Thanks a lot for the work and the report. Interesting findings you got there.
I have no experiences in EA so i’m just thinking out loud here—apologies in advance for my ignorance. I’m wondering if we have good reliable statistics on causes of deaths in the country (death being a proxy for suffering), and we could look into the categories of avoidable deaths (e.g. curable illnesses) and whether those areas are receiving enough support / funding. Also, from a poverty perspective, I’m curious if we have an idea how many Malaysians live in hardcore poverty and what can be done to get them out of it.
Also, what exactly is EA Malaysia’s role as compared to EA global? I can imagine that global issues such as climate change and AI existential risks are also being heavily looked at by EA global and others, and depending on the issue, EA Malaysia’s involvement could be either independent, complementary, or redundant.
I’m sure you have already thought about these points. Thanks again for the study.
Hi Zeshen! I’ll be answering you from my own personal capacity, so my views are not EA Malaysia’s.
I’m wondering if we have good reliable statistics on causes of deaths in the country (death being a proxy for suffering), and we could look into the categories of avoidable deaths (e.g. curable illnesses)
For health specific statistics, I’ve used information from IHME. For animal consumption, I’ve used data from FAO.
and whether those areas are receiving enough support / funding.
It’s a bit tough finding exact information about this. I did find one example from this report on the Lancet.
mental health spending (RM344·82 million or 1% of the health budget) remains below the average spending on mental health of upper-middle-income countries.
Also, from a poverty perspective, I’m curious if we have an idea how many Malaysians live in hardcore poverty and what can be done to get them out of it.
I have only done a bit of research on poverty, but my intuition tells me that Khazanah Research Institute probably has some information about this. One of the top Google search results is this report, which I find helpful in dealing with the “where is Malaysia’s poverty line issue” that you may have seen in the news sometimes.
Also, what exactly is EA Malaysia’s role as compared to EA global? I can imagine that global issues such as climate change and AI existential risks are also being heavily looked at by EA global and others, and depending on the issue, EA Malaysia’s involvement could be either independent, complementary, or redundant.
I love how you framed the outcomes of our involvement. I might even add, “destructive”, which is different from “redundant”—our involvement could caused more harm than good.
Ideally, we want to be complementary, if working on a certain thing is not our comparative advantage. For example, I would imagine top AI governance research institutions elsewhere have a better comparative advantage than Malaysia’s; this would mean that Malaysian wanting to work in this space using EA’s perspective but still want to be in Malaysia, would probably have the most impact in localising AI governance research from elsewhere into policy recommendations.
I don’t feel confident giving specific recommendations on reduce risk of doing redundant or destructive work, and increase the chance of doing complementary work. My only intuition to this is to over-coordinate (or coordinate more than you’re used to).
Thanks a lot for the work and the report. Interesting findings you got there.
I have no experiences in EA so i’m just thinking out loud here—apologies in advance for my ignorance. I’m wondering if we have good reliable statistics on causes of deaths in the country (death being a proxy for suffering), and we could look into the categories of avoidable deaths (e.g. curable illnesses) and whether those areas are receiving enough support / funding. Also, from a poverty perspective, I’m curious if we have an idea how many Malaysians live in hardcore poverty and what can be done to get them out of it.
Also, what exactly is EA Malaysia’s role as compared to EA global? I can imagine that global issues such as climate change and AI existential risks are also being heavily looked at by EA global and others, and depending on the issue, EA Malaysia’s involvement could be either independent, complementary, or redundant.
I’m sure you have already thought about these points. Thanks again for the study.
Hi Zeshen! I’ll be answering you from my own personal capacity, so my views are not EA Malaysia’s.
For health specific statistics, I’ve used information from IHME. For animal consumption, I’ve used data from FAO.
It’s a bit tough finding exact information about this. I did find one example from this report on the Lancet.
I have only done a bit of research on poverty, but my intuition tells me that Khazanah Research Institute probably has some information about this. One of the top Google search results is this report, which I find helpful in dealing with the “where is Malaysia’s poverty line issue” that you may have seen in the news sometimes.
I love how you framed the outcomes of our involvement. I might even add, “destructive”, which is different from “redundant”—our involvement could caused more harm than good.
Ideally, we want to be complementary, if working on a certain thing is not our comparative advantage. For example, I would imagine top AI governance research institutions elsewhere have a better comparative advantage than Malaysia’s; this would mean that Malaysian wanting to work in this space using EA’s perspective but still want to be in Malaysia, would probably have the most impact in localising AI governance research from elsewhere into policy recommendations.
I don’t feel confident giving specific recommendations on reduce risk of doing redundant or destructive work, and increase the chance of doing complementary work. My only intuition to this is to over-coordinate (or coordinate more than you’re used to).