EA Forum Podcast (All audio)

Ambitious Impact (AIM) exists to enable more effective charities to exist worldwide. We strive to achieve this goal through our extensive research process and Incubation Program. We give talented potential entrepreneurs two months of cost-covered, intensive training designed by founders for founders. Our talented researchers and entrepreneurs identify evidence-based, high-impact interventions and help founders find a co-founder to launch the idea and reach scale.

Note to readers: Our research is geared toward AIM decision-makers and program participants. We attempt to find the best ideas for our incubation programs through these reports. Given our commitment to focusing on recommended ideas, reports on those not recommended for incubation can often be less polished.

For questions about the content of this research, please contact Vasco Grilo. For questions about the research process, please contact Morgan Fairless.

This report was written as part of AIM's research program from October to December of [...]

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Outline:

(01:32) Executive summary

(05:24) 1 Background

(05:27) 1.1 Context

(06:07) 1.2 Introduction to the idea and problem

(08:14) 2 Theory of change

(08:18) 2.1 Causal chain and assumptions

(13:02) 2.2 Implementing the idea as a new organization, or new project within an existing organization?

(13:58) 2.3 Targeting producers or retailers?

(14:32) 3 Quality of evidence

(14:35) 3.1 The new organization or project will replace eggs?

(17:08) 3.2 Replacing eggs with plant-based ingredients increases animal welfare?

(18:43) 4 Expert views

(18:47) Key takeaways

(20:01) Anonymous 1

(22:26) Anonymous 2

(25:16) Anonymous 3

(26:53) Anonymous 4

(30:05) Anonymous 5

(31:30) Jennifer Behr (ChooseVeg)

(34:27) Nick Cooney (Lever VC)

(38:10) 5 Geographic assessment

(41:38) 6 Cost-effectiveness analyses

(45:04) 7 Implementation

(45:08) 7.1 What does working on this idea look like?

(45:13) Positive corporate engagement (good cop approach)

(46:49) Targeted corporate campaigns (bad cop approach)

(49:01) 7.2 Key factors

(49:32) Talent

(50:15) Access to information

(51:17) Access to relevant stakeholders

(52:07) Feedback loops (low concern)

(52:27) Funding

(53:45) Scale of the problem (low concern)

(53:54) Neglectedness (low concern)

(54:53) Execution difficulty / Tractability (high concern)

(55:04) Risk of harm (moderate concern)

(56:43) 8 Conclusion

The original text contained 36 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

The original text contained 1 image which was described by AI.

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First published:

December 15th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/2sFPJnxRJAGLbqBoq/advocacy-for-egg-replacement-solutions

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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When I first heard about the idea of pledging a percentage of your income to effective charities with Giving What We Can, I was sold. I knew I had more than I needed to get by, and I’ve always struggled with the enormous inequality in the world.

I originally settled on donating 3% of my income for my Trial Pledge. I chose 3% because it's more than I had ever given before (I calculated that in previous years, I gave around 2% of my income) but it also felt like an achievable amount for me. I had just stopped working full-time, dropping down to 3 days a week because of some chronic health conditions, and also had to pay a few hundred dollars a month for the medication I was on. So 3% seem like a step up, but also one that wouldn’t stress me [...]

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First published:

December 16th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/399CiMLg2T8xA5FGz/how-i-moved-from-a-3-trial-pledge-to-a-10-pledge

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When I was 17, a friend sent me Peter Singer's TED talk, and it changed my life. It opened my eyes to the immense privilege of ‘normal’ people in high-income countries compared to the rest of the world. Coming from a family where both my parents were part-time primary school teachers, I never thought of us as among the wealthiest globally—yet, with a median household income in the UK, to my astonishment—we were. The talk also emphasised that our donations could have an enormous, and measurable, impact—you don’t just have to give and hope it does something. This resonated deeply with me, and I took the 10% Pledge that same day.

I wasn’t yet earning any income as I was still in high-school and then at university, so initially, I donated £10 a month to the Against Malaria Foundation. (When you take the 10% Pledge [...]

