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Five Years of Rethink Priorities: Impact, Future Plans, Funding Needs (July 2023)
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Rethink Priorities
Credibility 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: EA Forum
This is an organizational update from Rethink Priorities, an EA-affiliated research group increasingly active in AI safety; useful for understanding the landscape of EA-funded AI safety research organizations and their strategic priorities as of mid-2023.
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Importance: 38/100news
Summary
Rethink Priorities' five-year retrospective outlines the organization's research accomplishments across animal welfare, global health, and AI/existential risk, describes strategic plans for scaling its work, and makes a case for additional funding. The post highlights key research outputs and their influence on EA-aligned donors and policymakers, while signaling a growing focus on AI safety and longtermist priorities.
Key Points
- •Rethink Priorities has grown significantly since 2018, producing high-impact research across animal welfare, global health, and emerging longtermist/AI safety areas.
- •The organization reports measurable influence on major philanthropic decisions, particularly within EA-aligned funders and GiveWell-adjacent communities.
- •Future plans include expanding AI safety and existential risk research capacity to meet growing demand in those areas.
- •The post outlines a funding gap and solicits support from EA donors, framing additional resources as high-expected-value opportunities.
- •Serves as a transparency and accountability document typical of EA-aligned organizations, providing metrics and strategic direction.
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# Five Years of Rethink Priorities: Impact, Future Plans, Funding Needs (July 2023)
By Rethink Priorities
Published: 2023-07-18
Overview
---------
This piece highlights Rethink Priorities’ accomplishments, mistakes, and changes since its establishment in 2018. We discuss RP’s future plans as well as potential constraints to our impact. Finally, we call for donations and invite people to engage in an [Ask Me Anything](https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/db5TbLPSZL2XPeaed/ama-peter-wildeford-co-ceo-at-rethink-priorities) (AMA) discussion with Co-CEO Peter Wildeford.
You can also read this post as a [PDF](https://rethinkpriorities.org/s/5-years-of-RP.pdf) with visualizations.
Executive summary
-----------------
[Key accomplishments (2018-2023)](https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/7QyemcXLaxNicLNNa/five-years-of-rethink-priorities-impact-future-plans-funding#II__Outcomes_and_impacts_)
*In five years, RP has published over 125 pieces of research, completed more than another 100 research projects, provided various grantmakers with consultation, influenced tens of millions of dollars in funding, fiscally sponsored nine projects, and drove forward the promising field of invertebrate welfare. Specific accomplishments include:*
* Collaborating with dozens of European Union (EU) animal advocacy organizations to work on setting medium-term policy strategies for farmed animal welfare.
* Providing expert consultation to the Chilean government as they considered a bill (which has advanced to the next legislative stage) to recognize animals as sentient.
* Contributing significantly to burgeoning fields, such as invertebrate welfare—including work related to shrimps and insects (see more [here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LEfGg7vVxBA29T2NrnZ747MRJIDjCKJ-mmL3gmeoYqA/edit#bookmark=id.1p6urdocsfo)).
* Completing the Moral Weight Project to try to help funders decide how to best allocate resources across species.
* Producing 23 reports commissioned by Open Philanthropy answering their questions about global health and development issues and interventions.
* Conducting over 200 tailored surveys and data analysis projects to help several organizations that build communities of people working on global priorities.
* Launching projects such as [Condor Camp](https://condor.camp/en/) and fiscally sponsoring organizations like [Epoch](https://epochai.org/) and [Apollo Research](https://www.apolloresearch.ai/) via our Special Projects team, which provides operational support.
* Setting up an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Governance and Strategy team.
* Growing from a two-person operation in 2018 to a team that will soon include 75 RP employees, 30 contractors, and 25 staff of fiscally sponsored projects.
[Mistakes and challenges](https:/
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