The EA Newsletter
The EA Newsletter provides news and updates about the effective altruism community. To subscribe, enter your email below.
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The newsletter is a project of the Centre for Effective Altruism. In the past, we’ve had help and support from Rethink Charity and the Effective Altruism Hub.
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2024 Editions
- December - Donation tips, the dangers of mirror bacteria, and much more.
- November - AI safety under Trump, the importance of antimicrobial resistance, and more.
- October - Every third child is lead-poisoned. We can change that.
- September - Fruit flies act depressed, AI regulation might pass in California, and more
- August - Buffett’s breakup with the Gates Foundation, how factory farming ends, and much more
- July - Revisiting The Precipice, Soviet lab leaks, and more
- June - Funding ambitious technologies, MrBeast and GiveDirectly, and much more
- May - Vaccines saved 150 million children in 50 years
- April - Will AI safety tests be ready in time? Also: the small body problem, reforming research, and more
- March - How AI experts disagree, why factory farming is so big, and more
- February - Compensating organ donors, understanding AI chips, and more
- January - Expert survey on AI progress, USAID announcements, and more
2023 Editions
- December - Charity spotlights, reflections on 2023, and opportunities for 2024
- November - AI (safety) news, the invisible toll of air pollution, and more
- October - An upcoming virtual event, biotech risks and opportunities, and many open roles
- September - TED: What could we accomplish if the global 1% gave 10%?
- August - Can far-UVC light protect us from pandemics? (Also, the environment, AI safety, and more
- July - Why regulating advanced AI chips could be important, farmed animal welfare reform cost-effectiveness, and more
- June - Proposals for AI governance, lessons from charity evaluation, and many opportunities
- May - A huge win for pig welfare, promising malaria vaccines, and featured jobs
- April - AI, why unconventional approaches can be better for climate change, and more
- March - GPT-4, the history of a simple cure, and more
- February - New charity ideas, the abolition of slavery, and research on animal welfare
- January - EA Global, an update on the ozone layer, and staring into the abyss
2022 Editions
2021 Editions
2020 Editions
2019 Editions
2018 Editions
December 7, 2018
- Charity evaluators posted their thoughts for this giving season, including GiveWell, ACE, and two of the EA Funds management teams.
- CEA launched the new EA Forum, and users have already shared nearly 100 new posts.
- We’d like to thank Pascal Zimmer for his work. As a volunteer, he helped start the EA Newsletter and led the team for three years, sending out most editions and growing the newsletter to 50,000 subscribers. Thank you, Pascal!
November 6, 2018
- The new Effective Altruism Forum launched! It has a variety of new features.
- Our favorite articles from the launch of Future Perfect, Vox’s new EA-inspired section: Kelsey Piper takes on myths about anti-malarial bednets and Dylan Matthews discusses his decision to donate a kidney.
- Facebook and PayPal will match up to $7 million in donations to U.S. nonprofit organizations on Giving Tuesday (27 November 2018). Members of the EA community are mobilizing to direct some of this funding to EA-aligned organizations.
October 4, 2018
- 80,000 Hours posted a major update on their research over the last seven years.
- Will MacAskill gave a 12-minute TED talk.
- Charity Entrepreneurship created a (provisional) weighted animal welfare index.
September 6, 2018
Highlights:
- CEA shared its thinking about community building, representativeness, and the EA Summit, partly in response to this post by Joey Savoie.
- Many EA organizations are hiring. Relatedly, 80,000 Hours has updated their job board, which now includes many more openings.
- New videos from the recent EA Global are being uploaded twice a week.
August 7, 2018
Highlights:
- Almost 50% of tickets have already been sold for EA Global: London, which takes place on 26-28 October 2018.
- CEA have announced their initial plans for the new EA Forum, which include sorting by quality of posts, a community subforum, and a new karma system, alongside much else.
- Several EA-aligned organizations are hiring, including BERI, FHI, and GiveWell.
July 11, 2018
Highlights:
- The Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA) is hiring for a variety of roles.
