EA Forum Podcast (All audio)

I want to make the argument that, first, there is a plausible moral case that digital systems addiction and the consequent suboptimality is an enormous and ongoing tragedy for humanity, second, that the tragedy is important, neglected, and tractable, and finally, that this is all crazy, but plausible under many key assumptions underlying other effective altruist causes, and about what the implications of rejecting the claim might be.

Draft Amnesty: This is a piece I mostly drafted three years ago, and never got around to finishing or posting - so I had claude help with parts of the second half, in order to finish it quickly. It is intended to provocatively spark discussion, not to strongly argue for the conclusion that making video games is better than buying bednets - though I think it's not a crazy claim. (I debated posting this for April Fools, but draft amnesty [...]

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Outline:

(01:08) Digital systems addiction and suboptimality

(02:00) Digital systems usage and damage.

(03:06) Tractability and Cost-Benefit

(04:19) Image / Perception

(04:33) Conclusions

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For those in the EA community who may not typically engage with politics/government, this is the time to do so. If you are American and/or based in the U.S., reaching out to lawmakers, supporting organizations that are mobilizing on this issue, and helping amplify the urgency of this crisis can make a difference.

Why this matters:

1. Millions of lives are at stake
2. Decades of progress, and prior investment, in global health and wellbeing are at risk
3. Government funding multiplies the impact of philanthropy

Where things stand today (February 27, 2025)

The Trump Administration's foreign aid freeze has taken a catastrophic turn: rather than complying with a court order to restart paused funding, they have chosen to terminate more than 90% of all USAID grants and contracts. This stunningly reckless decision comes just 30 days into a supposed 90-day review of foreign aid. This will cause a devastating loss [...]

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Outline:

(00:43) Where things stand today (February 27, 2025)

(03:22) Some of the few lifesaving programs that were terminated are:

(04:47) Why this matters for the future of global health and wellbeing

(07:03) Your action and engagement is needed NOW

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I thought that cage-free campaigning was about getting commitments, though I had heard that it was also important to make sure companies stuck to them. What I didn't realize was:

1. Basically all big groceries in the U.S. committed in 2016 to selling only cage-free eggs by 2025.
2. Follow through in groceries has been quite varied, with a couple that are basically 100% cage-free and some that do not to report progress.
   1. The ones that do not report are not who I would've suspected!
3. Most big fast food chains committed in late 2015 or early 2016 to using only cage-free eggs by around 2025.
4. Fast food is a mixed bag, too. 

Grocery commitments 

Here are the grocers I chose to focus on. I tried to select the most numerous stores. Other numerous retailers have made commitments, like CVS and Dollar General, but I would guess that it's [...]

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Outline:

(00:48) Grocery commitments

(02:08) What they sell now

(03:08) Fast food commitments

(03:31) What they use now

(03:52) Cage-free hens over time

(04:22) Closing thoughts

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Edit: GiveWell's Response at the Bottom

A past event has shown how reputation damage to one EA entity can affect the entire movement's credibility and therefore funding and influence. While GiveWell's evaluation process is thorough, it largely relies on charity-provided data. I propose they consider implementing independent verification methods.

Reliance on coverage surveys

GiveWell performs no independent verification of their charity's claims to draw their conclusions. However they do do a downward adjustment.

This feels lacking.

Getting numbers that are closer to reality not only increases the cost effectiveness calculation accuracy but also reduces the risk of adding a new entry to their mistake list.

Suggestions to shore it [...]

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Outline:

(00:04) Edit: GiveWells Response at the Bottom

(00:30) Reliance on coverage surveys

(01:16) Suggestions to shore it up

(01:46) GiveWells Response

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This is a Draft Amnesty Week draft.

I wrote this very quickly for internal publication at CEA. It's generally kinda embarrassingly written, oversimplified narratives from my memory of events I was poorly informed about at the time. I’m hoping to slip this in during the Draft Amnesty Festival without too much embarrassment.

Commenting and feedback guidelines:

Corrections, differing memories, and differing structures of narratives all welcome, though I may not reply.

Talent gaps

Epistemic status: Even more so than the rest, the narrative got away from me here, and I might be overstating.

You probably know “talent gaps” from all the discussion about the ways in which the concept is maybe mis-applied. Fine. But I want to tell you why the post was a landmark moment and the single most important example of steering in the community's history.

It's fall 2015. JP is just getting involved in EA. [...]

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Outline:

(00:08) Talent gaps

(02:49) Operations push 2018

(03:45) Wait... Effective Altruism could be a thing??

(04:47) The creation of EA spaces

(05:06) More case studies that I will leave for now

(05:18) Themes

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Summary: Patching all exploits in open-source software that forms the backbone of the internet would be hard on maintainers, less effective than thought, and expensive (Fermi estimate included, 5%/50%/95% cost ~$31 mio./~$1.9 bio./~$168 bio.). It's unclear who'll be willing to pay that.

Preventative measures discussed for averting an AI takeover

I think that that plan is net-positive. I also think that it has some

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Outline:

(01:16) Maintainer Overload

(01:49) Hybrid and Hardware Vulnerabilities

(02:59) Who Pays?

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Commenting and feedback guidelines:

1. This post was written by Aaron (co-founder of Shrimp Welfare Project), Tom (co-founder of Fish Welfare Initiative), and ChatGPT.
2. We're posting it thanks to Draft Amnesty week and likely wouldn't have published it otherwise. It's also been a while since we were actively working on it - we started it in late 2023, but deprioritised by early 2024 due to other commitments.
3. This draft was written by GPT after working through these ideas a little. We think it does a good enough job of communicating these ideas, but the whole post has an unmistakable GPT-smell...

Introduction

Although there has been an increase over the last few years in EA work for aquatic animals, there are still significant gaps and challenges in this space. [...]

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Outline:

(00:09) Introduction

(00:58) Why we need more groups working in the aquatic animal space

(01:04) There are not that many people working in this space

(02:08) Situations are vastly different between regions, species, and interventions

(02:49) We need more innovation

(04:02) The White Space of Aquatic Animals

(05:06) Exploring Different Species

(05:28) Country-Specific Interventions

(05:51) Diverse Intervention Strategies

(06:13) Encouraging Similar Initiatives

(06:43) Conclusion

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Following the recent disappointing news about USAID, you may have seen the news that the UK will be reducing aid from 0.5% to 0.3%.

This will be disappointing for many here, including those who were so disappointed the last time the government cut aid.

Here's my FAQ after having spent a bit of time looking into it over the past day. It includes a template email which you can send to your MP (if you're in the UK).

How high a priority should I make it to campaign on this?

Not as high as last time. Last time, the government needed to put it to a vote of MPs. This isn't needed this time; the government just needs to explain its plan for getting back to 0.7%, so the decision is essentially a fait accompli. Campaigning is almost certain not to change anything immediately.

On the other hand [...]

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Kurzgesagt is one of the most popular YouTube channels, with over 23.6 million subscribers, and individual videos often getting millions of views. The videos tend to be on the topic of science, philosophy, culture - sometimes overlapping with Effective Altruism themes.

Their most recent video covers factory farming, focussing on the economic reasons why conditions on factory farms exist and what consumers of meat can do to make better choices.

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Yesterday UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that in order to fund increased defence spending, the international aid budget will be cut from 0.5% of gross national income to 0.3% in 2027. This follows a cut in November 2020 which reduced the level from 0.7% to 0.5%

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-defence-spending-reach-25-gdp-by-2027-pm-starmer-says-2025-02-25/

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