Open thread: July - September 2025

Hello everyone,

My name is Emeka Onuoha, and I am based in Abuja, Nigeria. I was born and raised in Lagos, the country’s commercial hub. Academically, I hold a degree in Public Administration, a Master’s in Public Administration (MPA), and I’m currently pursuing an EMBA with a specialization in Strategic Leadership at the Valar Institute of the Quantic School of Business and Technology. Professionally, I’m an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM) and a member of the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR).

I began my career in the corporate world at Platinum Bank Ltd (now Keystone Bank), gaining experience in Retail Marketing and Marketing Communications before transitioning to the NGO sector in 2011. Over the past 14 years, I’ve built extensive HR expertise, working in both Nigerian and international NGOs, where I’ve held various HR roles.

I was introduced to Effective Altruism (EA) in April 2025 through 80,000 Hours, and since then, I’ve been actively learning about the movement—following thought leaders like Neil Bowerman (CEO of 80,000 Hours) and founders Benjamin Todd and Will MacAskill.

My interest in EA is deeply tied to AI’s dual role as both an enabler and a potential existential risk. As Geoffrey Hinton (Nobel Prize winner in Physics, 2024) has highlighted, AI carries a 10–20% chance of catastrophic consequences for humanity if left unregulated. This concern motivates me to collaborate with professionals in AI Governance and Safety to ensure ethical and controlled AI development. In line with this, I’m planning a career shift from HR to AI Governance.

I’m excited to learn from this community and contribute to the discourse on AI’s future. Looking forward to engaging with you all!

Hi everyone,

My name is Kyle Doherty, and I thrilled to join the Effective Altruism forum. I have been lurking here for a few weeks, but wanted to wait for the new open thread to introduce myself. A few quick things about my background are that I grew up in Massachusetts, I got my bachelor's in psychology before earning my master's in sustainable international development. Since then I have not quite found a satisfying career path for a variety of reasons. Recenty I have decided to study more about AI safety and ethics but I will touch on that more later in this introduction.

I am not quite sure when exactly I first heard of effective altruism, but it was during my time in graduate school. My introduction to the ideas was mostly from 80,000 Hours, which remains one of my favorite resources. I did not dive too deeply into either the content or the community on the first go-around, but a lot of what I did read spoke to me. The reason effective altruism mostly fell to the wayside was because 2023, 2024, and the first half of 2025 were a time of huge change and upheaval in my life. A litany of life-changing events made me focus on other things before my life became much more settled earlier this year. When I finally found the space to dive back in, I was amazed by how everything clicked for me even more. 

A big reason for my recent return to the effective altruism space, is wanting to find a career that is meaningful and fun to me. While I am not 100% certain of the exact path it will take me, I have been most interested in topics surrounding AI safety and ethics. While working as a contractor for an AI company, I became increasingly concerned about various parts in the development of AI models. I also became quite alarmed (and amazed) by the incredible speed at which the capabilities of AI was expanding. These realizations are what pushed me towards deciding to dig deeper into AI safety and ethics. 

I am looking forward to learning more from all the wonderful people here. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments and I will try my best to respond. I would also love to hear from anyone who wants to chat about AI, nuclear threats, or any other issues. I have been enjoying learning a lot recently and would love to have more people to chat with.
 

My name is Yetunde Ajayi. I was introduced to effective altruism this year through 80,000 Hours. However, I had previously encountered its core ideals during my time volunteering at a food bank in Canada. Since then, I’ve resonated deeply with the principles of effective altruism and have been exploring ways to apply them meaningfully—particularly in the area of digital inclusiveness for Africa, and Nigeria in particular.

Given the slower pace of infrastructural development in this region compared to more developed nations, I believe that promoting digital inclusiveness can help bridge economic inequalities and open up more opportunities for meaningful participation in the global economy.

I recently attended EAGxNigeria25 in Abuja, where I actively engaged in talks, one-on-one meetings, and workshops. It was inspiring to collaborate with others passionate about effective altruism across various domains, including global health, climate change, animal welfare, and AI safety. However, I observed that digital inclusiveness hasn’t received as much attention on the global EA agenda.

This is why I’m particularly excited about the opportunity this forum offers—to engage more deeply with like-minded individuals and explore how the ideals of effective altruism can be harnessed to develop impactful initiatives in digital inclusiveness. I’m eager to learn, collaborate, and grow under the mentorship and guidance of those already working in this space.

Hi everyone,

I’m Vladimir - 25 years old, originally from Russia and currently living in Dublin. I studied mathematics, but life took me into product management in IT, where I work today.

The reason for me to be here is that I am at this stage in life and career when meaning in everything I do starts to take priority more and more. I have also recently become quite interested in decision-making and how we can use it for the greater good. I think this partially started in around 2023 with the rapid progress in AI chatbots, making the clear thinking feel much more immediate and personal. I truly believe that decision-making as a skill is crucial for effective altruism.

As part of that, I started working on a small passion project: a non-profit website that teaches people about cognitive biases in an interactive way. It’s still in its early stages, and I’m figuring a lot out as I go, but I’d love any thoughts if you ever take a look (I hope it is okay to put it here, but please let me know if it's not).

