EA Forum Podcast (All audio)

In the spirit of Debate Week (March 17–24), we’re revisiting the badness of extinction question and introducing a broader framework for thinking about our impact on the possibly far future.

Introduction: Both Sides

There might come a day when sentient beings are no more. Our collective actions will likely hasten or delay that day. It is also reasonable to expect that for however long the future carries on, our choices will shape the quality of the future that emerges. What we do with our resources should be informed by both sides: length and quality. We want to develop such a framework.

Revisiting 'How Bad Would Extinction Be?'

In our earlier work 'How Bad Would Human Extinction Be?, we tried to quantify the loss from human extinction in expected value terms. In that analysis, we combined two key ingredients to estimate the expected value of reducing extinction risk:

• Risk [...]

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Outline:

(00:21) Introduction: Both Sides

(00:50) Revisiting How Bad Would Extinction Be?

(03:14) Why Bother? The Limits of a Risk-Only Focus

(06:18) Is What We Have Enough?

(07:47) A Broader Model for Shaping the Future

(09:36) Key Factors in Our Framework

(14:50) Why This Framework Matters

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:

March 17th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/grZuykeukpuq7SWGu/beyond-extinction-revisiting-the-question-and-broadening-our

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Below is the introduction to Giving What We Can's February 2025 newsletter, sent late February. Some information may now be out of date but we were encouraged to post this on the Forum as it contains practical information for thinking about donating!

EDIT 20th March: An non-final version of the newsletter was posted here in error. We are updating the "What's being done & how you can help" and "Supporting affected high-impact programs" sections to reflect the correct version.

It's hard to believe the global health landscape has changed so significantly in just one month. We wanted to update our community on what we know so far and how this might impact your donation decisions.

(There is a lot to cover, so this newsletter will be a bit longer than usual!)

A summary of the situation: 

The US aid funding freeze has left millions without access [...]

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Outline:

(00:59) A summary of the situation:

(01:34) What's being done & how you can help

(04:39) Supporting affected high-impact programs

(06:24) Another important way to help

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First published:

March 17th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/aHqCaNCmrhRreuyBN/us-aid-freeze-how-to-help-and-where-to-donate-gwwc-s

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

14-word summary: What if weird stuff matters a lot but no one cares about weird stuff?

In the long term future, how much of a mismatch will there be between what matters most and what agents value? The hypothesis I want to consider is that the mismatch will be enormous, such that a tiny fraction of value is captured, perhaps as little as 10^-20[1]

The reason is that moral value seems to be a power law. A few things are extremely valuable and most things are not. More specifically, over all of the different things that humans like and find morally appealing (or would do if that thing were detailed) a very small subset of those things are many orders of magnitude more important than others.

Suppose furthermore that it is not likely that the moral arc of the universe bends towards justice, such that our descendants ultimately [...]

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Outline:

(04:55) Is the Moral Power Laws hypothesis true?

(12:48) How value might not be power-law distributed part I: Metaethics

(19:27) How value might not be power-law distributed part II: Ethics

(20:31) A lower bound? How we might still capture most value given MPL

The original text contained 16 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:

March 17th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Kmdg8hnt5whQzfmzK/power-laws-of-value

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Hey everyone, I’ve been going through the EA Introductory Program, and I have to admit some of these ideas make sense, but others leave me with more questions than answers. I’m trying to wrap my head around certain core EA principles, and the more I think about them, the more I wonder: Am I misunderstanding, or are there blind spots in EA's approach?

I’d really love to hear what others think. Maybe you can help me clarify some of my doubts. Or maybe you share the same reservations? Let's talk.

Cause Prioritization. Does It Ignore Political and Social Reality?

EA focuses on doing the most good per dollar, which makes sense in theory. But does it hold up when you apply it to real world contexts especially in countries like Uganda?

Take malaria prevention. It's a top EA cause because it's highly cost effective $5,000 can save a life [...]

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Outline:

(00:40) Cause Prioritization. Does It Ignore Political and Social Reality?

