EA Forum Podcast (All audio)

Summary
We’re exploring the idea of building a career guidance platform aimed at helping the African diaspora - and professionals interested in development more broadly - pursue high-impact careers in Africa (or LMICs more broadly).

The goal is to shift talented individuals towards higher impact roles in Global Development. 80,000 Hours already does this for a certain subset of people in developed countries (and primarily for AI and existential risks), but there are a large number of diaspora and others who are specifically focused on development, are seeking this advice and could be guided towards higher impact careers.

This is still early stage, and I’d welcome feedback on all aspects, but particularly assessing the scale of potential impact, most promising focus areas, and potential funders and collaborators to speak to.

Problem Statement

Many members of the African diaspora express a desire to “give back” or “make a difference” [...]

---

First published:

July 20th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/EiSHuf8e33BH2t3GX/80-000-hours-for-global-development

---

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.

This is a link post.

Note: This is a linkpost to an essay written by Princeton computer science professor Arvind Narayanan and PHD candidate Sayash Kapoor entitled “Could AI slow science?”. The authors may not see or respond to comments on this post. I'm posting this because I think it is a well-articulated counterargument to the growing opinion that an AI intelligence explosion that rapidly accelerates scientific progress is imminent or inevitable.

Could AI slow science?

AI leaders have predicted that it will enable dramatic scientific progress: curing cancer, doubling the human lifespan, colonizing space, and achieving a century of progress in the next decade. Given the cuts to federal funding for science in the U.S., the timing seems perfect, as AI could replace the need for a large scientific workforce.

It's a common-sense view, at least among technologists, that AI will speed science greatly as it gets adopted [...]

---

Outline:

(00:38) Could AI slow science?

(03:22) Science has been slowing -- the production-progress paradox

(10:26) Why is progress slowing? Can AI help?

(15:56) Science is not ready for software, let alone AI

(22:28) AI might prolong the reliance on flawed theories

(26:21) Human understanding remains essential

(32:43) Implications for the future of science

(39:35) Final thoughts

(40:56) Further reading

---

First published:

July 17th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/TSFF4Jpef2dr5PJPd/how-ai-could-slow-scientific-progress-linkpost

Linkpost URL:
https://www.aisnakeoil.com/p/could-ai-slow-science

---

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.

This is a link post.

Note: This is a linkpost to an essay written by Princeton computer science professor Arvind Narayanan and PHD candidate Sayash Kapoor entitled “Could AI slow science?”. The authors may not see or respond to comments on this post.

Could AI slow science?

AI leaders have predicted that it will enable dramatic scientific progress: curing cancer, doubling the human lifespan, colonizing space, and achieving a century of progress in the next decade. Given the cuts to federal funding for science in the U.S., the timing seems perfect, as AI could replace the need for a large scientific workforce.

It's a common-sense view, at least among technologists, that AI will speed science greatly as it gets adopted in every part of the scientific pipeline — summarizing existing literature, generating new ideas, performing data analyses and experiments to test them, writing up findings, and performing “peer” review.

[...]

---

Outline:

(00:27) Could AI slow science?

(03:12) Science has been slowing -- the production-progress paradox

(10:15) Why is progress slowing? Can AI help?

(15:44) Science is not ready for software, let alone AI

(22:16) AI might prolong the reliance on flawed theories

(26:10) Human understanding remains essential

(32:31) Implications for the future of science

(39:24) Final thoughts

(40:44) Further reading

---

First published:

July 17th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/TSFF4Jpef2dr5PJPd/how-ai-could-slow-scientific-progress-linkpost

Linkpost URL:
https://www.aisnakeoil.com/p/could-ai-slow-science

---

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.

This is a link post.

Tom Davidson from Forethought Research and I have a new paper responding to some recent skeptical takes on the Singularity Hypothesis (e.g. this one). Roughly half the paper is philosophical and the other half is empirical. Both halves argue that we should take the Singularity Hypothesis more seriously than many people have been taking it of late. I'm sharing this with the community here because (i) I think it will be of general interest, and (ii) this is a project I'm still working on, and I would appreciate feedback from the community.

Here's the abstract:

The singularity hypothesis posits a period of rapid technological progress following the point at which AI systems become able to contribute to AI research. Recent philosophical criticisms of the singularity hypothesis offer a range of theoretical and empirical arguments against the possibility or likelihood of such a period of [...]

---

First published:

July 16th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/AwJbvANYabeFgqkpH/rebooting-the-singularity

Linkpost URL:
https://philpapers.org/archive/KIRRTS-2.pdf

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

This is a link post.

(This is the video and transcript of a public talk I gave at Mox in San Francisco in July 2025, on long-term equilibria post-AGI. It's a longer version of the talk I gave at this workshop. The slides are also available here.)

Introduction

Thank you. Okay. Hi. Thanks for coming.

Aims for this talk

So: can goodness compete? It's a classic question, and it crops up constantly in a certain strand of futurism, so I'm going to try to analyze it and understand it more precisely. And in particular I want to distinguish between a few different variants, some of which are more fundamental problems than others. And then I want to try to hone in on what I see as the hardest version of the problem – and in particular, possible ways good values can have inherent disadvantages and competition with [...]

---

Outline:

(00:32) Introduction

(00:51) Aims for this talk

(02:06) Basic vibe

(03:44) Lineage of concern

(04:45) What I mean by goodness

(07:38) What I mean by competition

(09:35) Can \*humans\* compete?

