EA Forum Podcast (All audio)

This is a link post.

Application deadline: September 16th 2024. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

We are hiring a Head of Operations to set a newly-independent CEA up for success by establishing our new legal entities, managing our spin-out process, and building a world class operations team.

Apply now

I (JP) am crossposting the whole job description because I think it's a good look into what a really senior ops role looks like, and what CEA in particular has going on behind the scenes.

CEA is entering a new era having recently appointed a new CEO and begun the process of spinning out from Effective Ventures (EV) to become an independent organisation. With around 40 staff (and growing), a budget over $25 million, and an established track record of delivering highly impactful programs, we’re uniquely well-positioned to steward the effective altruism community, increase its potential for impact, and [...]

---

Outline:

(02:37) What would you do?

(06:12) What are we looking for?

(08:29) Other information

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

---

First published:

August 15th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/uCt7FZKc8fXEDgAif/cea-is-hiring-a-head-of-operations-apply-by-sep-16

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

This is a link post.

I wrote an article on California AI safety bill SB 1047 for The Nation and the reaction from the AI industry, investors, and the broader tech community. The story was informed by conversations with over a dozen relevant sources and comes shortly before the bill faces a floor vote in the California Assembly.

I think it's useful to understand how industry responds to attempts to regulate AI, and centered my analysis on that topic.

If you're interested in helping share the article, I made a Tweet thread.

---

First published:

August 15th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/JfzX3oC4ZnotmrFWg/my-article-in-the-nation-california-s-ai-safety-bill-is-a

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

I run the 80,000 Hours one-on-one team. We speak to about 1.5k people a year about their careers. Our internal term for these people, which I'll use throughout this post, is 'advisees'. One of the biggest ways we help people is by making introductions to people working in high impact fields (we refer to them internally as 'specialists'). Below is the guidance we give specialists on how to make those introductions worthwhile.

Background

One of the core things we’re trying to figure out on an advisee call is whether there are other people we know about who could be useful for the person to chat to. People have reported these kinds of introductions to have been surprisingly useful in the past.

Sometimes it's very clear what the value of an introduction can be, such as putting a hiring manager in touch with someone who has the profile [...]

---

Outline:

(00:33) Background

(02:33) Tips on how to make the conversations you have more useful

---

First published:

August 14th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/eQiSxi3oaxdiM9b24/how-to-have-high-impact-conversations

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Post authors: Eli Rose, Asya Bergal

Posting in our capacities as members of Open Philanthropy's Global Catastrophic Risks Capacity Building team.

This program, together with our separate program for programs and events on global catastrophic risk, effective altruism, and other topics, has replaced our 2021 request for proposals for outreach projects. If you have a project which was in-scope for that program but isn't for either of these, you can apply to our team's general application instead.

We think it's possible that the coming decades will see "transformative" progress in artificial intelligence, i.e., progress that leads to changes in human civilization at least as large as those brought on by the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. It is currently unclear to us whether these changes will go well or poorly, and we think that people today can do meaningful work to increase the likelihood of positive outcomes.

To that [...]

---

Outline:

(02:47) Categories of work we’re interested in

(02:52) Training and mentorship programs

(04:27) Events

(06:16) Groups

(07:17) Resources, media and communications

(08:48) Other

(09:24) More information

(09:28) Eligible proposals

(10:43) Application process

---

First published:

August 13th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/fZH9toukKaHSELafN/funding-for-work-that-builds-capacity-to-address-risks-from

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

This is a link post.

Manifund is hosting a $200k funding round for EA community projects, where the grant decisions are made by you. You can direct $100-$800 of funding towards the projects that have helped with your personal journey as an EA. Your choices then decide how $100k in matching will be allocated, via quadratic funding!

Sign up here to get notified when the projects are live, or read on to learn more!

Timeline

• Phase 1: Project registrations open (Aug 13)
  • Project organizers can now create a page for their projects here, to raise funding as part of this EA Community Choice round.
  • Community members can sign up for updates here, or recommend projects to sign up here.
• Phase 2: Community members receive funds (Aug 20)
  • We’ll give everyone $100 to donate; more if you’ve been active in the EA community. Fill out a 2-minute form [...]

---

Outline:

(00:35) Timeline

(03:22) What is an EA community project?

(05:23) FAQ

(09:31) Get involved!

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

---

First published:

August 14th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/GgYfqrATFzLAaPdct/announcing-the-usd200k-ea-community-choice

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---

Images from the article:

Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

The Humane League UK have released our State of the Chicken Industry report today! Read it here.

WHAT IS IT?

The State of the Chicken Industry report titled ‘Who's selling you Frankenchickens?’ argues that minimum welfare standards should be lifted across the board by supermarkets by signing up to the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC), particularly as welfare labels can be confusing and misleading.

WHAT IS IN IT?

It contains a summary of the industry as it stands, problems/solutions facing the BCC, information on THL UK's judicial review, public opinion polling on supermarket labels, and opinions concerning the chicken industry from experts, corporates, and groups from across different sectors.

WHAT CAN YOU USE IT FOR?

This report is designed to highlight where businesses stand on implementing the Better Chicken Commitment in the UK. It can be used as a resource for campaigners and animal advocates to better understand the current [...]

---

Outline:

(00:04) The Humane League UK have released our State of the Chicken Industry report today! Read it here.

(00:14) WHAT IS IT?

(00:33) WHAT IS IN IT?

(00:54) WHAT CAN YOU USE IT FOR?