- Peter Hurford and Marcus A. Davis have created Priority Wiki, a cause prioritization wiki anyone can edit which categorizes particular interventions within broader causes.
- Applications are now open for Effective Altruism Global: London, which takes place on 26-28 October.
June 16, 2018
Highlights:
- Should effective altruism groups continue to focus on community building rather than direct work? CEA has argued for the former, whilst in this article, Richenda Herzig argues the potential value of the latter.
- EA Global: San Francisco took place June 8-10. View the conference highlights here.
- EA Global: London is taking place between October 26 and 28 at University College London. Apply now.
May 10, 2018
Highlights:
- Joey Savoie introduced some empirical data to what extent value drift might be happening within the community. Darius Meissner shared some suggestions of how value drift can be prevented or reduced.
- Submissions were open for the academic poster session taking place at EA Global: San Francisco (June 8-10).
- CEA announced Larissa Hesketh-Rowe has moved from COO to CEO. CEA published more about their current thinking, including their models of community building, and were hosting an operations forum from May 24-28.
April 13, 2018
Highlights:
- Currently there’s an unusually large number of operations positions open in the effective altruism community.
- The theme for this year's EA Global conference is Stay Curious, and it will be targeted mainly to people already familiar with core ideas in Effective Altruism.
- Dates and locations for EAGx conferences this year have been announced!
March 6, 2018
Highlights:
- FHI and CSER contribute to a major new report on "The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence", receiving worldwide coverage.
- The Open Philanthropy Project announces millions of dollars worth of grants.
- Applications to attend EA Global: San Francisco 2018 are now open.
February 7, 2018
Highlights:
- Peter Singer's new article looks at the “pain gap” - comparing opioid availability in the United States with India and Nigeria.
- The Open Philanthropy Project has published a major update on cause prioritization.
- Videos are available to let you catch up on talks from EA Global 2017.
January 9, 2018
Highlights:
- The second annual AI safety literature review and charity comparison
- 80,000 Hours provide an overview of so-called extinction risks and explains why, despite all progress, humanity may be facing its most dangerous time ever.
- Last chance to donate to the EA Donor Lottery which closes on Wednesday, January 10.
2017 Editions
December 5, 2017
Highlights:
- Professor Philip Tetlock, author of “Superforecasting”, discusses his research on the 80,000 Hours podcast.
- GiveWell has two new top recommendations this year: Evidence Action’s No Lean Season program and Helen Keller International’s vitamin A supplementation program.
- DeepMind illustrates some AI safety problems for the layman and the researcher.
November 7, 2017
Highlights:
- 80,000 Hours' podcast with Nick Beckstead discusses the importance of the future.
- David Denkenberger argues that developing alternate food sources may be an important and neglected way of reducing existential threats.
- Cautiously exploring new ways to do good can be extremely promising. Recently Fortify Health, a new charity based on the ideas of effective altruism, was launched. Read more about their approach here.
October 10, 2017
Highlights:
- Carrick Flynn of the Future of Humanity Institue writes about careers in AI policy and strategy.
- The New York Times has an obituary for Stanislav Petrov, who averted nuclear war, and a piece on artificial intelligence safety.
- 80,000 Hours has released a comprehensive interview podcast with Lewis Bollard on the what, why and how of helping farmed animals.
September 9, 2017
Highlights:
- 80,000 Hours' podcast discusses risks from engineered pandemics.
- Cullen O’Keefe argues that people who care about social justice should also care about cause prioritization.
- Spotlight on doing good together: the theme of last month’s EA Global conference in San Francisco was the importance of doing good together as a community.
August 3, 2017
Highlights:
- Peter Hurford and Marcus Davis research how long it takes to develop a new vaccine.
- Ben West presents an argument for why the future is probably positive.
- Daniel Dewey from the Open Philanthropy Project details his current thoughts on the Machine Intelligence Research Institute’s Highly Reliable Agent Design agenda.
- Will MacAskill and Giles Fraser's 80 minute debate on whether effective altruism is the right way to lead an ethical life
July 7, 2017
Highlights:
- Why 2017 is likely to be the best year in the history of humanity.
