The 2020 Effective Altruism Survey just opened. If you’re interested in EA, it’s useful to fill out to get a sense of how the community is changing over time
Giving Green has been re-launched, a new initiative incubated at IDinsight that aims to guide donations towards evidence-backed climate change projects
EA Updates for December 2020
Upcoming Virtual Events
30th November—International Effective Giving Day with talks from Michael Kremer, Johannes Ackva, Leah Edgerton and Neil Buddy Shah
30th November—Working as an AI Strategist with Miles Brundage from OpenAI and The Future of Humanity Institute
2nd December—Career Profile—Daniela Amodei from OpenAI
6th December—Giving What We Can meetup
December - Giving What We Can pledge drive for 2020
Meta
The 2020 Effective Altruism Survey just opened. If you’re interested in EA, it’s useful to fill out to get a sense of how the community is changing over time
There is a new network for people working in healthcare and interested in effective altruism
A new career advising organisation has been set up to cover areas neglected by 80,000 Hours and Animal Advocacy Careers
80,000 Hours have released an updated career guide
Thoughts on the benefits and drawbacks of the EA Donor Lottery
Rethink Priorities with their 2020 overview and plans for 2021
EA Organisation updates for October
A post looking at what EA Brazil has been up to
A post introducing Ayuda Efectiva, an organisation that makes effective giving easily accessible for donors in Spain
Giving Tuesday will be on December the 1st, find out how to get your donation doubled here
Kuhan writing about an alternative to running a charity fundraiser on your birthday
80,000 Hours podcast with Benjamin Todd on what the effective altruism community most needs
EA Oxford are running an in depth fellowship, find out more here
Post on the EA forum asking where people are donating this year and why
Open Philanthropy staff have written up their suggestions for individual donors here
Grants
Open Phil have made 17 grants recently with a total value of $15,869,000
$10,6375,000 - Scientific research
$6,500,000 - COVID-19 Vaccine Development
$3,175,000 - Malaria Prevention Research
$4,280,000 - Farm animal welfare
$3,600,000 - Open Wing Alliance
$630,000 - Criminal justice reform
$308,000 - Potential risks from advanced AI
$275,000 - Global health & development
Animal Charity Evaluators funded 23 projects with a total value of $289,745
Global Development
GiveWell with their giving recommendations for 2020
Founders Pledge with an overview of how individual donors fit into the larger development landscape
Happier Lives Institute with research on the effect of cash transfers on subjective well-being and mental health
The Gates Foundation on why they invest in innovation
An article looking at research gaps in global health
Reflections from seven years of research in J-PAL’s Post-Primary Education Initiative
An article looking at why large NGOs don’t tend to scale up external solutions
Our World in Data with a post looking at how pandemics allow us to understand why our ancestors lived in poverty
Animal Welfare
Animal Charity Evaluators with their giving recommendations for 2020
Animal Advocacy Careers with a new job board
Jason Schukraft with research looking into the intensity of valenced experience across species
Lewis Bollard with a talk on doing the most good for animals post-COVID-19
Faunalytics looking at animal welfare in academia
Existential & Catastrophic Risks
The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk with a report on promoting epistemic security in a technologically-advanced world
Toby Ord writing in the Economist on future risks
The Global Catastrophic Risks Institute with an overview of their work in 2020 and plans for 2021
ALLFED with a review of their work in 2020
A post looking at risks from autonomous weapons
The New Yorker covering Toby Ord on existential risks
Environment
Giving Green has been re-launched, a new initiative incubated at IDinsight that aims to guide donations towards evidence-backed climate change projects
A look into how Jeff Bezos is using his $10,000,000,000 Earth Fund
A paper critiquing EA and it’s perceived support of offsetting and geoengineering
Long Term Future
A review of the Future of Humanity Institute’s summer research fellowship 2020
A response to the Will MacAskill post; “Are we living at the most influential time in history?”
Tobias Baumann looking at the intersection of animal advocacy and longtermism
Emerging Technology
EA Global talk from Chongli Qin on ensuring safety and consistency in the age of machine learning
UK Research and Innovation has invested £33,000,000 launching six new research projects to tackle challenges to the development of trustworthy autonomous systems
Other Links
Lynette Bye with a post on being being productive with chronic health conditions
A post on the forum asking “What quotes do you find most inspire you to use your resources to help others?”
New research suggesting that behavioural nudges fail more often than reported
Happier Lives Institute with a report into the problem area of pain
There is a new organisation funding 15-17 years olds anywhere in the world who are interested in improving the world
The Organisation for the Prevention of Intense Suffering with a policy paper on legalising access to psilocybin for the treatment of cluster headaches
Effective altruism from an anarchist perspective
Aaron Gertler donating $10,000 after getting to the final two in a Magic: The Gathering tournament
CSER with a comic version of their Bioengineering Horizon Scan 2020 journal article
Sophia Cheng, Allan Saldanha and Matthew Allcock in ‘The i’ newspaper discussing why they have taken the Giving What We Can pledge
Nicole Ross on being in a cycle of desperation, inadequacy and burn out
Good News
There has been a large decline in the number of people with lymphatic filariasis, a neglected tropical disease. From ~200 million people in 2000 to ~50 million people in 2018
Cambodia is closer to eradicating Malaria with a 70% reduction in cases this year compared to last year
The Global Terrorism Index reports that deaths from terrorism have reached a five year low
The UAE government has updated its legal system, with progressive changes to personal and civil laws