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
EA Updates for June 2021
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
Demographics
How People Get Involved in EA
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
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
Good News
Gambia has eliminated trachoma as a public health problem