EA Forum Podcast (All audio)

In May 2025 I met Yo Shavit, who was working on national security policy at OpenAI and was thinking about how to prepare for a future in which models could seriously assist attackers in creating pandemics. We had a call, and when I shared notes with my team their main response was: "maybe start with not making models that can do that?"

Which is, in many ways, fair: by continuing to push the frontier in biological capabilities, OpenAI's actions were making things worse on many of the problems SecureBio is trying to solve. But OpenAI stopping wouldn't have resolved the problem: other firms were pushing quickly too, and the economic incentives strongly favored rapid capability advancement. Making the world more resilient to pandemics needed to be a high priority regardless, especially in light of models' increasing ability to help people with biology.

When I thought about what our initial conversations might turn into, however, my primary concerns were whether that might (a) compromise SecureBio's ability to independently assess and criticize OpenAI's work or (b) make the world less safe via reducing model developers' motivation to improve safeguards. I do think there's something to both of these, which I get [...]

The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.

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First published:

August 20th, 2026

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/dMfgJQ2rGX8GmzdMm/thoughts-on-taking-openai-foundation-funding

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I just read an article from The Guardian, written in April 2025 (I'm a bit behind on my reading ...). It's a good read, but that's noy why I share it here. What I want to highlight is something I'm seeing more and more, which is very negative portrayals and stereotyping of EA.

Some EA's seem ok with this, or accept that it goes with the territory. I vehemently disagree. I would argue that bringing EA thinking to the centre of the Overton window would be the single most impactful achievement of the 21st century, and that it is something we need to take very seriously, and dedicate resources to.

The rise of end times fascism | Far right (US) | The Guardian

This particular article is about the evil and danger of the fascist right-wing that is sweeping across the US and much of Europe. About a world in which empathy is seen as a great weakness, a world in which those opposing a climate armageddon are equated with Satan, a world of self-styled "Christian nationalism," where foreigners are enemies whom we torture to inspire the loyalty of the masses, ... well, you know, the world many [...]

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First published:

August 19th, 2026

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/YkXhyhjaDL9wWaCh3/effective-altruism-and-end-times-fascism

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Sentient Futures Summit (SFS) Bay Area 2027 is a three-day conference taking place on March 12 to 14, 2027 @ Mox, San Francisco, exploring the impact of AI and other emerging technologies on sentient non-humans, both biological and potentially artificial. This is the 7th conference of our series, which has served as a premier meeting place for those working to ensure that non-human sentient beings are not left behind in the long-term future.

What to expect:

1. A range of talks, workshops, and discussions across animal welfare, AI safety, philosophy of mind, and AI welfare
2. Opportunities to network with potential collaborators and funders in a focused and intimate setting
3. Deep, interdisciplinary conversations on future-oriented solutions that reduce non-human suffering

📣 The Call for Speakers is Now Open!

We’re looking for a range of submissions spanning ethical considerations in AI systems, animal welfare in the age of transformative AI, philosophy of mind and machine consciousness, as well as AI governance and policy. We’re accepting applications from speakers (long-form and lightning talks) and facilitators (workshops and other interactive formats).

If you have a compelling idea that pushes the conversation on non-human welfare forward, we'd love to hear it. Speakers and [...]

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First published:

August 19th, 2026

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/TY44tu8qpqP9xdmoL/sentient-futures-summit-bay-area-2027

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Summary

This post will summarize the trajectory of Wild Animal Initiative's field-building for wild animal welfare science so far, along with patterns and indicators we want to see more of going forward. Beginning with an initial phase focused on establishing credibility and awareness of the field, through a second phase that has placed more emphasis on the distinctiveness and broad priorities of the field, we are now moving into a third phase designed to consolidate effort and encourage more projects to build on each other, enabling the field make faster progress towards answers to key questions and potential interventions. This post also covers where our research funding has gone over the past few years and some of the field-building milestones we’re seeing.

WAI's early field-building

Wild Animal Initiative (WAI) launched in early 2019 with the objective of establishing a mainstream scientific field dedicated to the practical study of wild animal welfare (hereafter referred to as “wild animal welfare science” or WAWS). We chose to approach the problem of wild animal suffering through scientific field-building because there were (and remain) many critical questions requiring empirical research before we could know that any wild animal welfare intervention or policy is having [...]

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Outline:

(00:12) Summary

(00:55) WAI's early field-building

(07:13) The foundation of WAWS laid so far

(08:08) Measuring wild animal welfare

(12:19) Understanding factors affecting welfare

(13:26) Welfare interventions

(15:41) What we haven't seen enough of

(18:18) The next phase of WAI's strategy

(24:48) Conclusion

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First published:

August 19th, 2026

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/EZumX6KDGH9YNuYFf/wai-is-starting-phase-3-of-field-building-for-wild-animal

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I am writing up two crazy-ish charity ideas I’ve wanted to investigate, but haven’t been able to, in the hopes someone will investigate them further. If you end up investigating either, I'd be most interested to see what conclusions you come to!

