Cover photo from EAGxCambridge.
Top Posts
How much funding does GiveWell expect to raise through 2025?
Kelsey Piper & Rachel DuRose - How new vaccine technologies could reduce the massive death toll from malaria
James Özden & Amy Odene - Announcing a new animal advocacy podcast: How I Learned to Love Shrimp
Planned Updates to U.S. Regulatory Analysis Methods are likely relevant to EA causes - proposed changes appear to benefit policies that improve future wellbeing, prevent catastrophic risks, and improve the wellbeing of people outside the U.S.
U.S. is launching a $5 billion follow-up to Operation Warp Speed
YouGov with a survey: 46% of Americans are concerned about extinction from AI; 69% support a six-month pause in AI development
Ian Hogarth in the Financial Times - We must slow down the race to God-like AI
Benjamin Todd - My updates after FTX
Announcing CEA’s Interim Managing Director - Ben West
Conferences
19th-21st May - EAG London - applications closing soon
9th-11th June - EAGxWarsaw
27th-29th October - EAG Boston
Virtual Events
7th May - Giving What We Can meetup with Ahmed Ghoor talking about Islam and effective giving
6th June - 30th July - Virtual Programs - Apply by May 21st
Intro
In Depth
Precipice
Meta
Suggest candidates for CEA's next Executive Director
Lilly - Things that can make EA a good place for women
Julia Wise & Ozzie Gooen - Seeking expertise to improve EA organisations
Lizka - EA & “The correct response to uncertainty is *not* half-speed”
Falk Lieder, Izzy Gainsburg, Sam Nolan, Emily Corwin-Renner - Predicting the cost-effectiveness of deploying a new intervention
Karla Still - Giving Guide for Student Organisations – An ineffective outreach project
Ada-Maaria Hyvärinen - Local EA groups: consider becoming more than a satellite group
Deena Englander - 5 Proposed Changes to the Funding System to Increase Org Survival and Impact
Jeff Kaufman - GWWC Reporting Attrition Visualization
Robert Praas - EAGxNordics Unofficial Review
Updates to the Effective Ventures US board
Kirsten - Status Regulation in EA
New Facebook Group: People interested in EA from Immigrant Backgrounds
Kaleem - Two things that I think could make the community better (renaming CEA and spinning out the community health team)
Raoul - Rebooting Tyve, an effective giving startup
Mike Filbey - I just launched Pepper, looking for input! (Aiming to simplify donations)
Careers
Impact Accelerator Program for EA Professionals - 6 week virtual program May-July - Apply by May 7th
Spencer Greenberg in conversation with Matt Clifford discussing 'How can you tell if you're cut out for entrepreneurship?'
Benjamin Todd - How much should you research your career?
Fran - Applying for jobs related to Effective Altruism
High Impact Professionals - Talent Directory for EA Hiring Managers/Recruiters and Job Seekers
Clearer Thinking podcast with Joey Savoie - Should you become a charity entrepreneur?
Tilly P - More like 88,000 hours? In defence of “career longtermism”
US Congressional Internships: Why and How to Apply
Grants
Open Philanthropy have made 58 grants recently, with a value of $225 million
$194m - Global Development & Wellbeing
$67m - Helen Keller International
$61m - Malaria Consortium
$45m - Development Innovation Ventures - Scaling Up Global Health Interventions
$11m - Sightsavers
$2.8m - Innovations for Poverty Action - Ethiopian Office
$1.5m - University of Washington - Tonsil Model for Tuberculosis Research
$1.3m - International Rescue Committee - USAID Placement
$15.7m - Animal Welfare
$8.3m - The Humane League
$2.5m - Sharpen Strategy - Farm Animal Welfare Consulting
$1m - Humane Society International - Farm Animal Welfare in Europe
$5.6m - Biosecurity & Pandemic Preparedness
$2.6m - Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab
$1.4m - SecureBio
$1.25m - Alvea
$5.2m - Potential Risks from Advanced AI
$1.5m - AI Safety Support - SERI MATS Program
$1.4 - Center for AI Safety - Philosophy Fellowship and NeurIPS Prizes
$4.9m - Longtermism
$1.5 - Open Philanthropy Undergraduate Scholarships
$1.2m - 80,000 Hours
$1m - Existential Risks Alliance - Cambridge Fellowship
$10m from MacKenzie Scott for Malaria Consortium
$5.5m from Bezos Earth Fund for the Good Food Institute
Global Development
Foreign aid from OECD official donors rose to an all-time high of $204b in 2022, a rise of 13.6% from 2021, although excluding refugee costs in donor countries, the rise is 4.6%
Joe Biden has announced $690m in new funding for democracy programmes across the world
The UK government’s aid work will now be called UK International Development
An announcement suggests that around £1.5 billion will be cut from the FCDO’s portion of the aid budget next year, due to extensive spending by the Home Office on refugee costs
Japan to channel 40% of IMF SDR allocation to needier countries, doubling pledge to around $15.9b
World Bank creating new fund for the poorest nations
Mariana Lenharo - Mosquito factory in Brazil aims to halt dengue
A report arguing that global giving tracking and common standards could be key to reaching UN goals
What Works Global Summit is in Ottawa in mid October for people to share evidence synthesis research, research methods and practice strategies
Dylan Matthews - The US foreign aid budget could do a lot more good. The Fostering Innovation in Global Development Act wants to force it to
UN Dispatch Podcast with Rory Stewart discussing why big aid agencies aren't embracing cash transfers?
