EA Forum Podcast (All audio)

Many thanks to Constance Li, Rachel Mason, Ronen Bar, Sam Tucker-Davis, and Yip Fai Tse for providing valuable feedback. This post does not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.

Artificial General Intelligence (basically, ‘AI that is as good as, or better than, humans at most intellectual tasks’) seems increasingly likely to be developed in the next 5-10 years. As others have written, this has major implications for EA priorities, including animal advocacy, but it's hard to know how this should shape our strategy. This post sets out a few starting points and I’m really interested in hearing others’ ideas, even if they’re very uncertain and half-baked.

Is AGI coming in the next 5-10 years?

This is very well covered elsewhere but basically it looks increasingly likely, e.g.:

• The Metaculus and Manifold forecasting platforms predict we’ll see AGI in 2030 and 2031, respectively.
• The heads of Anthropic and OpenAI think [...]

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Outline:

(00:53) Is AGI coming in the next 5-10 years?

(02:08) What could AGI mean for animals?

(09:00) What should we do about it?

(09:04) Reflect AGI in our goal as a movement

(09:40) Act now, rather than wait until it's too late

(10:48) Support the work that best fulfils our AGI-aligned goals

(15:10) Conclusion

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First published:

March 27th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/EGAJgkBQqLkmRu3hr/how-should-we-adapt-animal-advocacy-to-near-term-agi

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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This is a link post.

Summary: CLR is hiring for our Summer Research Fellowship. Join us for eight weeks to work on s-risk motivated empirical AI safety research. Apply here by Tuesday 15th April 23:59 PT.

Apply now

We, the Center on Long-Term Risk, are looking for Summer Research Fellows to explore strategies for reducing suffering in the long-term future (s-risks) and work on technical AI safety ideas related to that. For eight weeks, fellows will be part of our team while working on their own research project. During this time, you will be in regular contact with our researchers and other fellows, and receive guidance from an experienced mentor.

You will work on challenging research questions relevant to reducing suffering. You will be integrated and collaborate with our team of intellectually curious, hard-working, and caring people, all of whom share a profound drive to make the biggest difference they can.

[...]

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

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First published:

March 26th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/eQ4HZeYFqxFd4f8ZB/center-on-long-term-risk-summer-research-fellowship-2025

Linkpost URL:
https://longtermrisk.org/summer-research-fellowship-2025

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This is a link post.

At EA Global Boston last year I gave a talk on how we're in the third wave of EA/AI safety, and how we should approach that. This post contains a (lightly-edited) transcript and slides. Note that in the talk I mention a set of bounties I'll put up for answers to various questions—I still plan to do that, but am taking some more time to get the questions right.

Hey everyone. Thanks for coming. You're probably looking at this slide and thinking, how to change a changing world. That's a weird title for a talk. Probably it's a kind of weird talk. And the answer is, yes, it is a kind of weird talk.

So what's up with this talk? Firstly, I am trying to do something a little unusual here. It's quite abstract. It's quite disagreeable as a talk. I'm trying to poke at [...]

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Outline:

(03:11) Three waves of EA and AI safety

(18:18) Sociopolitical thinking and AI

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First published:

March 27th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/vbdvkPXozfzTRB7FC/third-wave-ai-safety-needs-sociopolitical-thinking

Linkpost URL:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sZhpTHhJZ8&list=PLwp9xeoX5p8M97UqjY0cP20mwpYipJVxZ&index=9

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I'm Garrison Lovely, a freelance journalist with work in NYT, Nature, BBC, TIME, and elsewhere. I report on the intersection of economics, geopolitics, and artificial intelligence. I'm also a Reporter in Residence at the Omidyar Network and publisher of Obsolete, a fast-growing Substack on AI.

Overview

What: Support the completion of a forthcoming general-audience nonfiction book on AI. You'll conduct research, draft chapters, edit existing content, and help transform an incomplete manuscript into a polished final product for publication by OR Books and The Nation Magazine.

Why: The project, Obsolete: Power, Profit, and the Race to Build Machine Superintelligence, has the potential to be the go-to AI risk book in the post-ChatGPT era. You’ll also get the opportunity to work closely with an experienced journalist and writer who has a track record of publishing work in leading outlets (NYT, Nature, BBC, TIME, Foreign Policy, etc.).

[...]

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First published:

March 26th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/6u5k9wSfdu6KZc8LL/i-m-hiring-a-research-assistant-for-a-nonfiction-book-on-ai

Linkpost URL:
https://garrisonlovely.substack.com/p/research-assistant-job-description

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This is a link post.

I’ve spent the past 7 years living in the DC area. I moved out there from the Pacific Northwest to go to grad school – I got my masters in Biodefense from George Mason University, and then I stuck around, trying to move into the political/governance sphere. That sort of happened. But I will now be sort of doing that from rural California rather than DC, and I’ll be looking for something else – maybe something more unusual – do to next.

A friend asked if this means I’m leaving biosecurity behind. No, I’m not, but only to the degree that I was ever actually in biosecurity in the first place. For the past few years I’ve been doing a variety of contracting and research and writing jobs, many of which were biosecurity related, many of which were not. Many of these projects, to be [...]

