Topics in Need of Work
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...
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 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...
In moral philosophy, supererogation is the performance of more than what morality demands. A supererogatory act is morally good, but not morally required.
Further reading
Heyd, David (2002) Supererogation, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, November 4 (updated 5 November 2019).
Related entries
deontology | demandingness of morality | moral philosophy | normative...
Further reading
Karnofsky, Holden (2022) Ideal governance (for companies, countries and more), Effective Altruism Forum, April 7.
Related entries
AI governance | law | policy | prediction markets | standards and regulation
Urgent longtermism is the position that now is an unusually good time to have an outsized impact on the future (i.e., the hinge of history hypothesis). In particular, it claims that the current time is particularly pivotal and that we have some scope to change what happens. Ben Todd creates a distinction between two kinds of urgent longtermism: broad and targeted...
Not all causes are equally cost-effective. In fact, the distribution of cost-effectiveness is heavy-tailed: some causes are thousands of times more cost-effective than others.
Such variation in cost-effectiveness in part follows from the existence of immense global inequality, which implies that many people in the world suffer from problems that could be...
(This project is no longer running, but feel free to submit questions using the regular forum question feature.)
EA Librarian was a project of the Centre for Effective Altruism that provided answers to user-submitted questions related to effective altruism. Questions were submitted by filling out a form or by posting them directly to the Effective Altruism Forum...
Bayes' Theorem (also known as Bayes' Rule or Bayes' Law) is a law of probability that describes the proper way to incorporate new evidence into prior probabilities to form an updated probability estimate. It is commonly regarded as the foundation of consistent rational reasoning under uncertainty. Bayes' Theorem is named after Reverend Thomas Bayes, who proved...
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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:
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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.
Leverage Research describes itself as a nonprofit research institute that conducts research in early stage science. However, Leverage Research has been credibly accused of serious wrongdoing[1][2] and has been described by the rationalist blogger Ozy Brennan as a "cult"[3] and by a pseudonymous LessWrong poster as having the characteristics of a "high-demand group", which is a technical term for a cult.[4] The belief that Leverage Research is a cult or high-demand group is widely held in the effective altruism community.[5]
Leverage Research has a sister organization called Paradigm Academy. Paradigm describes itself as providing training to individuals and incubates startups.[6]
Leverage Research describes itself a nonprofit research institute that conducts research in early stage science. However, Leverage Research has been credibly accused of serious wrongdoing[1][2] and has been described by the rationalist blogger Ozy Brennan as a "cult"[3] and by a pseudonymous LessWrong poster as having the characteristics of a "high-demand group", which is a technical term for a cult.[4] The belief that Leverage Research is a cult or high-demand group is widely held in the effective altruism community.[5]
Leverage Research has a sister organization called Paradigm Academy. Paradigm describes itself as providing training to individuals and incubates startups.[6]
humor | Events on the EA Forum