Tom Drake, Javier Guzman & Peter Baker (CGD) - The Malaria Vaccination Era: How Endemic Countries and Donors Can Make the Most of vaccines
Jenny Lei Ravelo - How parasite resistance could derail a lifesaving malaria treatment
EA & Global Development
Saloni Dattani - How many people die from snakebites?
GiveWell's updated estimate of deworming and decay
Ben Williamson & Sarah H - Introducing the Maternal Health Initiative
Ryan Briggs - "Making every dollar count," EA-related episode of In Pursuit of Development
Nayaaz Hashim - Effective Zakat: Why direct cash transfers might be the best way to give this year
Floors and Ceilings, Frameworks and Feelings: SoGive's Impact Analysis Toolkit for Evaluating StrongMinds
Emma Richter & Grace Adams - World Malaria Day: Reflecting on Past Victories and Envisioning a Malaria-Free Future
Happier Lives Institute - Lead exposure: a shallow cause exploration
Rory Stewart on GiveDirectly and Massively Scaling Cash Transfers for the Hear This Idea podcast
Arnon Houri Yafin - ZzappMalaria: Twice as cost-effective as bed nets in urban areas
Animal Welfare
Robert Y - Announcing Innovate Animal Ag (like GFI but for Animal Welfare Tech)
Ben West - Leaked EU Draft Proposes Substantial Animal Welfare Improvements
Lukas J & Isaac Esparza - Healthier Hens Update and scaledown assessment
Animal Charity Evaluators Is Seeking Intervention Effectiveness Research and Cost-Effectiveness Estimates
Tessa - Hiding in Plain Sight: Mexico’s Octopus Farm/Research Facade
Kate Golembiewski - Are we near the end of animal testing?
Eze Paez - Wild Animal Ethics: A Freedom-Based Approach
CARE Conference 2023 is in Poland in late August
Jack S & Jah Ying - Growing the Animal Advocacy Community in China - Engaging Stakeholders in Research for Improved Effectiveness
Alternative Proteins
Samara Mendez, Jacob Peacock - Inconsistent evidence for price substitution between butter and margarine: A shallow review
GFI Europe’s analysis shows sales of plant-based foods grew by 21% between 2020 and 2022 to reach a record €5.8 billion in Europe
The UK government has invested £12 million in a sustainable protein research centre
Talist has a job board with over 1000 organisations listed
Cell Ag UK - Mapping the potential for UK universities to become research and teaching hubs for cellular agriculture
Within the next two years, Malaysia is set to commence its own production of lab-grown meat
Kenny Torrella - Were the Impossible and Beyond burgers a fad, or is plant-based meat here to stay?
Animal Advocacy Careers - Should you work in alternative protein startups or animal charities?
Biosecurity
Cullen - Polio Lab Leak Caught with Wastewater Sampling
Chloe Lee - A write-up on the biosecurity landscape in China
Request for proposals: Help Open Philanthropy quantify biological risk - June 5th deadline
UK develops genetic early warning system for future pandemics
'High bio-hazard risk' in Sudan after laboratory seized, WHO says
Sofya Lebedeva - List of Short-Term (<15 hours) Biosecurity Projects to Test Your Fit
Existential & Catastrophic Risks
Michael Aird - Nuclear risk, its potential long-term impacts, & doing research on that: An introductory talk
US stops sharing nuclear arms data with Russia under START Treaty
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction with a report on 'Existential risk and rapid technological change'
The New European Voices on Existential Risk (NEVER) project aims to attract new talent and ideas from Europe on nuclear issues, climate change, biosecurity and malign AI
Rumtin Sepasspour - Existential espionage: How intelligence gathering can protect humanity
Environment
Net zero is impossible - for now. Giving Green proposes 4 higher-impact alternatives for businesses
Brian Potter - How did solar power get cheap?
80,000 Hours podcast with Johannes Ackva on unfashionable climate interventions that work, and fashionable ones that don’t
Longtermism
Richard Fisher - the psychology of “mental time travel”
ILINA Fellowship applications close on the 30th, for intellectually curious undergraduates or recent graduates in Africa
Spencer Becker-Kahn - The 'Wild' and 'Wacky' Claims of Karnofsky’s ‘Most Important Century’
Hear This Idea podcast with Anders Sandberg on Exploratory Engineering, Value Diversity, and Grand Futures
Kelsey Piper - The one number that determines how today’s policies will affect our grandchildren
Tyler Cowen with an essay on long-termism
Eva Vivalt- Current plans as the incoming director of the Global Priorities Institute
AI Safety
OpenAI - Our approach to AI safety
The National Science Foundation is awarding $20m over two years for their Safe Learning-Enabled Systems program, in partnership with Open Phil
Anthropic - An AI Policy Tool for Today: Ambitiously Invest in the National Institute of Standards and Technology
Critiques of prominent AI safety labs: Redwood Research
DeepMind - How can we build human values into AI?
