Back
Effective Altruism - Wikipedia
referenceCredibility Rating
3/5
Good(3)Good quality. Reputable source with community review or editorial standards, but less rigorous than peer-reviewed venues.
Rating inherited from publication venue: Wikipedia
Useful background reference for understanding the philosophical and funding ecosystem surrounding AI safety; many AI safety researchers and organizations are embedded within or closely affiliated with the EA movement.
Metadata
Importance: 52/100wiki pagereference
Summary
Wikipedia's comprehensive overview of Effective Altruism (EA), a philosophical and social movement that uses evidence and reasoning to determine the most effective ways to benefit others. The article covers EA's history, core principles, major cause areas (including global poverty, animal welfare, and existential risk), and prominent organizations and figures. It also addresses criticisms and controversies surrounding the movement.
Key Points
- •EA emphasizes using evidence-based reasoning to maximize positive impact, prioritizing causes by scale, tractability, and neglectedness.
- •Existential and catastrophic risks from advanced AI are considered a major cause area within EA, linking the movement closely to AI safety.
- •Key EA-affiliated organizations include GiveWell, Open Philanthropy, the Future of Humanity Institute, and the Machine Intelligence Research Institute.
- •EA has faced criticism for longtermism's speculative nature, potential neglect of present-day suffering, and concerns about wealth concentration in philanthropy.
- •The movement has significantly funded AI safety research, making EA a major financial and intellectual driver of the field.
Cited by 4 pages
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| EA and Longtermist Wins and Losses | -- | 53.0 |
| Longtermism's Philosophical Credibility After FTX | -- | 50.0 |
| EA Global | Organization | 38.0 |
| LessWrong | Organization | 44.0 |
Cached Content Preview
HTTP 200Fetched Apr 10, 202679 KB
Effective altruism - Wikipedia
Jump to content
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Philosophical and social movement
Effective altruism ( EA ) is a 21st-century philosophical and social movement that advocates impartially calculating benefits and prioritizing causes to provide the greatest good. It is motivated by "using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible, and taking action on that basis". [ 1 ] [ 2 ]
People who pursue the goals of effective altruism, who are sometimes called effective altruists , [ 3 ] follow a variety of approaches proposed by the movement, such as donating to selected charities and choosing careers, with the goal of maximising positive impact. The movement has spurred the creation of research centers , advisory organizations, and charities, which collectively have donated several hundred million dollars. [ 4 ]
A defining feature of effective altruism is impartiality, specifically the global equal consideration of interests when choosing beneficiaries. Popular cause priorities within effective altruism include global health and development , social and economic inequality , animal welfare , and risks to the survival or flourishing of humanity over the long-term future . Only a small portion of all charities are affiliated with effective altruism, except in niche areas such as farmed-animal welfare , AI safety , and biosecurity . [ 5 ]
The movement developed during the 2000s, and the name effective altruism was coined in 2011. Philosophers influential to the movement include Peter Singer , Toby Ord , and William MacAskill . Effective altruism is most popular within the anglosphere , with concentrations at elite universities in the United States and United Kingdom, as well as in and around the technology industry in the San Francisco Bay Area. [ 6 ] The movement received mainstream attention and criticism with the bankruptcy of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX as founder Sam Bankman-Fried was a major funder of effective altruism causes prior to late 2022. [ 7 ] [ 8 ]
History
[ edit ]
Peter Singer and William MacAskill are among several philosophers who have helped popularize effective altruism.
Beginning in the latter half of the 2000s, several communities centered around altruist, rationalist , and futurological concerns started to converge, such as: [ 9 ]
The evidence-based charity community centered around GiveWell , [ 10 ] including Open Philanthropy , which originally came out of GiveWell Labs but then became independent. [ 11 ] [ 12 ]
The community around pledging and career selection for effective giving, centered around the Giving What We Can and 80,000 Hours nonprofits. [ 13 ]
The Singularity I
... (truncated, 79 KB total)Resource ID:
f1d79efc3fc232c1 | Stable ID: sid_09qnvBpmhD