(01:15) HOW TO TAKE ACTION

---

First published:

August 13th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/DkaduND2zmyhQxvLv/new-report-who-s-selling-you-frankenchickens

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Introduction

In May 2024, Ambitious Impact (AIM) ran a program to incubate new effective giving initiatives (EGIs) in partnership with Giving What We Can. In short, EGIs focus on raising awareness and funneling public and philanthropic donations to the most cost-effective charities worldwide.

In the last few years, several Effective Giving Initiatives, such as Doneer Effectief, Effektiv Spenden, and Giving What We Can, have moved millions in funding to the best charities globally. The success of these and other similar organizations suggests that further initiatives in this space could be highly beneficial, given that many highly effective charities are bottlenecked by access to funding.

This article introduces five new effective giving initiatives incubated through the program we ran earlier this year in their own words. It summarizes their country of operation, near-term plans, targets, and any room for additional seed funding.[1]

Organization Summaries

Ellis Impact

Co-founders [...]

---

Outline:

(00:05) Introduction

(01:06) Organization Summaries

(01:09) Ellis Impact

(01:38) Background (why is this a promising country/angle for an EGI?)

(02:47) Near-term plans

(03:21) Targets (reach/giving multiplier/etc.)

(03:45) Room for more funding

(04:58) Benefficienza

(05:25) Background (why is this a promising country/angle for an EGI?)

(06:07) Near-term plans

(06:47) Targets (reach/giving multiplier/etc.)

(07:02) Room for more funding

(07:44) Mieux Donner

(08:11) Background

(09:57) Near-term plans

(11:26) Targets

(11:56) Room for more funding

(12:43) Effectief Geven

(13:14) Background

(14:06) Near-term plans

(14:56) Targets

(15:12) Room for more funding

(15:41) Impactful Giving

(16:06) Background (why is this a promising country/angle for an EGI?)

(17:43) Near-term plans

(18:40) Targets (reach/giving multiplier/etc.)

(19:08) Room for more funding

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

---

First published:

August 13th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/qq4KtwJHtCTLPqdy6/presenting-five-new-effective-giving-initiatives

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

Post authors: Eli Rose, Asya Bergal

Posting in our capacities as members of Open Philanthropy's Global Catastrophic Risks Capacity Building team.

Note: This program, together with our separate program for work that builds capacity to address risks from transformative AI, has replaced our 2021 request for proposals for outreach projects. If you have a project which was in-scope for that program but isn't for either of these, you can apply to our team's general application instead.

Apply for funding here. Applications are open until further notice and will be assessed on a rolling basis.

This is a wide-ranging call for applications, seeking to fund programs and events in a variety of areas of interest to Open Philanthropy — including effective altruism, global catastrophic risks, biosecurity, AI for epistemics, forecasting, and other areas. In general, if the topic of your program or event falls within one of our [...]

---

Outline:

(02:42) AI-focused work

(03:07) Application information

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

---

First published:

August 13th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/qCz7eRfQhkaws4tNN/funding-for-programs-and-events-on-global-catastrophic-risk

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

This is a link post.

Authors of linked report: Tegan McCaslin, Josh Rosenberg, Ezra Karger, Avital Morris, Molly Hickman, Otto Kuusela, Sam Glover, Zach Jacobs, Phil Tetlock[1]

Today, the Forecasting Research Institute (FRI), released “Conditional Trees: A Method for Generating Informative Questions about Complex Topics,” which discusses the results of a case study in using conditional trees to generate informative questions about AI risk. In this post, we provide a brief overview of the methods, findings, and directions for further research. For much more analysis and discussion, see the full report: https://forecastingresearch.org/s/AIConditionalTrees.pdf

Abstract

We test a new process for generating high-value forecasting questions: asking experts to produce “conditional trees,” simplified Bayesian networks of quantifiably informative forecasting questions. We test this technique in the context of the current debate about risks from AI. We conduct structured interviews with 21 AI domain experts and 3 highly skilled generalist forecasters (“superforecasters”) to [...]

---

Outline:

(00:55) Abstract

(02:12) Executive Summary

(02:41) Methods

(04:25) Results

(04:28) The conditional trees method can generate forecasting questions that are more informative than existing questions on popular forecasting platforms

(07:05) Questions generated through the conditional trees method emphasized different topics than those on forecasting platforms

(08:05) We found weak evidence that superforecasters and experts value different types of questions

(10:06) The conditional trees method still has disadvantages

(11:06) Key takeaways

(12:30) Key outputs

(13:59) Limitations of our research

(14:49) Next steps

The original text contained 11 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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

---

First published:

August 12th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/iMmpeCmfBk9sm6aLJ/conditional-trees-generating-informative-forecasting

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---

Images from the article:

Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

For two decades, I did a lot of public outreach: talking with people from the broad or general public (on the streets,…) to persuade them to do something good. Now I believe that most of such public outreach is not so effective, with one or a few exceptions. Here I want to give a concrete example of a public outreach that I believe to be one of the most cost-effective, generating the highest impact at the lowest costs: small-farmed-animal reducetarian deep questioning. This involves asking specific questions to make people think more deeply about the welfare of (small) animals used for food in order to encourage them to reduce their consumption of animal products (primarily from small animals such as chickens, fish and shrimp). I’ll first discuss why I think this is a top-effective strategy, and then present a specific example of a list of questions that I ask [...]

---

Outline:

(01:00) Why is small-farmed-animal reducetarian deep questioning a top-effective public outreach?

(10:06) An example of deep questioning outreach

---

First published:

August 12th, 2024

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/rJiGhuinQrqaq2CQE/a-top-effective-public-outreach-small-farmed-animal

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.