Ajeya - AIs accelerating AI research
FLI podcast with Connor Leahy on the State of AI and Alignment Research
Eliezer Yudkowsky - GPTs are Predictors, not Imitators
Apply to >30 AI safety funders in one application with the Nonlinear Network
Buck - A freshman year during the AI midgame: my approach to the next year
SERI MATS - Summer 2023 Cohort - Apply by May 7th
AI Alignment Research Engineer Accelerator - May-June London
AI Governance
Luke Muehlhauser - 12 tentative ideas for US AI policy
Rose Hadshar - Current UK government levers on AI development
CLTR - Response to the UK’s Future of Compute Review: A missed opportunity to lead in compute governance
Oliver Guest - Prospects for AI safety agreements between countries
Zach Stein-Perlman - List of lists of government AI policy ideas
GovAI's Annual Report
Seb Krier - A selection of newsletters and blogs on AI policy, science and technology
AI Communication
Kelsey Piper - Is it time for a pause?
Jakob - No, the EMH does not imply that markets have long AGI timelines
Max Tegmark - The 'Don't Look Up' Thinking That Could Doom Us With AI
Lao Mein - My Assessment of the Chinese AI Safety Community
Jaime Sevilla - Announcing Epoch’s dashboard of key trends and figures in Machine Learning
Değer Turan, Colleen McKenzie & Oliver Klingefjord - Mapping the Discourse on AI Safety & Ethics
Hamish Doodles with a map displaying organisations, people and resources in the AI safety space
The Center for AI Safety have a new AI safety newsletter
Eliezer Yudkowsky giving a last minute TED talk
David Kreuger writing in the New Scientist - Why do some AI researchers dismiss the potential risks to humanity?
Recordings are available from ‘Predictable AI: Evaluation, Anticipation and Control’ conference in Madrid
Jan Kulveit - Talking publicly about AI risk
Alexey Guzey - AI Alignment Is Turning from Alchemy Into Chemistry
AI Impacts quarterly newsletter
Other Causes
Joel Tan - Intermediate Report on Hypertension
New open letter on AI - "Include Consciousness Research"
Wellcome Leap has $60m in funding and is looking for project proposals within longevity - submit by 25th May
David D - Trans Rescue’s operations in Uganda: high impact giving opportunity
Bryan Walsh - Are 8 billion people too many - or too few?
Report: Food Security in Argentina in the event of an Abrupt Sunlight Reduction Scenario
Forecasting
Nikos - Wisdom of the Crowd vs. "the Best of the Best of the Best"
Violet Hour - Probabilities, Prioritization, and 'Bayesian Mindset'
Gavin Leech & Misha Yagudin - Can Policymakers Trust Forecasters?
Stories
Zeke - Story of a career/mental health failure
Aaron Gertler - Life in a Day: The film that opened my heart to effective altruism
Amber Dawn talking to Daniel Wu on being on the EA fringes, healthcare entrepreneurship and trying out different career paths
Productivity
Adam Binks & Chana Messinger - Exercise: Things we got wrong
Sofia Balderson - Starting and running your own mini projects: What I've learnt running a newsletter for a year
Ben Kuhn - Some mistakes I made as a new manager
Lizka - What are work practices that you’ve adopted that you now think are underrated?
Other Links
80,000 Hours podcast with Tim LeBon on how altruistic perfectionism is self-defeating
Michael Bloomberg Will Donate His Eponymous Company to a Philanthropic Trust
Luisa Rodriguez and Keiran Harris on free will, and the consequences of never feeling enduring guilt or shame
Kevin Starr - When funders aren’t accountable for impact, it ruins the party for everyone.
An EA Guide to Washington DC
500 Million, But Not A Single One More - The Animation
Pablo - David Edmonds's biography of Parfit is out
Jessica Wen with her reflections from EAGxNordics
There were also some EA Forum April Fool's Day posts (varying quality)
Good News
Our World in Data - Suicide rates have declined substantially in many countries since 2000
WHO certifies Azerbaijan and Tajikistan as malaria-free
Uzbekistan had criminalised domestic violence, harassment and stalking
TB deaths in Africa fell by 26% between 2015 and 2021
Thanks, missed a couple of those that are fairly relevant for me. Wondering whether it makes sense for you to more liberally post link-posts to the forum when you think they're particularly worth highlighting, e.g. the GovAI report and maybe the CLTR piece as well.