80K promoted SBF uncritically to a large audience and highlighted him as a positive example for years (while also being well placed to know about the 2018 Alameda blowup) so I think it’s fair to say that they have some non-zero level of responsibility in the EA-SBF connection and promotion.
Also, generally, more of the “very senior and trusted EAs” seem to be at Open Philanthropy.
Open Philanthropy has been in charge of funding (including groups like CEA), so they generally seem like the most high-up and ultimately responsible org. The relationship with FTX was about as large a project as we had in EA, so I assumed the institution with the most power and authority was handling or overseeing it to some extent.
I see. Thanks for sharing. I think it’s good to find out what expectations people had of different actors.
My expectations were that Open Phil is a family foundation with very large overlaps with the EA community and its interests including funding some parts of it, but it’s not fundamentally an actor with responsibility over the EA community’s decision making, especially nebulous and complex things like EA’s connections with a different billionaire. A lot of people the EA community considers leaders are at Open Phil, but I consider that pretty different from Open Philanthropy as an organization having responsibility for EA decision making. I’m not sure what, if anything, it should have done differently in this case.
After considering this comment and the relationship between Open Philanthropy and the rest of the EA ecosystem more, I’m reconsidering my position about Open Phil’s responsibility for EA’s relationships with FTX to one of much greater uncertainty.
80K promoted SBF uncritically to a large audience and highlighted him as a positive example for years (while also being well placed to know about the 2018 Alameda blowup) so I think it’s fair to say that they have some non-zero level of responsibility in the EA-SBF connection and promotion.
I see. Thanks for sharing. I think it’s good to find out what expectations people had of different actors.
My expectations were that Open Phil is a family foundation with very large overlaps with the EA community and its interests including funding some parts of it, but it’s not fundamentally an actor with responsibility over the EA community’s decision making, especially nebulous and complex things like EA’s connections with a different billionaire. A lot of people the EA community considers leaders are at Open Phil, but I consider that pretty different from Open Philanthropy as an organization having responsibility for EA decision making. I’m not sure what, if anything, it should have done differently in this case.
After considering this comment and the relationship between Open Philanthropy and the rest of the EA ecosystem more, I’m reconsidering my position about Open Phil’s responsibility for EA’s relationships with FTX to one of much greater uncertainty.