In the spirit of claiming that “EA is often actually good” (sometimes a surprisingly hot take), I wanted to rave about EA Warwick, the EA uni group I was part of several years ago and what people from that group have accomplished since, possibly in part because of that group. For context, Warwick is a barely-top-10 UK university where a Giving What We Can group formed quite early (~2012?).
Alumni of EA Warwick (~2014 − 2020) include:
A research scholar at the Centre for the Governance of AI
An independent research consultant working with EA orgs
A senior ops role at a major safety-focused AI lab
A leadership team member at Open Philanthropy
A senior researcher at Rethink Priorities
A research fellow at the Global Priorities Institute
A senior biosecurity researcher at the University of Oxford
A PhD student in reinforcement learning, focused on AI alignment
A research analyst at the Center on Long-term Risk
A researcher at Founders Pledge
A research fellow at the Cambridge Existential Risk Initiative
A team member at EA Cambridge
An Economic Adviser to the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Me
And many other people who I’ve either forgotten or who are pursuing other (likely awesome) non-EA things. Feel free to mention if you’re an alumni!
Again, I’m unsure to what extent these people would credit EA Warwick with influencing their career path, if at all. I’m also unsure if the model EA Warwick used is the right model for today’s context.
But still, I think this is pretty neat. If I helped any of these people (other than me) get into these careers even a little bit while I was organising this group, that’s something I’m very proud of.
Yep, I don’t have reason to think it was more successful, this is anecdata.
Maybe worth noting that it’s probably been around for longer than many other EA groups, so others might not be able to point to many alumni several years into their career.
It seems likely that the culture of university EA groups could be improved. I’ve also heard other pessimistic/critical takes on EA uni group organising lately.
In the spirit of claiming that “EA is often actually good” (sometimes a surprisingly hot take), I wanted to rave about EA Warwick, the EA uni group I was part of several years ago and what people from that group have accomplished since, possibly in part because of that group. For context, Warwick is a barely-top-10 UK university where a Giving What We Can group formed quite early (~2012?).
Alumni of EA Warwick (~2014 − 2020) include:
A research scholar at the Centre for the Governance of AI
An independent research consultant working with EA orgs
A senior ops role at a major safety-focused AI lab
A leadership team member at Open Philanthropy
A senior researcher at Rethink Priorities
A research fellow at the Global Priorities Institute
A senior biosecurity researcher at the University of Oxford
A PhD student in reinforcement learning, focused on AI alignment
A research analyst at the Center on Long-term Risk
A researcher at Founders Pledge
A research fellow at the Cambridge Existential Risk Initiative
A team member at EA Cambridge
An Economic Adviser to the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Me
And many other people who I’ve either forgotten or who are pursuing other (likely awesome) non-EA things. Feel free to mention if you’re an alumni!
Again, I’m unsure to what extent these people would credit EA Warwick with influencing their career path, if at all. I’m also unsure if the model EA Warwick used is the right model for today’s context.
But still, I think this is pretty neat. If I helped any of these people (other than me) get into these careers even a little bit while I was organising this group, that’s something I’m very proud of.
What do you think EA Warwick did that made it more successful than other university groups?
I don’t think Warwick’s success is abnormal compared to other university groups?
Yep, I don’t have reason to think it was more successful, this is anecdata.
Maybe worth noting that it’s probably been around for longer than many other EA groups, so others might not be able to point to many alumni several years into their career.