Vulture preservation as a global health intervention

Since the mid 1990's the vulture population in India has been rapidly declining. The reason is due to a few chemicals which are fed to livestock, which is highly poisonous to vultures.

A paper by two University of Chicago economists came to the surprising conclusion that the decline of vultures increased human mortality by 4% (!!) leading to hundreds of thousands of excess deaths. That number peaked my attention.

After reading it, I reached out to the authors of the paper as well as some people working on vulture preservation in India to learn more.

My takeaway (this was almost two years ago, so my memory is fuzzy) was that the chemicals responsible for the decline of vultures (particularly diclofenac) had cheap alternatives and that lethargy alongside regulation imposing minor switching costs to industry has kept regulation from being taken up and enforced.

Doing LEEP style policy advocacy to adopt [...]

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Outline:

(00:25) Vulture preservation as a global health intervention

(02:47) Radio infotainment on responsible income planning in developing countries

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First published:

August 18th, 2026

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/gqrAWHZKmGqiZeoZZ/two-crazy-ish-charitable-global-poverty-project-ideas

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Prepared by: Claudinéia Pereira Costa, PhD; Meghan Barrett, PhD

Note: This report has not been peer-reviewed and has only been generated for the Forum. Results should be interpreted with caution, though we do follow peer-reviewed methodologies.

Executive Summary

• We analyzed the publicly-available Kerria lacca (Hemiptera: Kerriidae) genome, which was generated from late-stage, sessile adult females, for evidence of nine receptor genes in seven orthologous gene families related to heat, cold, chemical, and mechanical nociception in other insects.
  • Finding any of these genes does not prove nociception is present; functional assays and confirmation of these receptors in nociceptors would be needed.
  • Finding these genes are absent does not prove nociception is absent; other genes may exist for nociception and different insect groups have evolved their own receptors. 
  • Nevertheless, finding presence/absence of these genes may be probability-shifting compared to true ignorance of their presence/absence.
• We find K. lacca has six of seven gene families, including genes that (in other species) encode for proteins with noxious heat, cold, chemical, and mechanical responsiveness. 
  • Pkd2, which in fruit fly larvae is expected to have a direct role in cold sensing in Class III multidendritic neurons, was not detected in the search.
• These data do not prove [...]

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Outline:

(00:36) Executive Summary

(02:14) Introduction

(08:51) Findings and Discussion

(08:55) Strong support for genes that may encode responsiveness to noxious heat, chemical, and mechanical stimuli in adult female K. lacca genome

(10:22) K. lacca gene copy number profile is similar to other hemipterans for these gene families

(11:21) Noxious cold-sensing channel Pkd2, with function known from fruit flies, was not detected; but, other mechanisms for cold-sensing could still be present, as cold-sensing is critically understudied in arthropods

(14:55) Further research confirming the nociceptive functions of the proteins encoded by these genes, as well as their expression in nociceptors, is needed to confirm nociception in K. lacca

(16:24) Methods

(16:27) Obtaining the Genome

(16:46) Gene Family Analysis

(20:00) Code Availability

(20:31) Acknowledgements

The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.

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First published:

August 17th, 2026

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/2JdY8vuMAYcbqX5p9/research-report-a-genetic-basis-for-potential-nociception-in

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Disclaimer: This blog post focuses on a new piece of research from Rethink Priorities. I was not involved with the funding or execution of this research, and therefore write this piece merely as a consumer. However, I am the Executive Director of Giving Green and a board member of Rethink Priorities, and acknowledge that these affiliations may bias my interpretation of the work.

More EA Near/Medium-Termist Money Should be Flowing to Climate Change Mitigation2 votes so far. Voting closes in 6 days. Place your vote or view results.DisagreeAgree

TL;DR

• New research from Rethink Priorities seeks to compare cost-effectiveness of high-impact giving in climate change mitigation versus global health and development. 
• Key research contribution is re-calculating the social cost of carbon using an EA-aligned value framework, which allows direct comparison of climate giving opportunities to Coefficient Giving's (CG) funding bar
• Conclusion is that donating to high-impact climate funds (such as Giving Green or the Founder's Pledge Climate Fund) is competitive with Coefficient Giving's Global Health and Wellbeing Fund, especially given the recent drop in CG's funding bar
• Many conversations with AI lab employees lead me to believe that climate is not a priority cause area for this group. [...]

