Re:Effective altruism and the current funding situation
by lkbm on Tuesday May 10, 2022 @04:44PM
(#31332455)
> wasn't one of their initial proposals that deworming medications should be sent to rural Africa
Yes, and it's heavily funded by EA givers (yours truly included). People like to harp on the weird edge-cases, but Givewell.org is directing hundreds of millions of dollars per year[0], and it's pretty much entirely things deworming, malaria prevention, etc.[1]
If you visit effectivealtruism.org you'll see it's not a bunch of articles about AI research. It's about convincing people to donate in ways that have the most positive impact, and includes a big "What has the effective altruism community done?" section that's mostly the standard "ensure everyone has food, water, basic healthcare, etc." The key is that there's an emphasis on making sure you're actually improving those metrics as much as possible, rather than whatever has the flashiest marketing.
There are a bunch of people talking about AI safety and other weirder things, but we mostly just look at research to figure out what improves lives and do that.
Yes, and it's heavily funded by EA givers (yours truly included). People like to harp on the weird edge-cases, but Givewell.org is directing hundreds of millions of dollars per year[0], and it's pretty much entirely things deworming, malaria prevention, etc.[1]
If you visit effectivealtruism.org you'll see it's not a bunch of articles about AI research. It's about convincing people to donate in ways that have the most positive impact, and includes a big "What has the effective altruism community done?" section that's mostly the standard "ensure everyone has food, water, basic healthcare, etc." The key is that there's an emphasis on making sure you're actually improving those metrics as much as possible, rather than whatever has the flashiest marketing.
There are a bunch of people talking about AI safety and other weirder things, but we mostly just look at research to figure out what improves lives and do that.
[0] https://www.givewell.org/about/impact
[1] https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities