EAG Talks

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Zach Robinson, CEO of the Centre for Effective Altruism, challenges the misconception that EA is populated by "cold, uncaring, spreadsheet-obsessed robots."In this EA Global London 2025 opening talk, he argues that most people in EA are driven BY their feelings—anger about global health gaps, sadness about animal suffering, fear about AI risks—not despite them. The difference? They don't stop at feeling. They act.

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In an environment where global tensions surge, geopolitical rivalries intensify, and debates over expanding arsenals become ever more heated, the risk emerges that instability—fueled by misperceptions, misinterpretations and communication breakdowns—could inadvertently propel us toward a nuclear confrontation. In this context, a new arms race is underway: one that seeks a strategic edge by incorporating advanced AI into nuclear decision-making processes. This talk explores the risks at the AI-nuclear nexus, analyzing how various integrations can influence escalation dynamics and potentially lead to unintended nuclear escalation. Moreover, it discusses what future developments might hold, and examines the platforms where discussions on AI in nuclear decision-making have already begun—offering insights on diplomatic measures that could be employed to avoid catastrophic nuclear risks.Alice Saltini is a Non-Resident Expert on AI at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) and an AI-Nuclear Policy Advisor at the Institute for Security and Technology (IST), specializing in the impact of AI on nuclear decision-making. She advises governments and international organizations on managing AI-related nuclear risks, focusing on mitigating the challenges of integrating AI into military and nuclear weapons systems by translating complex technical concepts into actionable policy insights. She has published extensively on military applications of AI and has developed a general-purpose risk assessment framework for analyzing AI and nuclear risks. Previously, Alice worked at the European Leadership Network, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization and CNS. Alice is part of the Executive Committee for the Younger Generation Leaders Network and was a CENESS-CTBTO Research Fellow. She holds a Master’s degree in Russian Studies and a Postgraduate Certificate (PgCert) in Nonproliferation Studies from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

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Innovation is the key driver of growth and increases in human wellbeing. Investing in innovation can be extremely cost-effective, because the costs of developing and testing new innovations are relatively low, but they can have huge impacts if scaled up by governments or firms to reach millions of people.Michael Kremer, 2019 economics Nobel Laureate, discusses his experience as a researcher developing innovations and as a funder. Kremer co-founded and served as scientific director for USAID's Development Innovation Ventures. Michael also discusses the potential of AI for global health development, including the potential of AI Weather forecasting to reduce poverty and improve food security.Professor Michael Kremer directs the Development Innovation Lab at the University of Chicago, where he is an Economics Professor. He is the joint winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for the “experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”.

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Leadership transitions are pivotal but inevitable moments in an organization's life cycle that can either strengthen or destabilize it—and how it will go is often decided by actions taken months, if not years in advance. Joey Savoie focuses on how teams facing transitions can preserve organizational integrity while leveraging the energy and opportunities of a change in leadership, covering real world examples and actionable principles.Joey Savoie is the co-founder and CEO of Ambitious Impact (formerly “Charity Entrepreneurship”), where he has helped launch over 40 high-impact charities endorsed by evaluators such as GiveWell, Animal Charity Evaluators, and Founders Pledge.

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Development economist Rachel Glennerster discusses reasons for optimism in global development despite recent aid cuts and declining international cooperation. She explores how innovation drives human progress and examines advanced market commitments as tools for promoting innovation where social and private benefits are misaligned.Glennerster addresses challenges facing the development sector, including the merger of aid and foreign affairs departments, and shares insights on advocacy strategies that work with governments.Rachel Glennerster is President of the Center for Global Development and a leading development economist. Rachel has pioneered the use of randomized trials to inform policy on health, education, democracy and women’s empowerment, and shaped markets to spur innovation on global challenges like pandemics and climate change.

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Most people believe forecasting gets systematically harder over longer time periods — that it is hard to see further through the mists of time. But there are many forecasting questions for which the reverse is true. In this talk, Toby Ord shows how this can be, teasing out a variety of different mechanisms which can make prediction about the further future easier. One upshot is that the prospects of long-term forecasting (and other kinds of systematic enquiry about the long-term future) are more promising than one may have thought.Toby Ord is a philosopher at Oxford University whose work focuses on the big picture questions facing humanity. He co-founded Giving What We Can in 2009 and helped launch the wider effective altruism movement. His 2020 book, "The Precipice," is a landmark exploration of the science and ethics of existential risk.

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Saloni Dattani makes the case that data collection isn’t just an academic concern; it’s crucial for policymaking, journalism, and industry, and, in some cases, a matter of life or death.Data collection has changed our understanding of diseases like cholera, tuberculosis and snakebite envenoming; and has been crucial in tracking progress over time and identifying emerging problems.In this talk, Saloni focuses on key global health datasets and how they've helped us grasp the scale, distribution, and changes in disease burden. It will also discuss some of the risks posed by recent funding cuts.Saloni Dattani is a writer, editor, and researcher focused on health, medicine, and meta-science. She is a researcher at Our World in Data, where she writes about trends in global health and the data behind them. She is also a co-founder of Works in Progress, a magazine that explores ideas for improving the world.

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Will MacAskill discusses his recent work on preparing for the intelligence explosion and on focusing on trying to reach near-best futures rather than (merely) trying to prevent catastrophe.Will MacAskill is a Senior Research Fellow at Forethought. He's the author of Doing Good Better and What We Owe The Future, and the cofounder of Giving What We Can, 80,000 Hours and the Centre for Effective Altruism.Learn more about effective altruism at: www.effectivealtruism.orgFind out more about EA Global conferences at: www.effectivealtruism.org/ea-global

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Saloni Dattani makes the case that data collection isn’t just an academic concern; it’s crucial for policymaking, journalism, and industry, and, in some cases, a matter of life or death.

Data collection has changed our understanding of diseases like cholera, tuberculosis and snakebite envenoming; and has been crucial in tracking progress over time and identifying emerging problems.

In this talk, Saloni focuses on key global health datasets and how they've helped us grasp the scale, distribution, and changes in disease burden. It will also discuss some of the risks posed by recent funding cuts.

Saloni Dattani is a writer, editor, and researcher focused on health, medicine, and meta-science. She is a researcher at Our World in Data, where she writes about trends in global health and the data behind them. She is also a co-founder of Works in Progress, a magazine that explores ideas for improving the world.

Learn more about effective altruism at: www.effectivealtruism.org
Find out more about EA Global conferences at: www.effectivealtruism.org/ea-global

According to one recent estimate, there are one sextillion animals on Earth that may be sentient, most living in the wild. Yet wild animal welfare is neglected by intergovernmental bodies such as the IPCC. This talk discusses the importance and difficulty of developing a framework for evaluating interventions targeted at improving wild animal welfare. It considers how a model recently developed by Rethink Priorities might be used to quantify wild animal welfare and discusses different theories of population value, identifying sources of uncertainty. It ends with a discussion of preventing the spread of wild animal suffering to other planets.

Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6b7XRoaq8Q