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Tuesday, 21 May 2024
Tue, 21 May 2024

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I wonder how the recent turn for the worse at OpenAI should make us feel about e.g. Anthropic and Conjecture and other organizations with a similar structure, or whether we should change our behaviour towards those orgs. * How much do we think that OpenAI's problems are idiosyncratic vs. structural? If e.g. Sam Altman is the problem, we can still feel good about peer organisations. If instead weighing investor concerns and safety concerns is the root of the problem, we should be worried about whether peer organizations are going to be pushed down the same path sooner or later. * Are there any concerns we have with OpenAI that we should be taking this opportunity to put to its peers as well? For example, have peers been publically asked if they use non-disparagement agreements? I can imagine a situation where another org has really just never thought to use them, and we can use this occasion to encourage them to turn that into a public commitment.
I don't think CEA has a public theory of change, it just has a strategy. If I were to recreate its theory of change based on what I know of the org, it'd have three target groups: 1. Non-EAs 2. Organisers 3. Existing members of the community Per target group, I'd say it has the following main activities: * Targeting non-EAs, it does comms and education (the VP programme). * Targeting organisers, you have the work of the groups team. * Targeting existing members, you have the events team, the forum team, and community health.  Per target group, these activities are aiming for the following short-term outcomes: * Targeting non-EAs, it doesn't aim to raise awareness of EA, but instead, it aims to ensure people have an accurate understanding of what EA is. * Targeting organisers, it aims to improve their ability to organise. * Targeting existing members, it aims to improve information flow (through EAG(x) events, the forum, newsletters, etc.) and maintain a healthy culture (through community health work). If you're interested, you can see EA Netherland's theory of change here. 
In food ingredient labeling, some food items do not require expending. E.g, Article 19 from the relevant EU regulation: > 1. The following foods shall not be required to bear a list of ingredients: > 1. fresh fruit and vegetables, including potatoes, which have not been peeled, cut or similarly treated; > 2. carbonated water, the description of which indicates that it has been carbonated; > 3. fermentation vinegars derived exclusively from a single basic product, provided that no other ingredient has been added; > 4. cheese, butter, fermented milk and cream, to which no ingredient has been added other than lactic products, food enzymes and micro-organism cultures essential to manufacture, or in the case of cheese other than fresh cheese and processed cheese the salt needed for its manufacture; > 5. foods consisting of a single ingredient, where: > 1. the name of the food is identical to the ingredient name; or > 2. the name of the food enables the nature of the ingredient to be clearly identified. An interesting regulatory intervention to promote replacement of animal products could be to either require expansion of the details on these animal products (seems unlikely, but may be possible to push from a health perspective) or to also similarly exempt key alt proteins. fyi: @vicky_cox 
Disclaimer: This shortform contains advice about navigating unemployment benefits. I am not a lawyer or a social worker, and you should use caution when applying this advice to your specific unemployment insurance situation. Tip for US residents: Depending on which state you live in, taking a work test can affect your eligibility for unemployment insurance. Unemployment benefits are typically reduced based on the number of hours you've worked in a given week. For example, in New York, you are eligible for the full benefit rate if you worked 10 hours or less that week, 25-75% of the benefit rate if you worked 11-30 hours, and 0% if you worked more than 30 hours.[1] New York's definition of work is really broad and includes "any activity that brings in or may bring in income at any time must be reported as work... even if you were not paid". Specifically, "A working interview, where a prospective employer asks you to work - with or without pay - to demonstrate that you can do the job" is considered work.[1] Depending on the details of the work test, it may or may not count as work under your state's rules, meaning that if it is unpaid, you are losing money by doing it. If so, consider asking for remuneration for the time you spend on the work test to offset the unemployment money you'd be giving up by doing it. Note, however, that getting paid may also reduce the amount of unemployment benefits you are eligible for (though not necessarily dollar for dollar). 1. ^ Unemployment Insurance Claimant Handbook. NYS Department of Labor, pp. 20-21.