I don’t know, but this critique feels like 5 years too late. There was a time when the focus of many within EA on longtermist issues wasn’t as upfront, but there’s been a sustained effort to be more upfront on this and anyone who’s done the intro course will know that it is a big focus of EA.
I’d love to know if anyone thinks that there are parts of this critique that hold up today. There very well might be as I’ve only read the summary above and not the original post.
As far as I understand, the paper doesn’t disagree with this and an explanation for it is given in the conclusion:
Communication strategies such as the ‘funnel model’ have facilitated the enduring perception amongst the broader public, academics and journalists that ‘EA’ is synonymous with ‘public-facing EA’. As a result, many people are confused by EA’s seemingly sudden shift toward ‘longtermism’, particularly AI/x-risk; however, this ‘shift’ merely represents a shift in EA’s communication strategy to more openly present the movement’s core aims.
Interesting. Seems from my perspective to be a shift towards AI, followed by a delayed update on EA’s new position, followed by further shifts towards AI.
I don’t know, but this critique feels like 5 years too late. There was a time when the focus of many within EA on longtermist issues wasn’t as upfront, but there’s been a sustained effort to be more upfront on this and anyone who’s done the intro course will know that it is a big focus of EA.
I’d love to know if anyone thinks that there are parts of this critique that hold up today. There very well might be as I’ve only read the summary above and not the original post.
I think it holds up. I wrote a highly upvoted post on organisations being transparent about their scope one month ago due to similar concerns.
As far as I understand, the paper doesn’t disagree with this and an explanation for it is given in the conclusion:
Interesting. Seems from my perspective to be a shift towards AI, followed by a delayed update on EA’s new position, followed by further shifts towards AI.