It’s interesting and is actually an under discussed but important topic in EA community.
However, I think you could compare direct work vs donating to support AI safety research directly, not donating Givewell(which mainly focus on improving global health) Because for some people, donating to longtermism funds is much more effective than GiveWell.
I compared GiveWell to convince people who believe in global dev but are skeptical of AI risk. I could have kept the explanation of why dollars to GiveWell should be discounted and instead said “Donate [smaller yet still big amount] to AI safety / longtermist solutions” which would be equivalent to “Donate $5M to GiveWell” (assuming my discounting is accurate), but I feared it would sound circular. Some people’s natural response would be “I already don’t believe AI risk is that big of a deal!” even though the two framings are logically equivalent
It’s interesting and is actually an under discussed but important topic in EA community.
However, I think you could compare direct work vs donating to support AI safety research directly, not donating Givewell(which mainly focus on improving global health) Because for some people, donating to longtermism funds is much more effective than GiveWell.
I compared GiveWell to convince people who believe in global dev but are skeptical of AI risk. I could have kept the explanation of why dollars to GiveWell should be discounted and instead said “Donate [smaller yet still big amount] to AI safety / longtermist solutions” which would be equivalent to “Donate $5M to GiveWell” (assuming my discounting is accurate), but I feared it would sound circular. Some people’s natural response would be “I already don’t believe AI risk is that big of a deal!” even though the two framings are logically equivalent