Coleman

Karma: 68

Hi! Thanks for checking out my EA Forum Bio! My name is Coleman; I am a current collaborative researcher with AI:FAR, focusing on AI governance strategy. I am also the host of On What Matters, a longform interview show focusing on AI Risk. I also served as the President of Cornell Effective Altruism for the past 3 years, before switching to focusing on AI Governance research fulltime. In addition to my passion for community building and speaking with various folks (both seasoned veterans and completely new to EA/GCR), I am interested in improving clearing thinking surrounding this century’s greatest challenges, in part through expanding upon the systemic risk approach.

My academic background is in Cognitive Science, Ethics, and Politics. My favorite thinkers from history are Aristotle, Hegel, and I especially admire the work of Derek Parfit, Vikctor Frankl, and the recent empirical studies out of Cornell’s Purpose and Identity Lab.

Currently projects (updated semi-regularly):

The Grand Strategy for AI Risk Project
Expansion of On What Matters+ Expanding our team (Feel free to reach out via cjs386@cornell.edu if interested in learning more about our production & research assistant roles)
Ongoing research on the underpinnings of cooperation and policy with Matthew Gentzel of LongView
Guest lecturing at Undergraduate/Graduate Student Groups on X Risk

The Missing Piece: Why We Need a Grand Strategy for AI

ColemanFeb 28, 2025, 11:49 PM

4 points

0 comments9 min readEA link

Coleman Feb 25, 2025, 10:09 PM
1 point
0 ∶ 0
on: Stop calling them labs
Very, very fair point, Sawyer! There’s a lot left to be desired in existing AI risk communications—especially to the public/policymakers—so any refinements are very welcome in my book. Great post!

Coleman Jul 3, 2024, 5:28 PM
6 points
0 ∶ 0
on: A Research Agenda for Psychology and AI
Hi, I just wanted to say this is a great post! My background is in psychology and AI, so I am particularly excited about this piece and would be really excited to talk more about some of your points, especially relating to key questions that are important to investigate that may inform AI governance strategy (my current focus!)

Eliciting responses to Marc Andreessen’s “Why AI Will Save the World”

ColemanJul 17, 2023, 7:58 PM

2 points

2 comments1 min readEA link

(a16z.com)

Coleman May 30, 2023, 4:23 PM
3 points
0 ∶ 0
on: New Video: What to Eat in a Global Catastrophe
Great video, you two!

Coleman Mar 27, 2023, 3:49 PM
3 points
0 ∶ 0
on: Introducing Artists of Impact
Wonderful project. We have needed something like this for quite a while and I am thrilled to see it happening!

Coleman Mar 27, 2023, 3:42 PM
3 points
0 ∶ 0
on: Introducing Artists of Impact
Wonderful project. We have needed something like this for quite a while and I am thrilled to see it happening!

Coleman Mar 14, 2023, 9:01 PM
2 points
1 ∶ 0
on: More Centralisation?
Would you say more organizational support would make for a broader equilibrium for EA-organizational needs…
Perhaps a ‘Nash-Equilibrium’?

Philosophy Tube: The Rich Have Their Own Ethics: Effective Altruism & the Crypto Crash

ColemanFeb 24, 2023, 10:00 PM

2 points

1 comment1 min readEA link

Coleman Nov 21, 2022, 3:07 PM
19 points
7 ∶ 1
on: Beyond Simple Existential Risk: Survival in a Complex Interconnected World
The promotion of pluralism allows for greater epistemic checks and balances in a way that seems unparalleled in good thinking.
Thank you so much for bringing these ideas to the forefront, Gideon. Absolute legend.

Bridging the FTX Funding Gap: Projects, ETG Ideas, and Brainstorming to Fill the ~35% Gap

ColemanNov 15, 2022, 10:37 PM

10 points

1 comment1 min readEA link

[Question] EA Recommended Note Taking Systems?

ColemanAug 23, 2022, 3:52 PM

6 points

2 comments1 min readEA link

Coleman Jul 20, 2022, 7:45 PM
1 point
0 ∶ 0
on: Who’s hiring? (May-September 2022)
21st Talks, a growing existential risk and EA-focused media organization with a podcast and youtube channel, is looking for a content admin/research assistant.
The role is not currently fully funded but the content admin will receive royalties.
The responsibilities include taking over the reins of strategizing potential podcast guests and setting up interviews via writing the guest directly or their PR team.
We are looking for someone who is also able to meet once a week to go over that upcoming content, and plan monthly content calendars, along with someone proficient in working on public communication-focused research projects.
The role will be 5 hours a week and should be a lot of fun. Current university students who are looking to be involved in EA communication seem like great fits. Bonus points if you’re in or near Ithaca NY where our current production team (Coleman Snell, Justin Dmelio) attends university.
More details are available to anyone interested. You can shoot me an email at cjs386@cornell.edu, using the subject line “21st Talks Content Admin Inquiry”!
Have a great rest of your week!