(11:30) Some distinctions

(14:40) Alignment taxes

(17:14) More fundamental variants

(18:14) Negative sum dynamics

(20:26) The strategy stealing assumption

(21:38) Locust-like value systems

(25:27) Other ways the strategy stealing assumption might fail

(28:21) Addressing failures of the strategy stealing assumption

(31:25) Is preventing/constraining competition in this way even possible?

(33:31) Is preventing/constraining competition in this way desirable?

(35:19) What is a locust world actually like?

(36:29) Might a locust world be less bleak than this?

(43:09) Current overall take

(44:28) Poem: Witchgrass

(46:47) Q&A

---

First published:

July 17th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ax258h7adna7xkNSz/video-and-transcript-of-talk-on-can-goodness-compete-1

Linkpost URL:
https://joecarlsmith.substack.com/p/video-and-transcript-of-talk-on-can

---

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.

This is a link post.

The brand NestFresh eggs has just started selling eggs from in-ovo sexed hens in the US. Right now, they are only available at some Whole Foods locations in the Southwest, soon to be expanded to other locations. Supporting those eggs now is particularly valuable, as their market performance will influence other companies' decisions to adopt the technology. See the blog post linked above for details!

---

First published:

July 18th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/qciXqDSjBtqTGkTos/eggs-from-in-ovo-sexed-hens-are-now-available-in-the-us

Linkpost URL:
https://optimistsbarn.substack.com/p/you-can-now-buy-eggs-from-in-ovo

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Sometimes working on animal issues feels like an uphill battle, with alternative protein losing its trendy status with VCs, corporate campaigns hitting blocks in enforcement and veganism being stuck at the same percentage it's been for decades. However, despite these things I personally am more optimistic about the animal movement than I have ever been (despite following the movement for 10+ years). What gives?

At AIM we think a lot about the ingredients of a good charity (talent, funding and idea) and more and more recently I have been thinking about the ingredients of a good movement or ecosystem that I think has a couple of extra ingredients (culture and infrastructure). I think on approximately four-fifths of these prerequisites the animal movement is at all-time highs. And like betting on a charity before it launches, I am far more confident that a movement that has these ingredients will lead [...]

---

First published:

July 16th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/BDByEBEbFexb54QEm/why-i-am-more-optimistic-about-the-animal-movement-this-year

---

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.

Originally submitted as a project for the AI Safety Fundamentals AI Governance course in April 2025; edited and somewhat expanded for publication on the EA Forum in July 2025.

Thanks to Yip Fai Tse, Arturs Kanepajs, Max Taylor, Constance Li, Kevin Xia, Adrià Moret and Sam Tucker-Davis for advice and suggestions before and/or after the writing of this piece.

Introduction

We review how major AI governance frameworks address – or, more commonly, overlook – the interests of sentient nonhumans, including both biological animals and potentially sentient artificial beings. Our analysis reveals a systemic exclusion of nonhuman interests across governance instruments, with few meaningful acknowledgments of their moral status.

Grounded in an ethical perspective that values sentience regardless of species or substrate, we propose approaches to integrate nonhuman interests into these AI governance frameworks, focusing on the EU AI Act and various UN AI governance instruments.

Our proposals are deliberately [...]

---

Outline:

(00:38) Introduction

(01:37) 1. Policy review

(02:05) 1.1. EU Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI, 2019

(03:08) 1.2. EU AI Act, 2024

(04:12) 1.3. United Nations policy

(04:42) 1.4. Serbia's Ethical Guidelines for AI, 2023

(05:07) 2. Analysis

(07:46) 3. Proposals

(08:10) 3.1. Updating the EU AI Act

(08:15) Legal Foundation

(09:19) Areas of amendment

(12:03) 3.2. Creating a UN Stewardship for All Life declaration

(12:51) 3.3. Adding to the Sustainable Development Goals

(13:55) 3.4. Updating the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI

(14:50) 3.5. Expanding the UN Secretary-General's High-Level Advisory Body on AI

(15:52) 4. Conclusion

---

First published:

July 15th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/gmYF7jqyGTuiweEcB/addressing-the-nonhuman-gap-in-intergovernmental-ai

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

This poll was linked in the July edition of the Effective Altruism Newsletter. If you haven't got your newsletter yet, it'll be with you in a few hours.

It is possible to rationally prioritise between causes without engaging deeply on philosophical issuesPlace your vote or view results.https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/chqwwnhjweifDXCsi/july-25-ea-newsletter-poll

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

This is a link post.

Linkpost as I am mostly writting on substack now.

TL;DR:
NGOs have a unique advantage over for-profits in their ability to cooperate and build common goods, yet few fully leverage "ecosystem thinking." This approach extends beyond an organization's direct impact to consider the entire field's health. Effective ecosystem actors: 1) actively build and connect movements by supporting newcomers and making strategic introductions; 2) practice radical transparency about both successes and failures; and 3) share abundance (office space, funding opportunities, and talent) even when it doesn't directly benefit them. The goal should be solving problems, not growing individual organizations. This cooperative approach often creates impact far greater than the sum of individual efforts.

---

First published:

July 14th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/DMDnikBCG8pWJxkrp/solving-problems-not-building-empires-the-value-of

Linkpost URL:
https://measuredlife.substack.com/p/solving-problems-not-building-empires

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.