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There are multiple EA groups, but I think the most common place to donate is GiveWell? Here's what its donation page looks like: https://secure.givewell.org/ h

There are multiple EA groups, but I think the most common place to donate is GiveWell? Here's what its donation page looks like: https://secure.givewell.org/ https://secure.givewell.org/ Let GiveWell direct your donation GiveWell's Maximum Impact Fund Support GiveWell's top charities Malaria Consortium's seasonal malaria chemoprevention program Against Malaria Foundation Helen Keller International's vitamin A supplementation program SCI Foundation (Schistosomiasis Control Initiative) Sightsavers' deworming program New Incentives Evidence Action's Deworm the World Initiative END Fund's deworming program GiveDirectly The recent grants by their Maximum Impact Fund are listed here: https://www.givewell.org/maximum-impact-fund https://www.givewell.org/maximum-impact-fund the largest of which was $7.8 million to "Sightsavers — Deworming in Nigeria and Cameroon (February 2022)" Please don't let the fact that some people are concerned about AI safety detract from EA's overarching goal of doing the most good per dollar donated.

Shindi 4y ago
When I bring up poverty alleviation at EA meetups I feel like the response I get is "yeah that's definitely super important, we all donate to effective charities, but it's not fun to talk about as AI risk which makes for fun debates". I feel like EAs see global poverty almost as a solved problem when there is a lot of work to be done still.
PragmaticPulp 4y ago
Right! My point is that there are good aspects to the Effective Altruism movement, but historically they've done a disservice by also embracing some fringe stuff under the Effective Altruism banner. Like I said in my comment, I'm hoping this blog post is a signal that they're going to start maturing the organization a bit more and hopefully distance themselves from some of the weirdness that tries to ride the coattails of the Effective Altruism movement. Go ahead and spin up all of the AI think tank and Harry Potter fan fiction distribution under a different name, but forcing it under the Effective Altruism banner only drives away donations from people who go into this expecting an organization focused on doing charitable acts in the real world, not funding additional think tanks.
- ineptech 4y ago
  Your take (that they are driving away donors by giving to causes you think are silly) would seem to be contradicted by the content of the post (that they have raised so much money that they need new models for how to distribute it).
  - mattcwilson 4y ago
    Both could be true simultaneously. The relevant question would be: how much more money is not getting raised?
- justinpombrio 4y ago
  Why aren't EA organizations allowed to be concerned about AI safety? Sure, there's nothing dangerous yet, but surely the trend towards more capable AI has become fairly clear these past few years, and at some point it will get concerning even if only in the wrong hands, and it would be better to be prepared for that beforehand?
  - mattcwilson 4y ago
    “Allowed” isn’t language that GP is using; you’re introducing that. In fact, GP is suggesting those factions do continue to raise, under a different banner. GP’s concern, which I share, is that there’s a greater deal of effectiveness that’s being impacted by outside perceptions. EA should inherently be concerned with making the top of their altruism dollar funnel as wide as possible, to channel the most good most effectively. If the potential non-AI-safety money being left on the table is a greater amount than the money raised for AI-safety causes, is that most effective? For whom? In a world where that potential money enters the funnel, and AI-safety has and grows a separate funnel of its own, how is that not better?
  - FormerBandmate 4y ago
    The whole point of effective altruism is that it operated charity like a business, helping the most amount of people for the cheapest amount possible. The benefits of funding nebulous AI safety charities are very unclear

Shindi 4y ago

When I bring up poverty alleviation at EA meetups I feel like the response I get is "yeah that's definitely super important, we all donate to effective charities, but it's not fun to talk about as AI risk which makes for fun debates". I feel like EAs see global poverty almost as a solved problem when there is a lot of work to be done still.

PragmaticPulp 4y ago

Right! My point is that there are good aspects to the Effective Altruism movement, but historically they've done a disservice by also embracing some fringe stuff under the Effective Altruism banner. Like I said in my comment, I'm hoping this blog post is a signal that they're going to start maturing the organization a bit more and hopefully distance themselves from some of the weirdness that tries to ride the coattails of the Effective Altruism movement. Go ahead and spin up all of the AI think tank and Harry Potter fan fiction distribution under a different name, but forcing it under the Effective Altruism banner only drives away donations from people who go into this expecting an organization focused on doing charitable acts in the real world, not funding additional think tanks.

ineptech 4y ago
Your take (that they are driving away donors by giving to causes you think are silly) would seem to be contradicted by the content of the post (that they have raised so much money that they need new models for how to distribute it).
- mattcwilson 4y ago
  Both could be true simultaneously. The relevant question would be: how much more money is not getting raised?
justinpombrio 4y ago
Why aren't EA organizations allowed to be concerned about AI safety? Sure, there's nothing dangerous yet, but surely the trend towards more capable AI has become fairly clear these past few years, and at some point it will get concerning even if only in the wrong hands, and it would be better to be prepared for that beforehand?
- mattcwilson 4y ago
  “Allowed” isn’t language that GP is using; you’re introducing that. In fact, GP is suggesting those factions do continue to raise, under a different banner. GP’s concern, which I share, is that there’s a greater deal of effectiveness that’s being impacted by outside perceptions. EA should inherently be concerned with making the top of their altruism dollar funnel as wide as possible, to channel the most good most effectively. If the potential non-AI-safety money being left on the table is a greater amount than the money raised for AI-safety causes, is that most effective? For whom? In a world where that potential money enters the funnel, and AI-safety has and grows a separate funnel of its own, how is that not better?
- FormerBandmate 4y ago
  The whole point of effective altruism is that it operated charity like a business, helping the most amount of people for the cheapest amount possible. The benefits of funding nebulous AI safety charities are very unclear