- Videos from EA Global Boston
- Luke Muehlhauser's report on consciousness and moral patienthood investigates the question of “In general, which types of beings merit moral concern?”.
- Spotlight on ways to get involved in the EA Community
June 2, 2017
Highlights:
- The student-run Oxford Prioritization Project wrapped up their cause prioritization research, quantitatively modeling the four remaining charities in their shortlist.
- Max Dalton, on behalf of the Centre for Effective Altruism, explores funding gaps, room for funding and diminishing returns here and here.
- Tim Urban from Wait Buy Why on the benefits and risks of the AI revolution
- Spotlight on how graduation programs reduce poverty
May 6, 2017
Highlights:
- The first grants from EA Funds
- 80,000 Hours on on how to be successful in any job
- Nate Soares, executive director of MIRI, provides an introductory overview to “AI risk”
- The Future of Life Institute announces its new podcast
April 6, 2017
Highlights:
- 80,000 Hours on the world's most pressing problems
- Concrete projects for EA's to adopt
- Evan Williams on why our society is very likely to be unknowingly guilty of serious, large-scale moral catastrophes
- An elucidation and a defence of effective altruism
March 2, 2017
Highlights:
- The beta launch of Effective Altruism Funds
- Vote swapping is a cost effective political intervention
- Who deserves our care and moral concern?
- GiveDirectly's basic income trial as a solution for technological unemployment
February 2, 2017
Highlights:
- Carl Shulman on donor lotteries
- A WHO consultant analyses access to pain relief in developing countries as a potential high-impact cause area.
- Vox on CRISPR and its potential to become a crucial new technology
- The launch of Conceptually
January 5, 2017
Highlights:
- Kerry Vaughan's 5 favorite posts of 2016
- Rob Wiblin on where to donate in 2016
- Peter Hurford on the value of creating a GiveWell-recommended top charity.
- The new Oxford Prioritization Project
2016 Editions
Photo from Effective Altruism Global in 2016
December 2, 2016
Highlights:
- Kerry Vaughan's What the EA community can learn from the rise of the neoliberals.
- ClearerThinking.org's free tool: Leaving Your Mark On The World
- Jess Whittlestone on the importance of being both skeptical and kind.
- Owen Cotton-Barratt explains why he’s donating to MIRI this year.
November 7, 2016
Highlights:
- Kerry Vaughan's three heuristics for finding Cause X.
- Owen Cotton-Barratt on the value of diversifying in EA focus areas.
- 80,000 Hours on why the hour you spend voting is the most socially impactful of all.
- Deception Detox's course helping people establish fact from fiction using basic science.
October 7, 2016
Highlights:
- Ben Todd's general pond argument
- Elon Musk's plan to colonize Mars
- moral progress and Cause X
- EAGxOxford 2016
September 02, 2016
Highlights:
- Sam Harris's podcast with Will MacAskill
- The annoucement of Charity Science Health
- The Open Philanthropy Project's 5,555,550 grant to support the launch of the UC Berkeley Center for Human-Compatible AI
- EA Global 2016 talks
August 04, 2016
Highlights:
- The launch of the new effectivealtruism.org
- Results of the 2015 Effective Altruism Survey
- GiveWell on how deworming might have a huge impact, but could also have close to zero impact
- Making re-prioritization easier
July 07, 2016
Highlights:
- 6 common mistakes in the EA community
- The prospects for cellular agriculture
- Concrete Problems in AI Safety, a paper published in collaboration with scientists from Google, Stanford, and Berkeley and co-authored by EAs Dario Amodei and Paul Christiano.
- EAGxBoston's comprehensive review of their experience running the event
June 02, 2016
Highlights:
- GiveDirectly's basic income experiment
- 80,000 Hours' problem profile on extreme climate change and new career planning tool
- The launch of Charity Science's Effective Legacies project
- The best person who ever lived is an unknown Ukranian man
May 05, 2016
Highlights:
- Philosophical critiques of effective altruism
- 80,000 Hours' profiles of major problems and quiz to help people choose between them
- ACE's intervention report on undercover investigations
- Global Catastrophic Risks 2016 by the Global Priorities Project
April 07, 2016
Highlights:
- 80,000 Hours' problem profiles on global health, biosecurity, factory farming, and prioritisation research
- ACE's blog posts on the impact of social media, and comparing advocacy in different countries
- Giving What We Can's research reports on cancer, climate change, refugees and improving eduction. The latter two reports were requested for a meeting with former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown
- A timeless classic: getting along with people who are totally wrong
March 03, 2016
Highlights:
- Can effective altruism change the world? It already has.
- A review of the possibility of sustainably eradicating mosquite-borne diseases with gene drives
- Justice-related philosophical objections to effective altruism
- Mercy for Animals released a study of online ads that are used to inspire people to reduce their consumption of animal products. Effective altruists Kieran Greig and Jeff Kaufman provided their own analyses of the data, and ACE called it “the highest quality randomized controlled trial so far of an animal advocacy intervention.”
February 04, 2016
Highlights:
- What did EAs change their mind about in 2015?
- How malaria eradication can induce economic growth
- What are the limits to ethical offsetting and earning to give? Rob Wiblin looks at just how bad it is to be a CEO in the tobacco industry. Here is a response to him on the EA Forum.
- Timeless classic: “Imagine you are setting out on a dangerous expedition through the Arctic on a limited budget.” What essentials do you take? Discover what that has to do with effective altruism in the classic “Efficient Charity: Do Unto Others…”.
January 07, 2016
Highlights:
- Bednets have prevented 450 million cases of malaria
- Intelligence squared debate between Will MacAskill and Giles Fraser on effective altruism
- Why you should take the growth approach, not the marginal approach, to evaluating nonprofit startups
- Rob Wiblin tackles three common objections to working on global catastrophic risks and AI safety: 1) it's not too early to act; 2) the chances of success are not tiny; and 3) computer science majors haven't deluded themselves that CS research is the best way to help the world
2015 Editions
Photo from Effective Altruism Global: Googleplex in 2015
December 14, 2015
Highlights:
- Will MacAskill debunks 5 pieces of criticism about the Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan's decision to donate 99% of their Facebook shares (some $45B) to a new charitable initiative.
- Why you should focus more on talent gaps than funding gaps
- One of the most exciting new ea organizations: An interview with David Goldberg of the Founders Pledge.
- CSER, in partnership with Cambridge and Oxford Universities, lauches the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence
November 23, 2015
Highlights:
- We care about WALYs not QALYs
- Thomas Nagel, a household name in philosophy, reviews two of the main books on EA: “The effective altruism movement is doing great service in focusing attention on the greatest needs, which can be met at the smallest cost.”
- The winner of GWWCs essay contest on "where should we donate to do the most good?"
- Tim Ferriss (of 4-Hour Workweek fame) interviews Will MacAskill on his podcast
November 9, 2015
Highlights:
- End of project writeup for Effective Altruism Policy Analytics
- Many in the ea community are investing money to donate later, as well as saving for retirement and emergencies. Here are some mistakes they might be making
- Raising for Effective Giving expands into the Daily Fantasy Sports market with DFS Charity
- Timeless classic: The moral imperative towards cost-effectiveness
October 26, 2015
Highlights:
- GiveWell releases an article on potential new high-impact charities they would like to see
- Toby Ord publishes "Moral Trade" in top philosophy journal Ethics
- Stefan Schubert and Spencer Greenberg release "Fact-Checking 2.0"
- Julia Wise on burnout and self-care when doing altruistic work
October 12, 2015
Highlights:
- Michael Dickens published a comprehensive post about his cause selection, weighing arguments for and against different causes with the goal of identifying the one that does the most good.
- One big question within EA is whether one should work on a cause directly or “go meta”, i.e. getting more people to work on that cause. Read through Peter Hurford’s concerns about EA falling into a “meta trap” and Ben Todd’s reply why we need more meta.
- Will MacAskill on how to find a career that is both personally satisfying and makes a difference
- Larissa McFarquhar releases her book on extreme altruism, Strangers Drowning.