Comments
We’re featuring some opportunities and job listings at the top of this post. Some have (very) pressing deadlines.
Applications are open for a number of conferences
Fellowships and incubation programs
Anthropic
Centre for Effective Altruism
EA Funds (Long-Term Future Fund)
Giving Green
The Good Food Institute
Our World in Data
80,000 Hours updated their career review on founding new projects tackling top problems.
On The 80,000 Hours Podcast:
They also released several blog posts covering:
A report on governing the drivers of global and existential catastrophes was published by the UNDRR, International Science Council, CSER & Simon Institute for Longterm Governance. The report explores how to manage known hazards that could trigger cascades leading to catastrophe. Read more.
In a new paper, Haydn Belfield and Shin-Shin Hua consider whether competition law enforcement is future-proof by examining the effective enforceability of EU competition law and the Digital Markets Act under different AI development scenarios. Read more.
Faunalytics published an in-depth economic examination of the chicken, egg, and fish industries in the USA, China, and Brazil. The analysis covers the historical consolidation of these organizations, risks for these companies, and what factors determine the price of animal products. The report is helpful to advocates and journalists looking to understand the basics of how the animal agriculture industry profits from animal suffering, as well as strategies for decreasing the power of this industry.
Fauna Connections 2023 got over 550 advocates attending, and all sessions are now on the Faunalytics YouTube channel. Additionally, the nine research posters are on the Fauna Connections web page.
The organization has also updated their Research Library with articles on topics including the carbon footprint of different diets, how many fishes are slaughtered annually, and the health risks of animal commerce.
Fish Welfare Initiative (FWI) is continuing on with its main programming to reduce farmed fish suffering in India:
For more information on the type of welfare improvements FWI is making, see their latest newsletter.
Open Philanthropy plans to give $300 million total to GiveWell to spend over the next three years. Annualized, this is similar to what Open Philanthropy gave in 2020 and roughly in line with what GiveWell projected earlier this year, though less than Open Philanthropy gave in 2021 and 2022. GiveWell expects this grant to fund programs that will save tens of thousands of lives. It is also funding-constrained and believes it won't be able to fully fund all high-impact giving opportunities – though strong growth in donations could help close that gap.
Recently, GiveWell’s CEO, Elie Hassenfeld was featured on the EconTalk podcast. In this episode, Elie discussed GiveWell’s history and how they strive to get the most charitable “bang for your buck”. The conversation covered how and why GiveWell was founded, their methods for determining top charities and other high-impact grant opportunities, and the dangers of an over-reliance on data.
GiveWell recently made a $6.2 million grant to PATH to conduct a two-year implementation pilot of perennial malaria chemoprevention (PMC) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It is believed that this pilot, by demonstrating the possibility for successful implementation in DRC, has the potential to accelerate PMC support from other donors, which could lead to roughly 900,000 infants receiving PMC over the next decade.
GiveWell also recently made a one-year, $451,212 grant to One Acre Fund to scope potential in-line chlorination opportunities in Rwanda. The goal of this grant is to explore if ILC in Rwanda could be cost-effective at scale.
Peter Brietbart has become the new Managing Director at the Happier Lives Institute (HLI), joining Michael Plant, the transitioning Research Director. As Co-Directors, they consolidate their collective expertise and knowledge. Peter has relinquished his position as the Chair of HLI's board to assume his new role, with Caspar Kaiser succeeding him as the new Chair of the Board.
HLI is dedicated to maintaining rigor and transparency in their work, but acknowledges that they are not always successful – occasionally, they make mistakes. They have been considering ways to improve their performance and have shared their reflections in a post on the EA forum and on their website. They are appreciative of the insightful feedback from the EA community, which has prompted positive changes.
HLI is proud to have contributed to the OECD WISE's recent report, "Subjective well-being measurement: Current practice and new frontiers" before its release. The OECD has graciously cited the work of Michael Plant (Founder and Research Director), Caspar Kaiser (Chair of the Board), and Samuel Dupret (Research Analyst).
The Humane League (THL) and its Open Wing Alliance (OWA) are celebrating a milestone victory, a global commitment from Jollibee Foods Corporation—one of Asia’s largest and fastest-growing restaurant companies—to stop caging hens in extreme confinement. Nearly 68% of the world’s eggs are produced in Asia, and it’s estimated that this commitment will positively impact two million individual birds worldwide every year. This months-long, international campaign was the OWA’s first campaign in the Philippines, and its success sets a new standard in animal welfare.
Matthijs Maas and José Jaime Villalobos published a report titled “International AI institutions: A literature review of models, examples, and proposals”.
Christoph Winter and Mackenzie Arnold contributed to a paper on “Open-sourcing highly capable foundation models” alongside researchers from the Centre for the Governance of AI and others.
In September, New Incentives enrolled its two millionth infant. Though it took six years to reach its first million, with the program rapidly expanding across northern Nigeria, it only took nine months to reach the second million!
New Incentives released its first video of their program. In this short video, Magaji, a Routine Immunization Provider, talks about working at Kwalam Model Primary Health Care and the value of the program’s presence in Jigawa State. Rashida, whose baby is enrolled in the program, also shares her experience. You can check out the blog post and video here.
One for the World has allocated a portion of its staff time to provide support to the new Giving What We Can Groups for the upcoming 12 months. Under the leadership of their Director of Chapter Organizing, Emma Cameron, they will also extend their community-building tools and resources. Read their blog post here.
The recap video of the Chapter Leaders Meeting 2023 is now live on their Vimeo. The video offers excellent insight from their staff, board members, and volunteers about how One for the World is cultivating community and driving change.
Thank you for these updates! They are super useful for me as someone who is just starting to get more involved with EA. The updates are really helping me get a good overview of what EA's priorities are and what measurable differences the movement is making. I come out of the post with a list of things to look further into :D