I’m excited to be here; this community feels like one of the rare places on the internet where people are open-minded and focused on the improvement of humanity. I also hope to join in some of the AI discussions - I find myself both fascinated by where things are going and deeply uncertain about how to navigate it all.

Thanks for reading and looking forward to learning from all of you.

- Vladimir

https://www.cognitivebiaslab.com

Hi E Altruists,

This is the story of how I found my way to EA, because it really came from trying to solve a contradiction in my own head.

For some time, I was deeply invested in Ayn Rand's philosophy. I admired the focus on reason so much that I became a student at the Ayn Rand Institute. I truly believed in the power of the individual. But the part I could never accept was the idea that altruism was a weakness or a vice. It felt like there had to be a way to be rational and an individual, and still care deeply about the welfare of others.

The answer, came to me in 2022 through Toby Ord's The Precipice. That book changed everything for me. It showed me that effective altruism isn't the opposite of reason—it's the application of it. It’s about taking that same rational mindset and applying it to the biggest, most important problems we face.

A good friend, encouraged me to apply for EAGxNigeria, and I'm so glad I listened. Actually meeting other people in Nigeria who were thinking about these same things, and were so driven to act on them, was an incredibly powerful experience. It took the ideas from the page and put them into a living, breathing community.

So, that's me. I came here from a place that seems like the total opposite of EA, but the journey makes perfect sense to me now. 

Hi everyone

I'm Muhawe Ritah, a veterinary medicine student based in Kampala with a deep passion for datadriven animal welfare and public health. I first discovered Effective Altruism while researching the most cost-effective ways to run rabies control campaigns, and I’m here to learn how to apply EA principles to scale high-impact interventions in Uganda.

I’m eager to connect with fellow students and professionals working on animal welfare, pandemic preparedness, or community health especially anyone with experience pivoting from academic research into on the ground program design. Feel free to reach out if you have career advice for someone transitioning from veterinary training into EA focused roles. Looking forward to learning from you all!

I have a question I would like some thoughts on:

As a utilitarianist I personally believe alignment to be the most important course area - though weirdly enough, even though I believe x-risk reduction to be positive in expectation, I believe the future is most likely to be net negative.

I personally believe, without a high level of certainty, that the current utilities on earth are net negative due to wild animal suffering. If we therefore give the current world a utility value of -1, I would describe my believe for future scenarios like this:

1. ~5% likelihood: ~10¹⁰⁰⁰  (Very good future e.g. hedonium shockwave)
2. ~90% likelihood: -1 (the future is likely good for humans, but this is still negligible compared to wild animal suffering, which will remain)
3. ~5% likelihood: ~-10¹⁰⁰ (s-risk like scenarios)

My reasoning for thinking “scenario 2” is more likely than “scenario 1” is based on what seems to be the values of the general public currently. Most people seem to care about nature conservation, but no one seems interested in mass producing (artificial) happiness. While the earth is only expected to remain habitable for about two billion years (and humans, assuming we avoid any x-risks, are likely to remain for much longer), I think, when it comes to it, we’ll find a way to keep the earth habitable, and thus wild animal suffering. 

Based on these 3 scenarios, you don’t have to be a great mathematician to realize that the future is most likely to be net negative, yet positive in expectation. While I still, based on this, find alignment to be the most important course area, I find it quite demotivating that I spend so much of my time (donations) to preserve a future that I find unlikely to be positive. But the thing is, most long-termist (and EAs in general) don't seem to have similar beliefs to me. Even someone like Brian Tomasik has said that if you’re a classical utilitarian, the future is likely to be good. 

 So now I’m asking, what am I getting wrong? Why is the future likely to be net positive? 

Hi everyone,

I’m delighted to introduce myself as I join the Effective Altruism Forum. After spending a fair bit of time reading, reflecting, and absorbing ideas here, I’m excited to become a more active part of this community. 

I have a background in engineering and spent a couple of years working in that field, but my real calling became clear when I found myself drawn inexorably toward the social impact space. This realization led me to pursue a Master’s in Public Policy, deepening my commitment to evidence-based solutions for pressing societal issues.

Since then, I’ve been fortunate to work at the intersection of research, policy, and on-the-ground implementation. Looking forward to learning with and from all of you.

Hi everyone!

My name is Salamatu Sulaiman Mustapha, and I’m from Nigeria. I’m excited to be here and connect with like-minded people who care deeply about doing good effectively.

I have been engaging with Effective Altruism ideas for a while now, focusing on global health and development, AI safety and policy, animal welfare, climate change, and information security. I’ve attended local EA meetups within my state and outside it, and I recently participated in the EAGxNigeria25 conference in Abuja.

I’m passionate about putting EA principles into real action in my community. For example, I recently facilitated a workshop titled “Health and Climate Resilience: Empowering Vulnerable Communities to Adapt and Thrive” for people directly affected by climate challenges.

I’m here to learn more, ask questions, share ideas, and grow together with this amazing community. I look forward to meaningful conversations and opportunities to collaborate for greater impact.