Topics in Need of Work
In the context of EA, Shapley values are a method for assigning credit for the impact of an intervention to each of a set of actors collaborating to make it happen. The concept of a Shapley value comes from cooperative game theory, where it is a general solution to the problem of distributing gains from cooperation. In impact assessment, it is often compared...
The fragile world hypothesis is the hypothesis that 'if technological development continues indefinitely, systemic fragility will increase to the point that the possibility of a shock sufficient for complete collapse approaches certainty.'[1]
Closely related to the concept of a 'global polycrisis':
...Established concepts, such as “systemic risk” (Renn 2016; Renn
Charity Entrepreneurship's Research Training Program aims to train aspiring researchers to rapidly produce high-quality decision-relevant research.
Related entries
Ambitious Impact | Research | Cause prioritization | Cause candidates
The Open Philanthropy AI Worldviews Contest was a 2023 competition organized to surface novel considerations that could influence Open Philanthropy’s views on AI timelines and AI risk. A total of $225,000 in prize money was awarded across six winning entries. The contest served as the formal successor to a 2022 preannouncement and as a spiritual successor to...
The Unjournal is an organisation that works to organize and fund public journal-independent feedback, rating, and evaluation of hosted papers and dynamically-presented research projects. Their initial focus is on quantitative work that informs global priorities, especially in economics, policy, and social science. They aim to encourage better research by making...
Value erosion refers to a process by which competitive dynamics could eventually lead to "the proliferation of forms of life (countries, companies, autonomous AIs) which lock-in bad values", if those forms of life outcompete others (Dafoe, 2020).
Further reading
Dafoe, Allan (2019) Value erosion for FHI July 2019, July 25.
Bostrom, Nick (2004) The...
When human-level AI will emerge (AI timelines) is a consideration for both AI risk interventions and other interventions. For example, one's AI timelines affect how much to discount interventions that have a delayed effect.
Related entries
Benchmarks are tests which enable us to measure the progress of AI capabilities, and test for characteristics which might pose safety risks.
Further reading
BASALT: A Benchmark for Learning from Human Feedback - AI Alignment Forum
Misaligned Powerseeking — SERI ML Alignment Theory Scholars Program | Summer 2022
Proliferation is the spread of weapons, technologies, or things useful in producing weapons or technologies to actors who did not previously have those things. The term "proliferation" is especially associated with the spread of weapons of mass destruction - such as nuclear weapons - or of technologies or materials useful in producing them. The term diffusion...
Guesstimate is a web-based spreadsheet tool built to focus on uncertainty. It's useful for fermi estimates and collaborative modelling.
External links
Related Entries
Tools for Collaborative Truth Seeking | Squiggle | QURI
Tutorial
Video tutorial available here, text tutorial below.
Why use guesstimate?
Guesstimate...
Topic Voting Activity
| User | Post Title | Topic | Pow | When | Vote |
Recent Topic Activity
FarmKind "connect[s] compassionate people with impactful charities that are fixing factory farming".
FarmKind "connect[s] compassionate people with impactful charities that are fixing factory farming"
Rethink Priorities is a think tank dedicated to informing decisions made by high-impact organisations and funders . We workfunders. It works across various cause areas such as longtermism (including forecasting, AI governance, and nuclear risks), building effective altruism, animal welfare (for both farmed and wild animals), and global health and development.
The Center for Wild Animal Welfare (CWAW) is a new policy advocacy organization, working to improve the lives of wild animals today and build support for wild animal welfare policy.
The Center for Wild Animal Welfare (CWAW) is a new policy advocacy organization, working to improve the lives of wild animals today and build support for wild animal welfare policy.
Holden Karnofsky (born 1981) is an American philanthropist. He is a visiting scholar Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.member of technical staff at Anthropic.
Coefficient Giving's leadership can be viewed on its team page.[5] At present, Alexander Berger is the CEO, and Cari Tuna is Coefficient Giving's president, and Holden Karnofsky and Alexander Berger are its two co-CEOs. Karnofsky oversees grantmaking in biosecurity, AI safety and longtermism, while Berger oversees grantmaking in global health and development, farmed animal welfare, scientific research and other areas within global health and wellbeing.[5]
Funding opportunities
Applications are currently open for young individuals interested in obtaining financial support for pursuing careers that help improve the long-term future.[6]chair.
Walsh, Bryan (2025) One of the world's most influential philanthropies is changing its name. Here's why it matters.Vox, November 18.
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Karnofsky, Holden (2011) Announcing GiveWell Labs, The GiveWell Blog, September 8 (updated 2 September 2014).
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Karnofsky, Holden (2014) Open Philanthropy Project (formerly GiveWell Labs), Open Philanthropy, August 20.
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Karnofsky, Holden (2017) The Open Philanthropy Project is now an independent organization, Open Philanthropy, June 12.
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Berger, Alexander (2025) Open Philanthropy Is Now Coefficient Giving, Coefficient Giving, November 18.
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Karnofsky, Holden (2021)Open Philanthropy’s new co-CEOTeam,Open PhilanthropyCoefficient Giving,June 15. ^Open Philanthropy (2020)Early-career funding for individuals interested in improving the long-term future,Open Philanthropy, August 31.November 20.
Soil animals are terrestrial invertebrates that spend most of their life in soil or litter (e.g., nematodes, mites, springtails, earthworms, many ants and termites). They are extremely numerous and influence nutrient cycling, plant growth, and carbon dynamics. Recent EA Forum work argues they may dominate animal-year counts relevant to welfare analyses, but their sentience and net welfare remain highly uncertain.
Related entries
animal welfare | wild animal welfare | moral circle expansion | moral weight | digital minds
Ambitious Impact — Does research into the most effective interventions and incubates charities to implement these interventions.
