Good question! There certainly is a strong case for funding global priorities research now, but there are multiple reasons why investing to give could still be better:
Certain insights make other insights easier to have: there might be a certain order in which insights need to be had, or at least a certain order might make things easier, and this could take time.
Funding to achieve these insights might be done by someone else in the counterfactual, and this other person or institution might not otherwise give to (as) high-impact stuff. Note that I’m not just talking about “targeted” global priorities research here: new insights might also come from or be aided by work by non-EA institutions.
Money isn’t directly fungible with research results/it takes time to build the field of global priorities research: just throwing more money at e.g. the Global Priorities Institute will hit strong diminishing returns, and it takes time for enough talented researchers to be trained so that the field can absorb more funding.
Good question! There certainly is a strong case for funding global priorities research now, but there are multiple reasons why investing to give could still be better:
Certain insights make other insights easier to have: there might be a certain order in which insights need to be had, or at least a certain order might make things easier, and this could take time.
Funding to achieve these insights might be done by someone else in the counterfactual, and this other person or institution might not otherwise give to (as) high-impact stuff. Note that I’m not just talking about “targeted” global priorities research here: new insights might also come from or be aided by work by non-EA institutions.
Money isn’t directly fungible with research results/it takes time to build the field of global priorities research: just throwing more money at e.g. the Global Priorities Institute will hit strong diminishing returns, and it takes time for enough talented researchers to be trained so that the field can absorb more funding.