EA Organization Updates: December 2023
By JP Addison @ 2023-12-22T18:43 (+22)
We’re featuring some opportunities and job listings at the top of this post. Some have (very) pressing deadlines.
- You can see previous updates on the "EA Organization Updates (monthly series)" topic page, or in our repository of past newsletters. Notice that there’s also an “org update” tag, where you can find more news and updates that are not part of this consolidated series.
- These monthly posts originated as the "Updates" section of the EA Newsletter. Organizations submit their own updates, which we edit for clarity.
- (If you think your organization should be getting emails about adding their updates to this series, please apply here.)
Opportunities and jobs
Opportunities
Fellowships, programs, and workshops
- Charity Entrepreneurship in collaboration with Giving What We Can is opening a new program to launch 4-6 new Effective Giving Initiatives (EGIs) in 2024. They expect them to raise millions in counterfactual funding for highly impactful charities, even in their first few years. Apply to start one by 14 Jan 2024.
- The second round of the Oxford China Policy Lab Fellowship is now open. OCPL offers impact-driven researchers access to a broad expert network and potential publication avenues. A diverse range of disciplines and backgrounds are welcomed, with a focus on topics such as AI governance, supply chains, economic statecraft, and biotechnology.
- Initiated by organizers at BASIS (UC Berkeley) and AISI (Georgia Tech), the Supervised Program on Alignment Research (SPAR) is an intercollegiate opportunity for students interested in alignment running this fall. SPAR participants work together on a research project part-time for a semester, supervised by an AI safety researcher. If you are interested in being a supervisor for SPAR, propose a project by December 31st.
Call to action
- An interdisciplinary conference on the economics of animal welfare is being organized by Brown University’s Department of Economics and Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. Scheduled for July 11–12, 2024, the conference aims to build on the insights gained from similar workshops held at Duke University, Stanford University, and the Paris School of Economics. Please submit abstracts and ideas-in-progress by January 15, 2024, using this form. General attendance registration will commence in January 2024.
Job listings
Anthropic
- Research Engineer for Interpretability team (Hybrid in US/UK, $280K - $520K)
- Research Scientist for Frontier Red Team (Cyber) (Hybrid in San Francisco, CA, $320K - $600K)
- Research Scientist for Societal Impacts (Hybrid in San Francisco, CA, $280K - $485K)
ARC Evals (now METR)
- Engineering Lead (Hybrid/Berkeley, CA, $250K–$400K)
- Senior Software Engineer (Hybrid/Berkeley, CA, $150K–$350K)
- Human Data Lead (Berkeley, CA, $150K - $250K)
- Research Assistant (Remote, $108K annually)
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative
- Programme Operations Associate for the Oxford China Policy Lab (Contractor, Oxford, UK, £16-19/hour)
BlueDot Impact
- AI Safety Specialist (Technical) (London, UK, £60-90k)
- AI Governance Specialist (London, UK, £60-90k)
Cooperative AI Foundation
- Partnerships and Community Manager (Remote, £45K - £55K, apply by 5 January)
Charity Entrepreneurship & Giving What We Can
- Effective Giving Initiative Founder (Remote program - Effective Giving Incubation, ~$100,000 seed grant, apply by January 14, 2024)
- Investment Manager (Auckland, NZ)
Our World in Data (OWID)
- Senior Full-stack Engineer (Remote/Europe/Africa time zones preferred, Contractor - £350 – £450 per day, apply by 14 January)
- Executive Director (Brussels/Remote, €70K - €90K, apply by 27 December)
- EU Tech Policy Lead (Brussels/Remote, €55K - €75K, apply by 27 December)
Organization Updates
80,000 Hours
80,000 Hours is in the process of hiring a new CEO. The deadline for applications has passed, but the post also discusses other potential vacancies.
On The 80,000 Hours Podcast, Luisa interviewed:
- Jeff Sebo on digital minds, and how to avoid sleepwalking into a major moral catastrophe
- Alison Young on how top labs have jeopardised public health with repeated biosafety failures
- Nita Farahany on the neurotechnology already being used to convict criminals and manipulate workers
And Rob interviewed:
On 80k After Hours, Rob spoke with the organisation’s founder Benjamin Todd about the history of 80,000 Hours.
They also released a blog appreciating their readers’ efforts to help others.
Anima International
- As part of a festival they co-organized as part of their movement-building efforts, Anima International held what may have been the first talk about effective animal activism and effective altruism in Kazakhstan and a Q&A session with Peter Singer.
- Anima International’s new report has found that over 80 million broilers died before slaughter in the UK last year, a 28% mortality increase year on year. Anima International’s UK team (Open Cages) called for an end to the sale of fast-growing breeds in an article in The Guardian.
- In Poland, Anima International secured the first custodial sentence for animal abuse at a fur farm. The goal is for this verdict to strengthen the foundation for enforcing farmed animal welfare laws in the country.
- At an event organized by Anima International’s Polish team following the recent parliamentary elections, politicians of the new majority coalition made strong public declarations of major legislative changes for animals, such as a fur farming ban.
Animal Charity Evaluators
Animal Charity Evaluators has released their 2023 Charity Recommendations! After several months of evaluating animal advocacy organizations, they’ve identified 11 charities that can achieve the most significant impact for animals with additional donations.
This blog post by Animal Charity Evaluators outlines the importance of strategic animal advocacy research, examples of research in practice, advice on conducting research, and some research limitations.
Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA)
CEA is fundraising to fill an expected funding gap of $3.6m in 2024.
EA Ghent
In a significant stride for animal rights, the Belgian Senate has voted for the inclusion of animal welfare in the nation's constitution. This follows extensive advocacy by GAIA, a local animal welfare group. The change dictates that the Federal State, Communities, and Regions must endeavour to protect and care for animals as sentient beings in all their actions. Final approval from the Chamber of Representatives is still pending.
Faunalytics
Faunalytics 2024 Research Agenda includes topics covering political advocacy, youth advocacy, global advocacy, equity and inclusion, consumer behavior, and capacity building. Additional plans include expanding the Research Library, continuation of advocate support, and improvements to their Impact Center.
The organization has updated their Research Library with articles on a variety of animal advocacy topics including a look at how vegan research has evolved and investigating support in the United States for broiler chicken welfare. Additionally, Faunalytics also added two new blog posts, Are Animal Advocates Tech-Savvy? and Making Connections: A Faunalytics Researcher Roundtable to their website.
Fish Welfare Initiative
Fish Welfare Initiative (FWI) recently published a post announcing their 2024 plans for their work in India. In particular, they’re broadening their research mandate to focus on identifying new classes of fish welfare interventions to pursue.
Their plans specifically include:
- Research & Development: They are planning several in-field studies to identify and test promising interventions.
- Program Implementation: They are aiming to add 100 farms to their farmer program, and will also focus significant efforts on innovating their program.
FWI is also proud to be renewed as a recommended charity by Animal Charity Evaluators.
Lastly, FWI is now fundraising again to fill their 2024 funding gap. To learn more about the pros and cons of a donation, see their updated donation page.
GiveWell
GiveWell recently hosted a virtual event focusing on maternal and reproductive health, a new and growing area of GiveWell’s grantmaking. Emily Oster, moderated a panel with Svetha Janumpalli and GiveWell’s Erin Crossett. During the hour (recording here), they discussed GiveWell’s research and grants to maternal and newborn health.
GiveWell’s 2023 giving recommendations: GiveWell is excited to announce its 2023 recommendations to donors. For donors who want to support the programs that GiveWell is most confident in, they recommend the Top Charities Fund, which is allocated among their four top charities. For donors with a higher degree of trust in GiveWell and willingness to take on more risk, their top recommendation is the All Grants Fund, which goes to a wider range of opportunities and may have a higher impact per dollar. They estimate that donations to the programs they recommend can save a life for roughly $5,000 on average, or have a similarly strong impact by increasing incomes or preventing suffering.
ICYMI: The How To Money podcast recently interviewed Elie to discuss Effective Altruism, GiveWell’s founding, and making the most impact with your giving.
Giving What We Can
GWWC released their latest charity and fund recommendations, shaped by their evaluations of charity evaluators and grantmakers.
If you think GWWC is providing a valuable service, your donations can be matched when you support their operational funding at GWWC (read about their ops funding match).
GWWC’s Donor Lottery is open until January 10th.
They are recruiting for governance and advisory board members.
GWWC and Charity Entrepreneurship are looking for potential founders of new effective giving initiatives to apply by Jan 15 for a new incubation program.
Good Food Institute
Giving Green and ACE recently renewed their recommendation of GFI. Check out what Giving Green, ACE, and other evaluators had to say about GFI in their new blog post here.
The Humane League
The Humane League (THL) has published their room for funding and how your donations this year will help support their mission—to end the abuse of animals raised for food—in 2024. Read more about THL’s room for funding here.
Rethink Priorities (RP)
Rethink Priorities recently published research previously conducted by its Global Health and Development team on road safety and GiveWell’s discount rate. The organization also posted a summary of the results of their second annual gathering of animal welfare advocates.
RP’s annual report reviews their work in 2023 and outlines their strategy and funding gaps for 2024. Please see the executive summary, the deep dive, or this previous retrospective for more information on the organization’s work and impact. Below are some highlights from the report.
- RP completed 160 research projects this year, which directly informed over $10M in grants made by other organizations.
- The Special Projects program supported 11 external orgs.
- The new Worldview Investigations team completed a sequence on Causes and uncertainty: Rethinking value in expectation.
- The Animal Welfare team conducted foundational research on shrimp welfare and investigated plant-based meat alternatives’ role in potentially reducing animal consumption.
- The Survey and Data Analysis team investigated US public opinion of AI.
- Fundraising has been more difficult for RP this year. Co-CEO Peter Wildeford argues that the funding situation makes now an unusually good time for individual donors to RP to be especially impactful.
Sentience Institute
Sentience Institute’s 2022 End of Year Summary was published just five days before the launch of ChatGPT. This event surprised many in the field, and the global spotlight has illustrated how important it is to understand human-AI interaction. SI’s priority continues to be researching the rise of digital minds: AIs that have or are perceived as having mental faculties, such as reasoning, agency, experience, and sentience.
The highlight from their 2023 research is the Artificial Intelligence, Morality, and Sentience (AIMS) survey with the same questions as in 2021, so public opinion from before and after recent events can be compared, as well as an additional AIMS 2023 Supplement on Public Opinion in AI Safety. A key finding was that Americans express significantly more moral concern for AI in 2023 than in 2021 before ChatGPT.
Their new end-of-year summary blog post details their accomplishments in 2023 to date.