Coleman Apr 25, 2022, 4:22 PM
1 point
0 ∶ 0
on: EA can be hard: links for that
Thank you for this list! I research communication within EA and a large factor in ineffective communication is neglectedness around emotive responses when discussing these topics (I call the sum of these emotive responses the ‘lean out effect’).
All of these readings are super useful for my research so thank you so much for striving to metabolize your experience into something that can help other community members. Feel free to reach out and schedule a 1-on-1 and thank you again!

Coleman Apr 18, 2022, 10:15 PM
2 points
0 ∶ 0
on: Corporate governance reform efforts?
Hi! I am interested in this kind of research and I study behavioral science, and psychology at Cornell. I also do public/industry communication for X-Risk and EA, so I would love to connect and discuss what you have in mind!

Coleman Apr 14, 2022, 3:39 PM
3 points
0 ∶ 0
on: How should people spend money to be more productive?
In line with Khorton’s answer, life coaching
Especially from someone within Effective Altruism, who understands one’s longterm goals, having an individual to sit down with each week and talk through any and all issues is well worth the pay. When coupled with journaling, the issues that would otherwise impact one’s EA work can be majorly minimized.
Even issues that may seem small or insignificant on the surface, if they are recurring, can be extremely taxing on one’s sustainable EA motivation. The life coaching widely accessed within EA needs to extend far beyond just direct aspects of the career.
If you’re interested in life coaching on better achieving your goals, romance sustained motivation, etc… feel free to DM me. I’d be happy to chat about options beyond just therapy!

Coleman Mar 28, 2022, 7:49 PM
1 point
0 ∶ 0
on: Why I am looking for an executive assistant
Hi Max,
This may be a silly question but I have been thinking quite a bit about exactly some of the points you brought up in your piece above due to a recent expansion of my EA Communication Organization requiring me to take on my own assistant.
I am curious, would you recommend finding a part-time assistant for other people involved in EA who recognize that their work could become significantly more effective with even a part-time assistant? I am thinking of how often I see responses like “So sorry for the long response, I want to prioritize this and dropped the ball on responding because I have been so busy with {x responsbility}...”
Given how opportunity distribution works, there is a connection between the importance of work and the effectiveness of the specific individual at said work and the number of opportunities they are presented with. Do you think this creates a condition where many EA’s who are doing well at what they are aiming to do ought to have more readily available access to for example part time assistants?

Coleman Mar 25, 2022, 1:43 AM
2 points
0 ∶ 0
on: The BEAHR: Dust off your CVs for the Big EA Hiring Round!
What options may there be for part-time (full-time students who are highly EA forcused/motivated)?

Coleman Mar 22, 2022, 3:49 PM
2 points
0 ∶ 0
on: EA directory of ideas
Hey! I am interested in EA communication and idea rendering. At Cornell, I have been brainstorming some work in with a knowledge system called a Zettlestracken using software that visually plots / generates connections between ideas/notes.
Perhaps the system I have started to design may be useful for this. Feel free to reach out to me if you’re interested! I’ll DM you my email!

Coleman Mar 10, 2022, 5:55 PM
1 point
0 ∶ 0
on: Hello from the new Content Specialist at CEA
Hi! Congratulations on the new position!
I was curious, MetaCulus and similar sites have been really useful recently for many EA’s. Would there be anyway to create a similar system on EA here to do group sourced elicitation for possible ethical outcomes? It might super power the EA Forum’s ability to make rational comments!

Coleman

The Miss­ing Piece: Why We Need a Grand Strat­egy for AI

Elic­it­ing re­sponses to Marc An­dreessen’s “Why AI Will Save the World”

Philos­o­phy Tube: The Rich Have Their Own Ethics: Effec­tive Altru­ism & the Crypto Crash

Bridg­ing the FTX Fund­ing Gap: Pro­jects, ETG Ideas, and Brain­storm­ing to Fill the ~35% Gap

[Question] EA Recom­mended Note Tak­ing Sys­tems?

The Missing Piece: Why We Need a Grand Strategy for AI

Eliciting responses to Marc Andreessen’s “Why AI Will Save the World”

Philosophy Tube: The Rich Have Their Own Ethics: Effective Altruism & the Crypto Crash

Bridging the FTX Funding Gap: Projects, ETG Ideas, and Brainstorming to Fill the ~35% Gap

[Question] EA Recommended Note Taking Systems?