(01:53) Long termism. A Luxury When the Present Is in Crisis?

(03:01) AI Safety. A Real Threat or Just Overhyped?

(04:09) Earning to Give. A Powerful Strategy or a Moral Loophole?

(05:05) Global vs. Local Causes. Does Proximity Matter?

(06:06) Final Thoughts: What Am I Missing?

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First published:

March 16th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/sanhCrJohGjAyAxLr/ea-a-view-from

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Note: I am not a malaria expert. This is my best-faith attempt at answering a question that was bothering me, but this field is a large and complex field, and I’ve almost certainly misunderstood something somewhere along the way.

Summary

While the world made incredible progress in reducing malaria cases from 2000 to 2015, the past 10 years have seen malaria cases stop declining and start rising. I investigated potential reasons behind this increase through reading the existing literature and looking at publicly available data, and I identified three key factors explaining the rise:

1. Population Growth: Africa's population has increased by approximately 75% since 2000. This alone explains most of the increase in absolute case numbers, while cases per capita have remained relatively flat since 2015.
2. Stagnant Funding: After rapid growth starting in 2000, funding for malaria prevention plateaued around 2010.
3. Insecticide Resistance: Mosquitoes have become increasingly resistant [...]

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Outline:

(00:25) Summary

(02:06) Introduction

(04:31) Ok, give me the 1 minute rundown on what malaria is and how we fight it?

(05:22) Preventing malaria has historically meant distributing bednets

(07:58) There's a lot of good evidence showing that bednets have been effective at preventing malaria

(09:07) The percent of people with access to bednets and the percent of people sleeping under bednets have both stayed constant or increased since 2015

(10:47) So what did cause the increase in malaria cases since 2015?

(11:54) Factor 1: Population increase

(17:35) Factor 2: Stagnant funding

(23:21) Factor 3: Insecticide resistance

(34:23) What are the relative contribution of these three components?

(38:10) Factors that don't seem to be major contributors

(38:27) The decline until 2015 and stagnation after do not represent trends in separate countries or regions

(39:37) Removing PFAS from bednets doesn't appear to have affected experimental hut results

(44:23) Anopheles stephensi isn't present in the areas with the highest rates of malaria yet

(45:26) Nobody knows if climate change is making malaria worse

(47:20) Conclusions

The original text contained 6 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:

March 16th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/rxTPv3MdrsHiqK7kM/money-population-and-insecticide-resistance-why-malaria

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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We are excited to announce a new Request for Proposals (RFP) for effective giving organizations, defined as initiatives devoted to raising funds for highly effective charities.[1] Through this RFP, we aim to identify and support additional efforts in the effective giving space and streamline the application process for potential grantees.

Motivation

Our Effective Giving and Careers program[2] has historically supported a variety of effective giving organizations across multiple countries. Examples of current grantees include Giving What We Can, Effektiv Spenden, and Doneer Effectief (you can find other recent grants here).

Effective giving currently comprises 70% of our portfolio, reflecting its central role in our broader funding strategy. In the past few years, we have been positively surprised by the growth of the effective giving ecosystem: new initiatives have launched worldwide, and existing efforts have successfully channeled substantial funds to promising opportunities.

Based on our internal analysis, we [...]

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Outline:

(00:27) Motivation

(01:49) Eligibility

(03:23) Funding amount and grant structure

(04:35) Selection criteria and evaluation process

(05:23) Application logistics

The original text contained 6 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:

March 14th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/HivXfGnuv5A5A9djL/request-for-proposals-effective-giving

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

This is a link post.

(Audio version here (read by the author), or search for "Joe Carlsmith Audio" on your podcast app.

This is the fourth essay in a series that I’m calling “How do we solve the alignment problem?”. I’m hoping that the individual essays can be read fairly well on their own, but see this introduction for a summary of the essays that have been released thus far, and for a bit more about the series as a whole.)