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

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First published:

December 16th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ZT5WB4PKxSZeGLYd6/why-i-took-the-10-pledge-before-earning-an-income

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

This semester, EA Purdue was able to expand from 4 regular members to around 15-20 regular members. Partially, this was due to having a larger organizing team with more capacity for organizing events; partially, it was due to us running the group with a better strategy. The changes we made had a variety of impacts on retention, community structure, and potential succession, so we thought it would be useful to share what we learned and how other groups can adapt from our successes and mistakes.

TL;DR

• Organizer time and effort:
  Focus on putting in enough time and effort as an organizer—this often determines your success. Start early, meet often, have a clear theory of change, and be prepared for more work than you expect.
• Building Helpful Relationships:
  Build strong friendships among your organizers and leverage resources like OSP for strategy and support. Network with faculty and students to [...]
  

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Outline:

(00:36) TL;DR

(02:28) Organizer time and effort

(05:31) Building Helpful Relationships

(07:49) Know the College Club Market

(11:17) Fellowship

(13:24) General Meetings

(16:47) On Community Building

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First published:

December 15th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/WTgoeypTrpxkKFe4Y/lessons-learned-from-running-ea-purdue

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This is a link post.

As part of Giving Season, we’re sharing where our team is giving this year, and a little bit about how they currently think about their donations.

Currently, all staff at Giving What We Can have taken the 10% Pledge to give at least 10% of their income to effective charities until they retire.

Grace Adams

In December, I’ll be doing donations as gifts for my close friends and family via Effective Altruism Australia who are producing digital cards. Those donations will go to a mix of GiveWell's Top Charities and GiveDirectly.

I’m also planning to make a donation to GiveWell's All Grants Fund. I think the approach of looking for excellent opportunities outside of the Top Charities really makes sense - and I’m impressed with the grants given so far!

I’ll also be donating over and above my 10% Pledge to Effective Altruism [...]

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Outline:

(00:25) Grace Adams

(01:05) Lucas Moore

(02:47) James Rayton

(05:42) Lorenzo Buonanno

(06:17) Zou Xinyi

(08:24) Sjir Hoeijmakers

(09:56) Fabio Kuhn

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First published:

December 16th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/8tqJrJP4C9XoSwh3y/where-are-the-giving-what-we-can-team-donating-this-year

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

1. Introduction

My blog, Reflective Altruism, aims to use academic research to drive positive change within and around the effective altruism movement. Part of that mission involves engagement with the effective altruism community. For this reason, I try to give periodic updates on blog content and future directions (previous updates: here and here)

In today's post, I want to say a bit about new content published in 2024 (Sections 2-3) and give an overview of other content published so far (Section 4). I’ll also say a bit about upcoming content (Section 5) as well as my broader academic work (Section 6) and talks (Section 7) related to longtermism. Section 8 concludes with a few notes about other changes to the blog.

I would be keen to hear reactions to existing content or suggestions for new content. Thanks for reading.

2. New series this year

I’ve begun five new series [...]

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Outline:

(00:05) 1. Introduction

(01:04) 2. New series this year

(04:26) 3. Continuations of old series

(06:36) 4. Additional series

(11:42) 5. Upcoming content

(16:49) 6. Academic papers

(21:42) 7. Talks and podcasts

(22:53) 8. Other blog changes

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First published:

December 15th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/W9YrxX3EDoM4K9M8p/blog-update-reflective-altruism-1

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TL;DR

Your single best lever for impact right now is probably via the influence you have on your future self. Leveraging this should be one of your top priorities, and you should think carefully about how your other plans interact with this consideration, especially your future motivation.

If I was reading this post, I could imagine myself getting some fuzzies and motivations, closing the tab, and never revisiting it to do some of the things I thought were worthwhile while reading. But I expect most of the impact from this post to come from people taking action. If, after reading, you feel motivated to invest in and protect your future motivation, I encourage you to think about what actions you can take to achieve this and actually make a plan for getting started. I’ve linked a template at the end with questions I’d find helpful for channeling my short-term [...]

