EA Forum Podcast (All audio)

Farmed Animal Funders is pleased to invite eligible donors beyond our existing membership to join our Aquatic Animal Funding Circle.

Funding circle prospectus assembled by Farmed Animal Funders, adapted and expanded from proposals submitted by, and subsequent conversations with, Rethink Priorities and Aquatic Life Institute.

Summary

In line with Farmed Animal Funders’ (FAF) mission to replace factory farming with a more humane and sustainable food system through funder collaborations, FAF is hosting an Aquatic Animal Funding Circle, which aims to reduce suffering for farmed aquatic animals, including the 100 billion fish and 440 billion shrimp farmed annually, and prevent the growth of aquaculture. As aquaculture takes off with the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization calling for a 75% increase in aquaculture farming, we know that the best time to intervene was decades ago—and the second best time is now.

The Aquatic Animal Funding Circle aims to reduce [...]

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Outline:

(00:26) Summary

(03:27) The Case for Aquatic Animals

(05:55) Funding Circle Logistics

(05:59) Objectives

(06:36) Activities

(07:22) Eligibility to Join

(07:52) Member Expectations

(08:23) Funding Decisions

(08:42) How to Join

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First published:

November 13th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/u9yzGEkyrB6ZeSr6J/funder-opportunity-aquatic-animal-funding-circle

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Note: This post was crossposted from Open Philanthropy farm animal welfare newsletter by the Forum team, with the author's permission. The author may not see or respond to comments on this post.

The EATS Act, the battle for control of the USDA, and more...

The sad reality for America's cows, pigs, and chickens is that it doesn’t matter much who's running the country. Democratic and Republican administrations alike have long favored factory farmers over farmed animals.

President Obama promised to take the USDA out of the hands of “big agribusiness” — and gave it instead to the governor of the biggest factory farming state, Tom Vilsack of Iowa. President Trump promised to drain the swamp — and then assigned the USDA transition to a swamp dweller whose prior gig was trolling animal advocates. President Biden didn’t promise much — and delivered even less when he reappointed Vilsack, who had [...]

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First published:

November 13th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/JRYkDqqcDkqY9gCzF/what-do-the-us-elections-mean-for-farmed-animals

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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We’re far from certain that insects are sentient. But with over a trillion insects farmed annually, the welfare impacts are staggering if they can suffer. Unfortunately, fundamental questions about their well-being remain unexplored. This is where Arthropoda Foundation steps in, actively finding and funding the best opportunities to produce knowledge that can improve the lives of farmed insects.

Current Research Priorities

Humane Slaughter Protocols

Insects are regularly microwaved, baked, and boiled alive. If producers can stun these animals before slaughter, they can reduce significant distress. We’ve found a lab willing to develop and test electrical stunning procedures for black soldier fly larvae, with an eye to creating an inexpensive, readily implementable system that can be adopted by industry partners. ~$67,000.

Stocking Densities and Substrate Research

For many farmed insects, the quality of their lives comes down to stocking densities and the substrate in which they’re reared—which is what [...]

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Outline:

(00:38) Current Research Priorities

(00:42) Humane Slaughter Protocols

(01:11) Stocking Densities and Substrate Research

(01:48) Automated Welfare Assessment

(02:33) Funding Needs

(03:52) Want to learn more about insects?

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

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First published:

November 13th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/9fuJgLik6FNtgrDAD/support-critical-research-on-insect-welfare

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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This is a link post.

This is the full text of a post from "The Obsolete Newsletter," a Substack that I write about the intersection of capitalism, geopolitics, and artificial intelligence. I’m a freelance journalist and the author of a forthcoming book called Obsolete: Power, Profit, and the Race for Machine Superintelligence. Consider subscribing to stay up to date with my work.

[EDIT: I should have credited Gary Marcus for coining the term “deep learning is hitting a wall" back in March 2022. I didn’t actually realize it had originated entirely with him, given how much it's entered the lexicon. He argued that LLMs were hitting diminishing returns in April 2024, which was an input into my similar prediction in June. He also had a post up on Saturday analyzing some of the same evidence included here.]

