Topics in Need of Work

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...

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...

Imposter syndrome is a prevalent psychological phenomenon characterized by persistent feelings of self-doubt and inadequacy, often experienced by individuals in high-achieving environments. In the context of effective altruism—a movement focused on using evidence and reason to determine the most effective ways to benefit others—imposter syndrome can be particularly...

The Fund for Alignment Research (FAR) is an organization that helps AI safety researchers pursue high-impact research by hiring contractors.

External links

Fund for Alignment Research. Official website.

Apply for a job.

Related entries

AI safety

The Atlas Fellowship is a summer program in California open to talented high school students globally aimed at helping these students with thinking tools, a scholarship, and funding and support for their projects.

As of November 2023, they are ceasing to operate the fellowship.[1]

Funding

As of July 2022, the Atlas Fellowship has received $5 million in funding ...

The California effect is the shift of regulation—such as antitrust, environmental, data privacy, and artificial intelligence regulations—toward political jurisdictions with stricter regulatory standards.[1][2]

Terminology

Sometimes the expression "California effect" is used to describe the shift of regulation toward regulation introduced in California, which typically...

Tabletop exercises are informal meetings in which members of an emergency team discuss, usually with the help of a facilitator, their individual roles and appropriate responses during an emergency situation.[1][2][3][4]

Further reading

Blough, Ryan (2022) Wargaming AGI development, LessWrong, March 19.

Police Department (2012) What is a tabletop exercise?, University...

Quantum computing is the use of quantum mechanical physical processes to perform computation in ways unavailable to classical computers.

Further reading

Sevilla, Jaime (2021) Forecasting quantum computing, Effective Altruism Forum, April 10.

External links

Quantum Country. A free introduction to quantum computing and quantum mechanics using spaced repetition, by...

A person's crux for holding a view on some topic is any belief on which that view depends, such that if the person ceased to have that belief, they would no longer hold the view. For example, a crux for someone who works in AI safety might be the belief that transformative artificial intelligence will arrive within the next few decades: ceasing to have this ...

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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

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.

  1. ^

    Karnofsky, Holden (2011) Announcing GiveWell Labs, The GiveWell Blog, September 8 (updated 2 September 2014).

  2. ^

    Karnofsky, Holden (2014) Open Philanthropy Project (formerly GiveWell Labs), Open Philanthropy, August 20.

  3. ^

    Karnofsky, Holden (2017) The Open Philanthropy Project is now an independent organization, Open Philanthropy, June 12.

  4. ^

    Berger, Alexander (2025) Open Philanthropy Is Now Coefficient Giving, Coefficient Giving, November 18.

  5. ^

    Karnofsky, Holden (2021) Open Philanthropy’s new co-CEOTeam, Open PhilanthropyCoefficient Giving, June 15.

  6. ^

    Open Philanthropy (2020) Early-career funding for individuals interested in improving the long-term future, Open Philanthropy, August 31.November 20.

  7. Show all footnotes

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.

  1. ^

    Karnofsky, Holden (2011) Announcing GiveWell Labs, The GiveWell Blog, September 8 (updated 2 September 2014).

  2. ^

    Karnofsky, Holden (2014) Open Philanthropy Project (formerly GiveWell Labs), Open Philanthropy, August 20.

  3. ^

    Karnofsky, Holden (2017) The Open Philanthropy Project is now an independent organization, Open Philanthropy, June 12.

  4. ^

    Berger, Alexander (2025) Open Philanthropy Is Now Coefficient Giving, Coefficient Giving, November 18.

  5. ^

    Karnofsky, Holden (2021) Open Philanthropy’s new co-CEO, Open Philanthropy, June 15.

  6. ^

    Open Philanthropy (2020) Early-career funding for individuals interested in improving the long-term future, Open Philanthropy, August 31.

  7. Show all footnotes

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

Looks like legal priorities project transfered to https://law-ai.org/ 

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

Marginal Funding Week (2024)

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.

Last year, organisations that posted on the Forum during Giving Season collectively raised between $130,000 and $150,000 as a result — and the Forum team hopes to exceed that in 2025.

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.

Related entries

Funding Strategy Week (2024)