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First published:

August 18th, 2026

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/KhCCkLMRkj38vCAzj/new-research-climate-mitigation-is-overlooked-by-ea

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Ever felt like something's missing from how EA talks about “doing good”? Like the conversation stops just short of asking what's actually broken at the root? This opening post introduces a sequence born from exactly that itch: a group of EA-adjacent volunteers who spent three years exploring whether there are systems-level dynamics and interventions that the community should be paying more attention to.

Post 1: In this first post of our sequence, we set the stage for the empirical and conceptual work to come: we outline who we are, how our collaboration came about, why we believe systemic change should be more of a focus area within EA and what we are hoping to achieve with this sequence. We hope you consider this as an invitation into an ongoing conversation.

In the coming posts, we will then:

Post 2: Bedazzle you with definitions – what even is “systemic change”?

In the second post of the sequence, we propose an understanding of systemic change-related work that emerged from our internal discussions. Based on that, we outline key criteria that organisations should pay attention to when designing systems-conscious strategies. We offer these as a starting point for discussion across the [...]

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Outline:

(02:28) Why focus on systemic change?

(02:45) Importance

(03:35) Tractability

(04:28) Neglectedness

(05:09) Sustainability?

(06:16) Who are "we"?

(06:50) How did we get here?

(09:25) Our Goals

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First published:

August 18th, 2026

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/68s53roPszfbmthdg/systemic-change-and-ea-what-is-it-all-about

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I love EA; I am really proud of what we have built at CEA, and I am excited about where CEA is heading- that is all still very true. And after taking time to step back and think about where I most want to direct my energy next, I made the bittersweet decision to move on from CEA. I have spent my entire (!) full-time career there. I so deeply admire my stellar coworkers, and I deeply love EA and the impact we have- that is a big part of what made this decision so hard. I also still think it's the right decision for me.

Earlier this year, I drafted the following post about my experience leading the talent growth pillar at CEA but didn’t end up posting it. It's a nice reflection on the past year and highlights some of the amazing work of others and the things we have built that will be here long after I leave. So I am sharing it now (even though some of it is quite out of date).

I will also use it as a chance to advertise that we are hiring for a Director of Community Growth, which will [...]

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Outline:

(02:46) 1. Growing Infrastructure

(07:10) 2. Growing My Team

(11:47) 3. Growing Myself

(15:33) What's Next

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First published:

August 17th, 2026

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/KKCcwwam3gtAjH7z6/growing-requires-growth-building-the-systems-behind-cea-s

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This competition entry has been selected for publication by the Forum team.

Summary

Kollin, Clifton, DiGiovanni, and Macé (2025) propose two “bracketing” theories for recovering altruistic action guidance under cluelessness, formalizing a response that DiGiovanni (2025) had earlier viewed sympathetically but raised doubts about. On bottom-up bracketing, we set aside beneficiaries for whom it is indeterminate which option is better, and then aggregate over the remaining beneficiaries. On top-down bracketing, we instead evaluate the largest subsets of beneficiaries for which the comparison is determinate. Although bottom-up bracketing yields Kollin et al.'s intended verdict in the motivating donation case (Against Malaria Foundation > Make-A-Wish Foundation, despite long-term cluelessness) and satisfies Super-Strong Pareto, the authors reject it because it fails to extend their baseline consequentialist relation and, in particular, violates Statewise Dominance.

I argue that this rejection is ill-motivated. In their central counterexample to bottom-up bracketing, one person is determinately better off under option A than option B, while neither A nor B is determinately better for the other people. Bottom-up bracketing therefore chooses A. B wins under top-down bracketing only because the other people's individually indeterminate welfare comparisons are pooled before determinacy is assessed. But if individual persons are the [...]

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Outline:

(00:16) Summary

(03:21) 1. Bottom-up versus top-down bracketing

(08:35) 2. A person-centered case for bottom-up bracketing

(14:27) 3. Specific replies to and questions for DiGiovanni, Clifton, and others

(14:35) 3.1. An unexplained tension in DiGiovanni's metanormative bracketing?

(18:15) 3.2. Does bracketing carve consequences arbitrarily?

(20:22) 3.3. Does bracketed cluelessness weaken "moral urgency"?

(22:25) 3.4. Can a weighing model of reasons support Super-Strong Pareto?

(24:47) 3.5. Is person-centered bottom-up bracketing a "consequentialist" theory?

(26:42) 3.6. Do population ethics or infinite ethics argue against a person-centered approach?

(36:20) 4. Bonus [optional]: Is impartial altruism indeterminate?

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First published:

August 17th, 2026

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/qpQSEy7n2WjxazFnf/bottom-up-bracketing-a-person-centered-response-to

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.