Ilya Sutskever is perhaps the most influential proponent of the scaling hypothesis — [...]

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Outline:

(05:01) Economics of AI

(08:34) Maybe AGI will just be really expensive

(10:57) Implications

(13:43) Cutting through the hype

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

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First published:

November 13th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/cnMmo5txMaNdxgbaH/is-deep-learning-actually-hitting-a-wall-evaluating-ilya

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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This is a link post.

As time goes on, the world's poorest - those who live below the World Bank's extreme poverty line of $2.15 a day - are increasingly concentrated not in stable countries, but in unstable ones.

Without stabilizing fragile states, all our progress at reducing global poverty will soon stall out, leaving hundreds of millions living on less than $2 a day.

Peace allows countries at least the prospect of growth. It is not a guarantee - growth is not always easy, even for countries at peace - but when there's a civil war, it's virtually impossible for a country to grow. For poverty to decrease, to health to improve, for life to get better, for countries to grow - there must be peace.

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First published:

November 12th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/vkbwJxQLzMjApoHtX/the-structural-transformation-case-for-peacekeeping

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

TL;DR:

In this post, we cover Hive's achievements, plans for 2025, and how we would allocate additional funding to maximize our impact.

Hive is a global community focused on empowering farmed animal advocates by fostering connections, resources, and collaboration. We are most well known for our Slack community and bi-weekly newsletter with movement updates, "Hive Highlights".

2024 Achievements:

• Hive now hosts 3,000+ advocates (up from 1,631 at the beginning of the year) and our engagement has grown into the most active Slack community in the broader EA Ecosystem (1000+ monthly active members)[1]
• We have logged 60+ High Impact Outcomes[2] this year through our programs.
• Our newsletter has grown to over 2,900 subscribers and over 50% open rate (up from 1261 in January 2024), offering timely updates and critical resources to advocates.
• This has been achieved with a budget of $240,000 on 4.5 FTE. Notably, one of our co-founders volunteered [...]

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Outline:

(00:09) TL;DR:

(03:12) Briefly, who we are:

(04:39) What we have been up to:

(04:42) In Key Metrics (2024)

(06:05) In Testimonials (2024)

(12:09) Strategic Focus 2025:

(12:51) Objective 1: Grow Hive's reputation as a global hub for highly engaged farmed animal advocates who want to increase their impact

(14:57) Objective 2: Provide high-value programs that increase the impact of our community members

(15:54) Objective 3: The team has the support and resources  they need to execute Objectives 1 and 2

(16:56) How our funding situation currently looks like:

(19:44) What things cost:

(20:19) Slack Fees (covered)

(21:08) Very basic core Staff costs (covered)

(21:52) Newsletters (expected to be covered)

(22:50) Additional Staff (partially expected to be covered)

(26:50) Our Uncertainties:

(27:11) On Counterfactuality and Measuring Impact

(29:11) On our approach

(30:18) Appendix: FAQ

(30:22) How do you plan to sustain growth without losing community value, and have you reached a saturation point in membership?

(31:50) Don’t you just get all your funding from a large funder like Open Philanthropy?

(32:22) Isn’t Hive a US or Western-based community?

The original text contained 17 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:

November 13th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/iqqyAQ2NqQcmn9CZs/hive-2024-achievements-current-funding-situation-and-plans

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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In the previous post, we covered what we've accomplished so far in 2024, our impact this year, recent changes, and where we're headed next. This post will dive deeper into our biggest, current constraint to impact - funding for regranting.

Executive Summary

The EA Animal Welfare Fund (AWF) currently has significant room for more funding (RFMF). Our estimate suggests that in the coming 12 months, we could productively absorb and grant out approximately $6.3M ($5.3M-$7.3M) more than we granted this year at roughly a similar level of impact. This RFMF is due to a number of promising opportunities coming from open application form, growth in the area, changes in the funding landscape, new opportunities from incubators, opportunities for active grantmaking, and plans to scale operations under new leadership. The fund has a new full-time chair and is prepared to effectively utilize additional funding.

Total regranting RFMF breakdown:

[...]