Charity Entrepreneurship — Does research into the most effective interventions and incubates charities to implement these interventions.
Coefficient Giving — Aims to help philanthropy improve lives effectively through research and grantmaking. Makes grants in areas including U.S. policy, farm animal welfare and global catastrophic risks.
Legal Priorities ProjectInstitute for Law & AI — Conducts legal research that tackles the world’s most pressing problems. Currently focusing on artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, climate change and institutional design.
Open Philanthropy — Aims to help philanthropy improve lives effectively through research and grantmaking. Makes grants in areas including U.S. policy, farm animal welfare and global catastrophic risks.
Coefficient Giving (previously Open Philanthropy (previously the Open Philanthropy Project) is a research and grantmaking foundation based in San Francisco.
Open PhilanthropyCoefficient Giving launched in late 2011, as a partnership between Good Ventures and GiveWell.[1] The partnership operated under the name GiveWell Labs before adopting, in August 2014, the name Open Philanthropy Project.[2] It continued to be part of GiveWell until 2017, when it became an independent organization.[3] The name was changed to Open Philanthropy around December 2019.2019, and Coefficient Giving in November 2025.[4]
Cari Tuna is Open Philanthropy'Coefficient Giving's president, and Holden Karnofsky and Alexander Berger are its two co-CEOs. Karnofsky oversees grantmaking in biosecurity, AI safety and longtermism, while Berger oversees grantmaking in global health and development, farmed animal welfare, scientific research and other areas within global health and wellbeing.[4]5]
Applications are currently open for young individuals interested in obtaining financial support for pursuing careers that help improve the long-term future.[5]6]
Wiblin, Robert (2017) You want to do as much good as possible and have billions of dollars. What do you do?, 80,000 Hours, October 11.
An interview with Nick Beckstead, a former program officer at Open Philanthropy.Coefficient Giving.
Wiblin, Robert & Keiran Harris (2018) The world’s most intellectual foundation is hiring. Holden Karnofsky, founder of GiveWell, on how philanthropy can have maximum impact by taking big risks, 80,000 Hours, February 27.
An interview with Holden Karnofsky, Open Philanthropy'Coefficient Giving's former CEO.
Open PhilanthropyCoefficient Giving. Official website.
- ^
Karnofsky, Holden (2011) Announcing GiveWell Labs, The GiveWell Blog, September 8 (updated 2 September 2014).
- ^
Karnofsky, Holden (2014) Open Philanthropy Project (formerly GiveWell Labs), Open Philanthropy, August 20.
- ^
Karnofsky, Holden (2017) The Open Philanthropy Project is now an independent organization, Open Philanthropy, June 12.
- ^
Berger, Alexander (2025) Open Philanthropy Is Now Coefficient Giving, Coefficient Giving, November 18.
- ^
Karnofsky, Holden (2021) Open Philanthropy’s new co-CEO, Open Philanthropy, June 15.
- ^
Open Philanthropy (2020) Early-career funding for individuals interested in improving the long-term future, Open Philanthropy, August 31.
During Marginal Funding Week (November 17 - 23), organisations post about their funding gaps, and what they could achieve with extra funding. [Here's a fancy page that also showcase Marginal Funding Week posts.]
You can check out our special Marginal Funding page Apply nowhere.
- AMAs
- Debates
- Annual events
- Other events
- AMAs
- Debates
- Annual events
- Other events
All organisationsPosts from this week help potential donors understand which projects are welcome to take part. currently most constrained by funding, and how extra resources could increase their impact.
Participation in marginal funding weekMarginal Funding Week is open to all organisations working on impactful projects, regardless of cause area or size. It’s also one requirementa prerequisite for taking partinclusion in the Donation Election.
Election — organisations must post during this week to qualify.
In previous years, these posts have:
- Highlighted concrete, underfunded opportunities across multiple cause areas
- Helped donors compare the marginal value of additional funding between projects
- Led directly to tens of thousands of dollars in additional donations
Related entries
AFunding Strategy Week 2025 runs from November 10–16, as part of the Forum’s Giving Season 2025.
It’s a week for discussingexploring how individuals, organisations, and the EA community can make the most effective use of funding strategy,— broadly construed. defined. Contributors are encouraged to share practical lessons, analyses, and reflections on how to give, where to give, and how to think about funding strategy as a whole.
What to write about
Funding strategy can include almost anything related to how resources flow toward doing the most good. Possible topics include:
How to give
- Strategy for small donors
- Whether to split your donations or focus on one thing
- Giving now vs. investing to give later
- Giving to tried-and-tested organisations vs. underrated or risky opportunities
- Donor lotteries, prizes, and other nonstandard funding mechanisms
Where to give
- Analyses of neglected or promising funding areas
- Insights from large donors or philanthropic intermediaries (e.g. Open Philanthropy, Founders Pledge)
- How high-net-worth individuals or EA-adjacent donors think about their giving
- Organisational perspectives on fundraising, runway, and diversification
How to think about funding strategy
- The role of diversification and funding circles
- Tradeoffs between high-upside and predictable giving
- How funding concentration shapes cause prioritisation across EA
- Stewardship of funds — e.g. frugality, reserves, and good financial management
Personal and empirical reflections
- Stories from earn-to-give professionals
- Case studies of donation decisions and their impact
- Data visualisations or summaries of EA donation trends (e.g. from the EA Survey or Giving What We Can data)
Funding Strategy Week often sets the tone for the rest of Giving Season, leading into Marginal Funding Week (Nov 17–23), when organisations outline their funding gaps, and the Donation Election, which invites Forum users to help direct real funds to high-impact charities.
Looks like legal priorities project transfered to https://law-ai.org/