Back
Effective Altruism and Longtermism: The Elite Tech Ideologies Damaged by FTX — The Week
webRelevant for understanding the sociopolitical context surrounding AI safety funding and the reputational challenges facing EA-aligned organizations following the FTX fraud scandal in late 2022.
Metadata
Importance: 38/100news articlenews
Summary
This article examines how the collapse of FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried's fraud scandal damaged the credibility of Effective Altruism (EA) and longtermism as influential ideologies in the tech and AI safety communities. It explores the philosophical and practical entanglements between EA, longtermism, and the FTX catastrophe, and considers the reputational and institutional fallout for these movements.
Key Points
- •The FTX collapse exposed deep ties between EA/longtermism ideology and SBF's 'earn to give' rationalization for financial risk-taking.
- •Longtermism, which prioritizes the welfare of future people, had become a dominant framework among Silicon Valley elites and AI safety advocates.
- •Critics argue the scandal revealed how EA's utilitarian calculus can be misused to justify ethically questionable means for ostensibly good ends.
- •The reputational damage extends to EA-affiliated AI safety organizations that received FTX Foundation funding.
- •The episode prompted broader public and academic scrutiny of whether EA/longtermism foster accountability or enable rationalized misconduct.
Cited by 1 page
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| Longtermism's Philosophical Credibility After FTX | -- | 50.0 |
Cached Content Preview
HTTP 200Fetched Apr 9, 202611 KB
What crypto’s collapse means for effective altruism and long-termism | The Week
Don't miss these
Business
Allbirds is the latest casualty of the shaky direct-to-consumer model
World News
Could the Iran war finally pop the AI bubble?
Politics
Republicans vs. Democrats: who do the billionaires back?
Politics
Are insiders profiting from prediction markets over the Iran war?
Business
OpenAI: Ending its AI video feature
Tech
‘What happens when society embraces a technology faster than it can absorb its consequences?’
Crime
The Epstein files: glimpses of a deeply disturbing world
Politics
What is Donald Trump's net worth?
Tech
Social media: Will jury awards protect kids from damage?
Economy
Private credit’s very public problem
Politics
Rise of the ‘Groypers’
Economy
The K-shaped economy
Politics
‘This raises serious concerns for patients’
Politics
‘The rest of us can only speculate about his inner turmoil’
Business
Elon Musk’s starry mega-merger
Sam Bankman-Fried said he wanted to donate 99% of his wealth
(Image credit: Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Share this article
Join the conversation
Follow us
Add us as a preferred source on Google
Newsletter
TheWeek
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands
Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors
By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or
... (truncated, 11 KB total)Resource ID:
8ff4b86ddc7a2db6 | Stable ID: sid_tmNVMYknii