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“Donating 80% While It Still Counts” by jefftk
Julia and I had been giving half
since 2014, but in
2025 we drew on our savings to donate 81%. It looks to us like we're
in a critical window for keeping
the
introduction of
very
powerful
AI
systems
from
being
disastrous, and we want to do what we can while we still can.
Here's what that looks like in the context of our overall spending:
There's a details box here with the title "table...". The box contents are omitted from this narration.
We've been prioritizing donations for a long
time, but it feels very different now because of the AI boom.
Some of this is that people who've made money in the boom will
likely be giving more soon, and so money spent now can help set up
organizations to spend future money more effectively. But more
importantly, this is a key window of opportunity: transformative AI is
coming very
quickly, for better or worse.
We want to push hard for "better".
If you compare to previous years (2024, 2022, 2020, 2018, 2016, 2014), we're donating a lot less than
we used to in absolute terms:
There's a details box here with [...]
---
Outline:
(04:21) Evaluating Predictions
(06:28) Making New Predictions
(08:25) Details
---
First published:
May 26th, 2026
Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/mAhCkK5iBuZvCbFey/donating-80-while-it-still-counts
---
Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
---
Images from the article:
Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.
View all episodes
By LessWrongJulia and I had been giving half
since 2014, but in
2025 we drew on our savings to donate 81%. It looks to us like we're
in a critical window for keeping
the
introduction of
very
powerful
AI
systems
from
being
disastrous, and we want to do what we can while we still can.
Here's what that looks like in the context of our overall spending:
There's a details box here with the title "table...". The box contents are omitted from this narration.
We've been prioritizing donations for a long
time, but it feels very different now because of the AI boom.
Some of this is that people who've made money in the boom will
likely be giving more soon, and so money spent now can help set up
organizations to spend future money more effectively. But more
importantly, this is a key window of opportunity: transformative AI is
coming very
quickly, for better or worse.
We want to push hard for "better".
If you compare to previous years (2024, 2022, 2020, 2018, 2016, 2014), we're donating a lot less than
we used to in absolute terms:
There's a details box here with [...]
---
Outline:
(04:21) Evaluating Predictions
(06:28) Making New Predictions
(08:25) Details
---
First published:
May 26th, 2026
Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/mAhCkK5iBuZvCbFey/donating-80-while-it-still-counts
---
Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
---
Images from the article:
Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.
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