Is your view that they might happen to arrive at decent recommendations, or that the research method they use to arrive at those recommendations is good? I think the first is perhaps true but definitely not the second, and this should be sufficient disqualification. I’m loath to have to go over this again, but unfortunately it is necessary given this decision.
ACE have been around for six years and as of today have only two intervention reports on their website which they actually stand by—on leafleting and on protests. (The leafleting report shows that leafleting doesn’t work.) They kept several long intervention reports on their website for years until I published my critique that were, by their own admission, poor. They only took their old leafleting report down around a year after Harrison Nathan pointed out how bad it was. They kept their grossly inaccurate ‘impact calculator’ on their website for a year after Nathan published his critique. Until only last year, their cost-effectiveness analyses contained various absurd figures such as that the digital reach of their charities was in the billions. ACE does not even try to check whether charities they assess played any role in claimed successful corporate campaigns, and until I published my critique, relied on a paper on the welfare effects of hen systems which Open Phil explained to be mistaken more than a year ago. They don’t favour meat alternative research over charities doing corporate campaigns and the like because counting long-term effects would be “unfair” to the latter.
Which piece of their research do you think is good, aside from the recent reports on leafleting and protests, and do you not think this is an adequate outcome after six years of operation?
Their response to criticism in both my case and in Harrison Nathan’s has been to suggest that critics have ‘misunderstood’ their research and have presented their responses as opportunities for clarification. In fact, what we both pointed out was that there were and are extensive flaws with their research. This is not genuine accountability and makes me seriously concerned that they will not actually improve. Again, I didn’t want to have to express my true views on this, and I thought I wouldn’t have to as they would be left alone with time to improve rather than being given control over millions of dollars by CEA.
For these reasons, I don’t see how my critiques could not be highly relevant to whether they should be involved in the fund. Do you think the consistent publication of low quality research over the course of years is irrelevant to the ability to do research in the future? Or do you think that their research has actually been better than I have suggested? If so, I would be interested to which parts you think are indeed better.
Thanks for your feedback and questions, and thanks for your patience while I was traveling. On reflection, I think I made a mistake in delegating two seats on the Fund to ACE, rather than picking Toni and Jamie independently. My intention was to increase the Fund’s ideological diversity (ACE researchers have a range of viewpoints, and I wanted to avoid the natural bias to pick those who shared mine). But I now think this benefit is outweighed by the harm that the Fund could be misperceived as reflecting ACE’s organizational views or being based on ACE research.
Otherwise, I worry we’re talking past each other. I agree with several, though not all, of your criticisms of ACE’s historical performance. But I also think ACE’s charity recommendations have created substantial value by driving donations toward higher-impact activities (though I don’t always agree with them). I believe this more because of my independent view of the activities and groups involved than because of ACE’s public writing.
More importantly, I don’t think your criticisms of ACE reflect on Toni and Jamie’s ability to help the Fund accomplish the goals we established: a wider range of views, a deeper resource of time, and more capacity to monitor impact. Both are smart, have different ideas on how to most effectively fund animal groups within an EA framework, and have much more time than I do to identify new giving opportunities. And both have an open-mindedness and commitment to truth that I think is critical for objectively assessing impact.
Thanks again for engaging with this decision, and the Fund, so thoughtfully. We look forward to sharing updates on the Fund’s donations in the coming months. And thank you, as always, to everyone for your support of effective animal advocacy — whether via the Fund or directly.
Hi Lewis, thanks for this.
Is your view that they might happen to arrive at decent recommendations, or that the research method they use to arrive at those recommendations is good? I think the first is perhaps true but definitely not the second, and this should be sufficient disqualification. I’m loath to have to go over this again, but unfortunately it is necessary given this decision.
ACE have been around for six years and as of today have only two intervention reports on their website which they actually stand by—on leafleting and on protests. (The leafleting report shows that leafleting doesn’t work.) They kept several long intervention reports on their website for years until I published my critique that were, by their own admission, poor. They only took their old leafleting report down around a year after Harrison Nathan pointed out how bad it was. They kept their grossly inaccurate ‘impact calculator’ on their website for a year after Nathan published his critique. Until only last year, their cost-effectiveness analyses contained various absurd figures such as that the digital reach of their charities was in the billions. ACE does not even try to check whether charities they assess played any role in claimed successful corporate campaigns, and until I published my critique, relied on a paper on the welfare effects of hen systems which Open Phil explained to be mistaken more than a year ago. They don’t favour meat alternative research over charities doing corporate campaigns and the like because counting long-term effects would be “unfair” to the latter.
Which piece of their research do you think is good, aside from the recent reports on leafleting and protests, and do you not think this is an adequate outcome after six years of operation?
Their response to criticism in both my case and in Harrison Nathan’s has been to suggest that critics have ‘misunderstood’ their research and have presented their responses as opportunities for clarification. In fact, what we both pointed out was that there were and are extensive flaws with their research. This is not genuine accountability and makes me seriously concerned that they will not actually improve. Again, I didn’t want to have to express my true views on this, and I thought I wouldn’t have to as they would be left alone with time to improve rather than being given control over millions of dollars by CEA.
For these reasons, I don’t see how my critiques could not be highly relevant to whether they should be involved in the fund. Do you think the consistent publication of low quality research over the course of years is irrelevant to the ability to do research in the future? Or do you think that their research has actually been better than I have suggested? If so, I would be interested to which parts you think are indeed better.
Thanks for your feedback and questions, and thanks for your patience while I was traveling. On reflection, I think I made a mistake in delegating two seats on the Fund to ACE, rather than picking Toni and Jamie independently. My intention was to increase the Fund’s ideological diversity (ACE researchers have a range of viewpoints, and I wanted to avoid the natural bias to pick those who shared mine). But I now think this benefit is outweighed by the harm that the Fund could be misperceived as reflecting ACE’s organizational views or being based on ACE research.
Otherwise, I worry we’re talking past each other. I agree with several, though not all, of your criticisms of ACE’s historical performance. But I also think ACE’s charity recommendations have created substantial value by driving donations toward higher-impact activities (though I don’t always agree with them). I believe this more because of my independent view of the activities and groups involved than because of ACE’s public writing.
More importantly, I don’t think your criticisms of ACE reflect on Toni and Jamie’s ability to help the Fund accomplish the goals we established: a wider range of views, a deeper resource of time, and more capacity to monitor impact. Both are smart, have different ideas on how to most effectively fund animal groups within an EA framework, and have much more time than I do to identify new giving opportunities. And both have an open-mindedness and commitment to truth that I think is critical for objectively assessing impact.
Thanks again for engaging with this decision, and the Fund, so thoughtfully. We look forward to sharing updates on the Fund’s donations in the coming months. And thank you, as always, to everyone for your support of effective animal advocacy — whether via the Fund or directly.