $1,000,000 - Biosecurity and Pandemic Preparedness
- $100,000 - Criminal Justice Reform
- $10,950,000 - Global Health & Development
- The EA Animal Welfare Fund has made 18 grants worth roughly $1,500,000
- The EA Long-Term Future Fund has made 26 grants worth roughly $1,620,000
Global Development
- Max Roser with a post on economic growth and it's importance for development
- France and African leaders are pushing for the IMF to reallocate $100 billion to African states, up from $34 billion that was originally allocated
- GiveWell received twice as much funding in 2020 as in 2019
- An article looking at why Covax, the fund to vaccinate the world, is struggling
- Remittance flows to poorer countries reached $540 billion in 2020, just 1.6 percent below 2019
- Vox with an article investigating whether vaccine patent waivers will make a difference
- A post looking at the debate between foreign aid and economic growth advocates
- Kelsey Piper looking at effective ways to donate to help India with Covid-19
- Lucia Coulter and Jack Rafferty with 'Seven things that surprised us in our first year working in policy - Lead Exposure Elimination Project'
Animal Welfare
- The UK government has announced a new plan for animal welfare
- The EA Animal Welfare Fund with a request for proposals
- Lewis Bollard on 'The Promise and Perils of Insect Farming'
- Jeffray Behr with a career guide for ending factory farming
- Garret Broad looking at how people categorise animals and what that might mean for animal rights
- 80,000 Hours podcast with Leah Garcés on turning adversaries into allies to change the chicken industry
- An Ask Me Anything with the EA Animal Welfare Fund managers
Existential & Catastrophic Risks
- CSER with a report to help guide the policy engagement efforts of researchers at global risk research institutions
- How the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations is preparing for the next pandemic
- CSER with a report on 'Future Foods For Risk-Resilient Diets'
Improving Institutions
- José Luis Ricón on the lack of evidence behind many proposals to fix science
- A paper in nature using knowledge graph dynamics to provide early warning of impactful research
- Registration for the Metascience 2021 conference has now opened
Environment
- Founders Pledge with an overview of their climate fund
- Effective Environmentalism have launched their website
- Saloni Dattani and Nick Whittaker interviewing Ted Nordhaus on ecomodernism
- Hannah Ritchie looking at how the ozone layer was fixed
- A post looking at potential gaps in the climate philanthropy space
Longtermism
- Danny Bressler on the importance of learning from a longtermist success by evaluating the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty
- Christian Tarsney on future bias and a possible solution to moral fanaticism
Emerging Technology
- An article looking at the future threats from digital terrorism
- Paul Christiano has founded the Alignment Research Center
- Podcast with Phil Trammell on economic growth under transformative AI
- Spencer Greenberg in conversation with Sam Bankman-Fried discussing the pros, cons and future of cryptocurrencies
- OpenAI have a new fund, investing $100 million to help AI companies have a positive impact on the world
- Robert Miles on the Clearer Thinking podcast discussing AI safety and science communications
- Ben Snodin with thoughts on AI timelines
Other Links
- A new paper on 'How Effective Altruism Can Help Psychologists Maximize Their Impact'
- An Ask Me Anything with Tim Ferriss, Michael Pollan, and Dr. Matthew W. Johnson on psychedelics research and philanthropy
- Nick Beckstead on the Clearer Thinking podcast discussing utilitarianism and it's different varieties
- Coverage of the $1.5 billion cryptocurrency donation by Vitalik Buterin, including $50 million for GiveWell
- Lucia Coulter discussing starting a charity on a podcast with Ali Abdaal and Taimur Abdaal, including a live GWWC pledge by one of the hosts
- Stuart Ritchie looking at which parts of the book Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman have held up after replication
- Caitlin Walker, Clare Donaldson and Michael Plant with a problem area report on mental health
- A recording and slides of the talk 'Personal Finance for Generous People'
- Luke Freemen with a selection of comments people make when signing up to the Giving What We Can Pledge
- Timo Pieters looking at the similarities between effective altruism and Buddhist ethics
- Rutger Bregman on why he has taken the Giving What We Can Pledge (in Dutch)
- Marius Hobbhahn and Dominik Hermle investigating whether chronic pain should be a cause area given more attention within EA
- Michael Plant and Peter Singer with an article in the New Statesman - 'Ending The War on Drugs - A New Cause For Effective Altruists?'
- Forbes interview with Sam Bankman-Fried
- Stephen Pinker giving an interview on effective altruism
- Dylan Matthews interviewing Julia Galef about her new book 'The Scout Mindset'
- Michelle Hutchinson with a collection of motivating stories she has heard whilst working at 80,000 Hours