1. Introduction and summary

In my last essay, I offered a high-level framework for thinking about the path from here to safe superintelligence. This framework emphasized the role of three key “security factors” – namely:

• Safety progress: our ability to develop new levels of AI capability safely,
• Risk evaluation: our ability to track and forecast the level of risk that a given sort of AI capability development [...]

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Outline:

(00:29) 1. Introduction and summary

(04:12) 2. What is AI for AI safety?

(12:12) 2.1 A tale of two feedback loops

(14:47) 2.2 Contrast with need human-labor-driven radical alignment progress views

(17:24) 2.3 Contrast with a few other ideas in the literature

(19:51) 3. Why is AI for AI safety so important?

(23:14) 4. The AI for AI safety sweet spot

(27:44) 4.1 The AI for AI safety spicy zone

(29:51) 4.2 Can we benefit from a sweet spot?

(31:59) 5. Objections to AI for AI safety

(32:17) 5.1 Three core objections to AI for AI safety

(34:03) 5.2 Other practical concerns

The original text contained 78 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:

March 14th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/pS7NDzfgydmyjEF3g/ai-for-ai-safety

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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After ~7 years, I am stepping away from being the CEO of AIM and will transition to a board member. My current planned last day is December 1st, giving ample time for a smooth transition. As is true for most times a CEO or co-founder leaves an organization, this is for a pretty large variety of reasons. The biggest three are that: 1) AIM is in a stable place, 2) My counterfactual impact, and 3) My fit for founder vs. CEO roles. You can see more details on each of these in my Substack post.

AIM has been one of the most meaningful parts of my life, and that's in no small part due to working with such driven and aligned people. When I first set out to create CE many years ago, I never could have envisioned we'd get to where we are today, and I have [...]

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First published:

March 15th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/mh652ZDuqf3Tgh3Cv/joey-aim-transition-announcement

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

The Effective Giving and Careers program[1] was launched in July 2022 to fund high-impact meta opportunities that help people use their donations and careers to improve human and animal lives. We’re excited to give an update on our progress so far and discuss our priorities for the coming year.

Executive summary

Since its inception, the program has recommended 37 grants, committing $28 million across four sub-strategies:

1. Effective Giving (~71% of funding) – Raising funds for highly effective charities.
2. Talent Development (~13%) – Helping individuals maximize career impact.
3. Incubation (~10%) – Seeding and supporting new effective charities.
4. Research (~6%) – Informing better philanthropic and career decisions.

Key Achievements:

• Effective giving has been the program's primary focus, expanding fundraising efforts across eight European countries and, more recently, into Asia. Grantees raised ~$430M in 2023-24, with a counterfactual impact of ~$160M equivalent to Open Phil's last dollar, and [...]

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Outline:

(00:25) Executive summary

(03:21) Introduction

(04:25) Our grantmaking and impact to date

(07:44) Priorities for 2025

(09:16) Challenges

The original text contained 12 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:

March 14th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ECeee4j5kRnGvSMnu/updates-on-open-philanthropy-s-effective-giving-and-careers

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Summary

We’re excited to announce EA Global: New York City, which will take place October 10–12!

Applications and registrations are now open!

Apply now

If you already have an approved application, you can register for the conference here.

How the application process works

There's just one application form for all 2025 in-person EA Global events. This means:

• Approval for any EA Global event in 2025 grants you access to register for any other EA Global this year.
• Requesting travel support for EA Global: NYC requires a separate event-specific request form, which you can find during the application process.

If your previous EA Global 2025 application wasn’t approved, you can reapply after the deadline for the last event you applied to. For example, if you originally applied before the EA Global: Bay Area deadline, you can now reapply.

Why New York City?

We chose New York City to host our [...]

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Outline:

(00:06) Summary

(00:28) How the application process works

(01:15) Why New York City?

(01:50) We want you to apply

(02:39) Reminder about EA Global: London

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

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First published:

March 14th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Cto6A5ytWfaicyXfH/announcing-ea-global-new-york-city-2025

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.