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Outline:

(00:23) Executive Summary

(02:51) Analysis of RFMF

(14:52) What Does a Marginal Grant at AWF Look Like?

(17:06) RFMF in AWF's Operating Expenses

(17:38) Conclusion

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First published:

November 13th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/g2reCF86jukN9WMSJ/how-much-extra-funding-can-ea-awf-regrant

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Summary

The Nucleic Acid Observatory (NAO) aims to improve humanity's ability to detect new pathogens, especially engineered ones. We are evaluating disease surveillance methods, developing pathogen detection algorithms, and running a pilot biosurveillance system. Additional funding would allow us to expand our research into detection methods. You can donate on our website.

The Problem

Among the most dangerous biorisk scenarios is that of a 'stealth' pathogen, spreading without distinctive symptoms[1] and only later causing severe health impacts.[2] Such a pathogen could cause enormous harm, as a very large fraction of humanity could be infected before anyone notices. The world today is not equipped to detect a stealth pathogen before it's too late; however, improvements in monitoring technology could enable dramatically earlier detection and response, substantially reducing the harm caused.

While the 'stealth' scenario is one where we think the benefits of early detection are strongest, it is not [...]

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Outline:

(00:07) Summary

(00:36) The Problem

(01:20) Our Approach

(01:40) Sampling

(02:47) Sequencing

(03:15) Computational Analysis

(03:56) Marginal Funding

(03:59) Expanding our Team

(04:03) We would like to hire additional staff in a few areas:

(05:27) Pilot Detection

(06:40) Flexibility

(07:07) Prioritization

(07:59) Where We Are Now

(08:02) Resources

(08:19) Organization

(08:54) Staff

(09:17) Budget

(09:51) Benefits

(11:35) Why Not to Fund the NAO

(11:39) Threat Probability

(12:18) Impact of Detection

(12:56) Fungibility

(14:52) How to Fund the NAO

The original text contained 8 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:

November 11th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/XmtyNTS8eaT2PMzx4/consider-funding-the-nucleic-acid-observatory-to-detect

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

In the spirit of Marginal Funding Week 2024, we are asking for your help to support Talos Network in 2025 as we continue to train the next generation of leaders in AI policy. Your donation will directly contribute to our ability to deliver the Talos Fellowship in its current form and to expand to new fellowship streams.

Now is a particularly critical time to grow the pool of talented people working in AI governance, especially in Europe as the EU AI Office continues to ramp up. Your donation will have a direct impact on the number of fellows we can train and place at key organisations directly influencing EU AI policy.

Executive Summary

• Talos Network reduces the risks from advanced AI by training and placing talented professionals in European AI policy roles through our fellowship program. We've graduated 66 fellows to date, with the majority now [...]

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Outline:

(00:45) Executive Summary

(01:56) What do we do?

(02:54) What would Talos Network do with marginal funds?

(03:40) Why do we need your help?

(04:43) Reasons in favour of donating to Talos Network

(08:07) Reasons against donating to Talos Network

(08:52) How your funding can help

(09:12) How can you help?

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First published:

November 12th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/StEb4zj9s72f2SdCw/talos-network-needs-your-help-in-2025

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

This is a link post.

Summary:

• The charity evaluator GiveWell increased their rating of the cost-effectiveness of GiveDirectly's Cash for Poverty Relief program by 3-4x after reevaluating our work, including assessing new evidence.
• This update was driven by new estimates of direct cash's positive impact on local economies, consumption, and child mortality, which show our work (past & present) is more impactful than they’d previously assumed.
• This update hasn’t changed GiveWell's top charity and funding recommendations, but this could shift in the future.
• We’re excited about this update and look forward to continued conversations with GiveWell, as we continue to generate new evidence on cash's long-term impact which may shift their assumptions again.

From GiveWell's post:

We estimate that this program is ~3-4x more cost-effective than we had previously estimated, and around ~30-40% as cost-effective as our marginal funding opportunity.

Nick Allardice (GiveDirectly's CEO) has posted this [...]

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First published:

November 12th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/APPjLzzQaFrkc5joj/direct-cash-looks-3-4x-more-cost-effective-in-a-new-givewell

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.