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 Asymmetry is a view in population ethics stating that creating bad lives is morally bad, but creating good lives is not morally good. That is, there is an asymmetry between (i) the strong moral reason to avoid creating lives filled with suffering and (ii) the absence (or weakness) of a corresponding reason to create happy lives.
This asymmetry is often used...
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
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...
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 ...
Ready Research provides research, training, and communication services to help address the world's most pressing problems.
External links
Ready Research. Official website.
Related entries
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...
Twitter collects posts related to the microblogging and social networking service.
External links
Effective Altruism. List of Twitter accounts that regularly tweet EA-relevant content.
Topic Voting Activity
| User | Post Title | Topic | Pow | When | Vote |
Recent Topic Activity
Soil animalsinvertebrates are terrestrial invertebrates that spend most of their life in soil or litter. They influence nutrient cycling, plant growth, and carbon dynamics. Examples of soil animalsinvertebrates include soil ants, termites, springtails, mites, and nematodes. Each of these groups is much more numerous, and has many more neurons in total than wild vertebrates and farmed animals. Vasco Grilo hasargued that overall changes in welfare may be determined by effects on soil animals, invertebrates, even accounting for soil ants and termites only, instead of effects on the beneficiaries targeted by interventions. However, there is large uncertainty about the expected intensity of the subjective experiences of soil animals,invertebrates, whether they have positive or negative welfare, and what increases or decreases their population. So Vasco advocated for more research on informing how to increase the welfare of soil animalsinvertebrates over pursuing whatever land use change interventions naively seem to achieve that the most cost-effectively.
NOTE: Please refrain from tagging posts with this tag on April 1st (it ruins the joke). However, on April 2nd, please do!
Original ResearchResearch:: Faunalytics conducts several original research studies each year that are likely to have a high impact on animals. They identify research projects through a 4-stage prioritization process, which includes gathering input from advocates and topic experts to find knowledge gaps and conducting assessments to verify the potential for impact.
Research LibraryLibrary:: They host the world’s largest open-access collection of animal advocacy research. By curating 6,000+ research summaries, blogs, report translations for impactful regions, and visualizations such as infographics and videos, they ensure that advocates can access the research needed to make their efforts more effective. They have developed research synthesis pages to ensure advocates are improving their advocacy tactics. Their library receives hundreds of thousands of pageviews each year.
Research SupportSupport:: Beyond providing research, Faunalytics ensures advocates have the support they need to apply research to their work. Faunalytics has directly advised hundreds of advocates through their Office HoursHours and Research Ambassador project. They also host an annual online research symposium, Fauna Connections, to connect advocates with the latest research from the academic community.
Faunalytics' research and data empower animal protection organizations to make effective decisions and spend their limited resources wisely. Historically, there has been little capacity for research within the advocacy movement, and it is still a neglected issue due to the limited funding for farmed animals. Faunalytics addresses this gap by conducting and curating shared research resources and providing support to build capacity within organizations.
Evaluation
Since 2015, Faunalytics has been named a “Recommended Charity” by Animal Charity Evaluators. ACE considers Faunalytics "an excellent giving opportunity because of their strong programs aimed at strengthening the animal advocacy movement."
You can visit Faunalytics’ Impact Center (linked below) to read more about their successes.
Animal Charity Evaluators (2023)Faunalytics’ 2025 Year In Review & 2026 Plans
Faunalytics’ 2026-2030 Strategic Plan
The final vote at the end of the week is below:
During the week, the Forum features a frontpage debate slider where users can register their view on the statement and optionally leave comments. In parallel, users contribute posts that aim to inform or shift views on the debate.
Anti-natalism is athe philosophical position that view procreation as unethical, often based on the belief that bringing new life into the world results in more harm than good.
Anti-natalism is a philosophical position that argues against human reproduction,view procreation as unethical, often based on the belief that bringing new life into the world results in more harm than good.
Soil animals are terrestrial invertebrates that spend most of their life in soil or litter. They influence nutrient cycling, plant growth, and carbon dynamics. Examples of soil animals include soil ants, termites, springtails, mites, and nematodes. Each of these groups is much more numerous, and has many more neurons in total than wild vertebrates and farmed animals. Vasco Grilo argued overall changes in welfare may be determined by effects on soil animals, even accounting for soil ants and termites only, instead of effects on the beneficiaries targeted by interventions. However, there is large uncertainty about the expected intensity of the subjective experiences of soil animals, whether they have positive or negative experiences,welfare, and what increases or decreases their population. So Vasco advocated for more research on informing how to increase the welfare of soil animals over pursuing whatever land use change interventions naively seem to achieve that the most cost-effectively.
Soil animals are terrestrial invertebrates that spend most of their life in soil or litter. They influence nutrient cycling, plant growth, and carbon dynamics. Examples of soil animals include soil ants, termites, springtails, mites, and nematodes. Each of these groups is much more numerous, and has many more neurons in total than wild vertebrates and farmed animals. Vasco Grilo argued overall changes in welfare may be determined by effects on soil animals, even accounting for soil ants and termites only, instead of effects on the beneficiaries targeted by interventions. However, there is large uncertainty about the expected intensity of the subjective experiences of soil animals, whether they have positive or negative, experiences, and what increases or decreases their population. So Vasco advocated for more research on informing how to increase the welfare of soil animals over pursuing whatever land use change interventions naively seem to achieve that the most cost-effectively.
AGI & Animals Debate Week (March 23–29, 2026) is an EA Forum debate week centered on the statement:
If AGI goes well for humans, it’ll go well for animals.
This tag is for posts and discussions that engage with this question, including arguments, cruxes, and related considerations about how advanced AI systems may affect non-human animals.