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

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First published:

March 26th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/3nfJA932hGN9amPhs/eukaryote-skips-town-why-i-m-leaving-dc

Linkpost URL:
https://eukaryotewritesblog.com/2025/03/26/eukaryote-skips-town/

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"Part one of our challenge is to solve the technical alignment problem, and that's what everybody focuses on, but part two is: to whose values do you align the system once you’re capable of doing that, and that may turn out to be an even harder problem", Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO (Link).

In this post, I argue that:

1. "To whose values do you align the system" is a critically neglected space I termed “Moral Alignment.” Only a few organizations work for non-humans in this field, with a total budget of 4-5 million USD (not accounting for academic work). The scale of this space couldn’t be any bigger - the intersection between the most revolutionary technology ever and all sentient beings. While tractability remains uncertain, there is some promising positive evidence (See “The Tractability Open Question” section).
2. Given the first point, our movement must attract more resources, talent, and funding to address it. [...]

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Outline:

(01:34) The problem

(01:37) What is Moral Alignment?

(02:51) The Paradox of Human-Centric Alignment

(04:28) Addressing a Counterargument

(06:52) The Open Tractability Question

(07:50) The Risk of Not Creating a Unified Moral Alignment Field

(09:44) The Solutions

(09:47) A Vision for the Moral Alignment Movement

(10:54) Movement Goals

(13:22) Theory Of Change

(13:46) The Benevolent AI Imperative

(14:52) Actions

(14:55) Possible Interventions

(15:55) Ways to Contribute to the Movement

(17:07) Give Us Feedback

(17:31) Next Posts I plan to write

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First published:

March 26th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/4LimpA4pyLemxN4BF/ai-moral-alignment-the-most-important-goal-of-our-generation

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EA Global has a new referral program

One of the EA Global Team's goals for 2025 is to increase attendance at EA Global conferences. EA Global (EAG) events are often highly valuable for attendees— helping them explore and pursue impactful career paths, connect with collaborators, and stay engaged with the EA community. As a result, we think that increasing the number of people who attend is one of the most effective ways to improve the overall value of the conferences.

To help us achieve this goal, we’re launching a referral program.

How it works

If you know someone who might be a good fit for EA Global, you can encourage them to apply by sharing your personal referral code or referral link (found in the My Account section of the EA Global portal). Applicants can enter this code during the application process, or it will be automatically entered if [...]

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Outline:

(00:47) How it works

(01:32) Referral rewards

(02:23) Why we're doing this

(02:58) Questions or feedback?

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First published:

March 25th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/GLbPKPdCsLyZS2Eor/ea-global-referral-program

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This is a link post.

At Rethink Priorities, we've just published a report with a comprehensive analysis of the current EU political landscape and its implications for farmed animal welfare policy advancement.

Who should read it: 

• Philanthropic funders who wish to support greater protections for farmed animals in European Union (EU) legislation
• Animal advocacy organizations operating in countries in the EU or at the EU level directly

Key findings overview:

The full report provides a detailed analysis of:

• The shifting EU political environment and its implications for animal welfare policy
• Strategic approaches with potential for success in the current term
• Resource allocation recommendations based on political feasibility
• Critical timeline considerations for advocacy planning
• Forecast-based predictions for specific policy outcomes

Access the full report

Due to the sensitive nature of the strategic analysis, this report is available exclusively to:

• Established advocacy organizations with EU policy programs
• Grantmakers supporting farmed animal welfare [...]

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Outline:

(00:28) Who should read it:

(00:44) Key findings overview:

(01:13) Access the full report

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First published:

March 25th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/cJnK4APCCs5DfpSeX/eu-farmed-animal-welfare-policy-strategic-assessment-2025

Linkpost URL:
https://bit.ly/EUfarp

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This is a link post.

In a climate-controlled bunker in an unremarkable building in rural Aberdeen, Idaho, there are shelves upon shelves of meticulously labeled boxes of seed. This vault is home to many of the United States’ more than 62,000 genetically unique lines of wheat, collected over the past 127 years from around the world.

Though dormant, these seeds are alive. But unless they are continually cared for and periodically replanted, the lines will die, along with the millenniums of evolutionary history that they embody.

Since its establishment in 1898, the United States Department of Agriculture's National Plant Germplasm System and the scientists who support it have systematically gathered and maintained the agricultural plant species that undergird our food system in vast collections such as the one in Aberdeen. The collections represent a towering achievement of foresight that food security depends on the availability of diverse plant genetic resources.

[...]

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First published:

March 24th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/YXFvBbwriE5HwJDif/why-did-elon-musk-go-after-bunkers-full-of-seeds

Linkpost URL:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/22/opinion/doge-elon-musk-usda-crops.html

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80K recently shifted their strategic prioritise to focus on AGI: 80,000 Hours is shifting its strategic approach to focus more on AGI — EA Forum

As a uni group organiser, 80K advising has been my 'go to' recommendation for people who want careers advice beyond what I can provide. This has been a pretty universal recommendation regardless of career / cause area interests. (I'm aware this might always have been an incorrect/overgeneralised approach)

Considering this strategic shift, should I be more careful / less universal about recommending 80K advising to group members? For example, for people who are heavily set on Animal Welfare careers, I don't want to suggest 80K advising if that's not 80Ks focus, and therefore either result in a less useful conversation or rejection from advising.

Key Questions:

1. When should I recommend 80K advising to student group members? Should it be purely those who wish [...]

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First published:

March 22nd, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/qL9YDpe86WAghzQWL/should-ea-group-organisers-still-recommend-80k-advising-by

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