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Outline:

(00:05) TL;DR

(01:11) Intro

(02:50) 1. Strategically build motivation

(05:32) Caveat #1: Sometimes, changes in your values or priorities are good!

(06:16) Caveat #2: Setting yourself up for disillusionment is bad

(08:36) 2. Be careful when spending motivation

(10:56) Caveat #3: Sometimes, it's worth it

(12:05) Ok, but… motivation towards what exactly?

(14:19) “What if I still lose my motivation or my values still drift?”

The original text contained 1 image which was described by AI.

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First published:

December 14th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/YjfJwsKzczqciMHYA/treat-future-you-like-a-different-person-invest-in-your

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Andrew Critch defines a conflationary alliance as a situation where multiple groups deliberately use the same term to describe different concepts or behaviors, because the shared terminology helps each group advance their distinct goals. E.g., people have different notions of justice, but they agree that something-called-justice is very good, so they can agree to team up and fight for justice.

In my view, the term "charity", as used in 2024, represents an example of this pattern. As is often the case, the conflationary nature of the term occasionally leads to confusion or conflict, and this underpins many of the debates and public criticism of effective altruism.

When we say ”charity" or “charitable giving", we're actually talking about at least three distinct behaviors:

• Funding public goods through donations
• Supporting one's in-group or collective agency through partial philanthropy
• Pursuing genuinely impartial benefit for others

Each of [...]

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Outline:

(01:54) Public Goods Funding

(03:22) Partial Philanthropy

(04:26) Impartial Philanthropy

(06:39) Tensions and Dynamics

(08:59) Implications and Moving Forward

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

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First published:

December 13th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/uDxYbJ4zaCgygDp8Z/charity-as-a-conflationary-alliance-term-1

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Probably Good is expanding our team to help more people build impactful careers – we’d love for you to join us!

We’re a small, remote team that prioritizes meaningful work, keeping bureaucracy low, and collaborating flexibly to get things done. This is a great opportunity to join our small organization at a pivotal time!

We’re currently hiring for the following roles:

• Generalist: A hands-on early-career role where you’ll work across a wide range of tasks in fields like operations, marketing, and content, while receiving mentorship and opportunities to grow based on your interests.
• Groups and/or Advising Lead: A hybrid role where you’ll build relationships with organizations, lead collaborative projects, and provide one-on-one career guidance to help people make an impact through their careers. We’re also open to candidates who are interested in one part of this role.
• Technical Specialist (Web Developer/Designer): This role will take the lead on all things [...]

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First published:

December 12th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ybQMDre3fJi2Qwqah/probably-good-is-hiring-for-multiple-roles-generalist-groups

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Context

The Worldview Investigations Team at Rethink Priorities is in the process of building a model to estimate the probabilities of consciousness in near-future AIs. We are still in the early stages of constructing our model and expect some of the details to change as others get filled in. The following is intended to convey our perspective as we start fleshing out the scaffold of our model.

Basic Aims

Why do we want to investigate AI consciousness?

Consciousness in contemporary or near-future AI systems is becoming a matter of practical concern. It's widely thought that, if AI systems were conscious, they would deserve some moral consideration, and the fortunes of AI labs may be influenced by their perceived moral, social, and legal liabilities. The success of the policies and procedures that aim to mitigate harm to AI systems depends on how well the labs and the public understand the [...]

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Outline:

(00:07) Context

(00:32) Basic Aims

(04:53) Desiderata for a modeling strategy

(08:57) Our approach

(09:14) Our hierarchical model structure

(10:54) Our Bayesian treatment of evidence

(14:43) Our thematic interpretation of evidence

(19:30) Desiderata satisfied

(22:07) Acknowledgments

The original text contained 1 image which was described by AI.

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First published:

December 10th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/APfQsbL4Dj3Jka3JB/strategic-directions-for-a-digital-consciousness-model

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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