During the week, the Forum features a frontpage debate slider where users can register their view on the statement and optionally leave comments. In parallel, users contribute posts that aim to inform or shift views on the debate.
The topic focuses on a relatively neglected question: how outcomes for animals may differ in worlds where AGI is successfully aligned with human values. Key considerations include whether human-aligned AGI would adequately account for animal welfare, how transformative AGI is expected to be, and what a “good” outcome for animals entails in post-AGI futures.
This tag can be applied to:
- Posts directly addressing the debate statement
- Analyses of AGI’s potential impact on animals
- Arguments about moral consideration of animals in AI-aligned futures
- Reflections on strategy, prioritization, or advocacy related to animals in transformative AI scenarios
Read more in the announcement post.
Related entries
Artificial intelligence | Animal welfare | AI safety | AI x Animals | AI Welfare Debate Week | Animal Welfare vs Global Health Debate Week | Existential Choices Debate Week | AI alignment | Transformative artificial intelligence | Moral circle expansion | Non-humans and the long-term future | S-risk | Events on the EA Forum
AGI & Animals Debate Week (March 23–29, 2026) is an EA Forum debate week centered on the statement:
If AGI goes well for humans, it’ll go well for animals.
The final vote at the end of the week is below:
Altruismo Eficaz. A repository of translated EA articles.
AltruismeEfficace.net. A repository of translated articles.
Note that this notion is relative to the agent's situation: for example, a technology that would allow one to dominate the world in year 1000 might no longer be sufficient today. In particular, domination may be a much higher bar than (threat of) destruction, perhaps requiring unassailability by existing or future attacks.
The next Draft Amnesty event will be held during the week starting February 23rd. Draft Amnesty is an event where Forum users can post scrappy, draft-y, or incomplete posts with impunity.
How to format your Draft Amnesty post
Draft Amnesty posts will differentiated on the Forum Frontpage (with a "draft amnesty week" tag visible), as long as they are tagged with this tag.
You can include this table at the start of your post:
| This is a Draft Amnesty Week draft. It may not be polished, up to my usual standards, fully thought through, or fully fact-checked. |
Commenting and feedback guidelines:
|
Related entries
Effective Altruism Forum | Draft Amnesty Day (2022) | Draft Amnesty Week (2024) | Draft Amnesty Week (2025) | Writing advice | Discussion norms |
The next Draft Amnesty event will be held during the week starting February 23rd. Draft Amnesty is an event where Forum users can post scrappy, draft-y, or incomplete posts with impunity.
How to format your Draft Amnesty post
Draft Amnesty posts will differentiated on the Forum Frontpage (with a "draft amnesty week" tag visible), as long as they are tagged with this tag.
You can include this table at the start of your post:...
Mission and approach
FarmKind guides donors to a curated set of animal welfare and environmental charities working on corporate reforms, public policy, and alternatives to intensive animal agriculture. The platform does not take a percentage of donations; it is grant-funded to maintain independence from the charities it recommends.
Operations
Donors can give either to an “Impact Fund,” which is distributed across six selected charities, or to individual organizations on the platform, such as The Humane League. Donation processing is handled by Every.org, with the intent that 100% of donations reach recipient charities aside from standard payment processing fees.
Background
FarmKind launched in 2024 following incubation by Charity Entrepreneurship and AIM. The organization’s stated goal is to generate substantial new funding for farmed animal welfare, with internal targets for fundraising leverage over time. It has received positive attention from prominent advocates of animal welfare and effective philanthropy.
External links
FarmKind. Official website.
Related entries
Farmed animal welfare | Corporate animal welfare campaigns | Effective giving
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. Its work emphasizes near-term policy change while aiming to build longer-term recognition of wild animal welfare as a legitimate area of public policy.
Mission and approach
CWAW seeks to ensure that policymakers consider the welfare of individual wild animals affected by public decisions, including those related to urban infrastructure, fertility control, and pesticide use. The organization prioritizes interventions it views as tractable within existing policy processes, alongside broader efforts to expand political and institutional support for wild animal welfare.
Background
CWAW launched in late 2025. It was co-founded by Richard Parr MBE, a former UK Prime Minister’s policy adviser, and Ben Stevenson, a researcher with Animal Ask. CWAW operates with fiscal sponsorship from Rethink Priorities and has received support from organizations including Wild Animal Initiative and NYU’s Wild Animal Welfare Program.
Activities
CWAW engages with policymakers, politicians, media, and civil society organizations, and produces policy-relevant research and reports, including work on the current state of wild animal welfare policy. Its initial focus is on the United Kingdom, with the possibility of expanding to other jurisdictions in the future.
Related topics
Bostrom, Nick (2014) Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Macroscopic Ventures is a nonprofit focused on reducing
s-existential risks(suffering)from conflict (e.g.,including by reducingvia cooperative AI), catastrophic AI misuse by malevolent or fanatical actors (e.g., via compute governance or information security),avoiding conflict (e.g., viacooperative AI)and improving AI welfare. It gave around$10$30 million in grants in2024.2025.Past grants include
tothe NYU Mind, Ethics, and Policy Program, the Center on Long-Term Risk, the Cooperative AI Foundation, and the Institute for Law and AI. Past investments include Anthropic's Series A and Series B.Macroscopic Ventures was founded in 2019 under the nameCenter for Emerging Risk Research(CERR) and adopted its current name in February 2025.Althaus, David, & Baumann, Tobias (2020). Reducing long-term risks from malevolent actors, Effective Altruism Forum, April
2929, 2020.S-risks|AI governance| Reducing long-term risks from malevolent actors | Cooperative AI | Artificial sentience | Cause prioritization | Longtermism