In this episode, Aaron Bergman and Max Alexander are back to battle it out for the philosophy crown, while I (attempt to) moderate. They discuss the Very Repugnant Conclusion, which, in the words of Claude, "posits that a world with a vast population living lives barely worth living could be considered ethically inferior to a world with an even lar…

Deger Turan is the CEO of forecasting platform Metaculus and president of the AI Objectives Institute. In this episode, we discuss how forecasting can be used to help humanity coordinate around reducing existential risks, Deger's advice for aspiring forecasters, the future of using AI for forecasting and more! Enter Metaculus's Q3 AI Forecasting Be…

This session features the CEO of the Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA), Zach Robinson. Zach talks about the principles that he considers core to EA, explains why CEA under his leadership will continue to promote them above and beyond any single or set of cause area(s), and answers questions from the audience.Zach joined as CEA's CEO in February 2…

This session is a brief overview of how to get the most out of EA Global, and provides some guidance and tips for first-time attendees. Zershaaneh is an AI strategy researcher at Convergence Analysis. She became active in EA after a career shift in 2023. Before this, she worked at a for-profit company where she researched and consulted on market dy…

Hear updates from charities incubated by Ambitious Impact (AIM) working on topics including fundraising for animal welfare work, tobacco policy and maternal health. Learn about the innovative ways to contribute and low-hanging fruit in global health and development and animal welfare.Klau Chmielowska is the co-founder and co-executive director of L…

Greg Sadler, the CEO of Good Ancestors Policy, discusses his approach to policy advocacy in Australia, gives an overview of the major projects GAP has completed and their impact, as well as insight into the work going on behind the scenes. Finally, Greg talks about what's planned for the next 12 months and how you can get involved, including by usi…

This panel brings together three leading researchers to discuss their work on welfare and moral patienthood in non-human minds. The panel focuses on two especially challenging cases: invertebrates and digital minds. Jeff Sebo (NYU) begins with a discussion of ethical and methodological considerations related to extending moral considerability to in…

Taking a giving pledge could be a high impact way to help others—but there are some important considerations to think through before making a commitment. This session is a balanced exploration about why and why not to pledge, and the relevant factors that might influence your decision. In this talk you'll hear from people who haven't pledged, as we…

Associate Director of External Relations Carlita Bevege gives us an inside look at Evidence Action's flagship programs, Deworm the World and Dispensers for Safe Water, and take us through the Accelerator, their engine for new program development. She provides insight into how Evidence Action evaluates the research behind promising new interventions…

Professional groups and EA navigating uncertainty together with open-mindedness and humilityEllie Christian and Clare HarrisEllie Christian is a Newcastle-based medical doctor. She is a masters of public health student at the University of Sydney. She is the Australia coordinator for High Impact Medicine.Clare Harris is a junior medical doctor work…

A fire side chat with Marcus Daniell (professional tennis player and Olympic medallist) about founding High Impact Athletes, an organisation helping athletes give effectively.Marcus is the Founder and Executive Director of High Impact Athletes and has pledged 10% of his earnings to effective organisations for life. Marcus is a two-time Olympian and…

Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters (ALLFED) is a nonprofit organization with two primary objectives:1) to identify, pilot, and prepare resilient food alternatives, in the event that a catastrophe damages conventional food supplies2) to help governments and communities implement these solutions during a global food shockAs devastating as catast…

Hear why it’s a mistake not to prioritise giving as part of effective altruism and how effective giving is the key to unlocking the impact that effective altruism seeks to create. You’ll also learn practical ways we can all help increase funding to effective charities and projects.Luke Freeman manages Giving What We Can, a global community dedicate…

The danger of nuclear weapons is growing: what can we do to address this existential risk?Marianne HansonBuilding on her keynote remarks, Marianne Hanson, co-founder of the Nobel Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), elaborates on the escalating dangers posed by nuclear weapons and outlines steps that can be taken …

Climate 200 helps communities strike at the root of the problem when it comes to action on climate change, and opportunities to get involved in the community independents movement.Alexandria Rantino is the Chief Operating Officer at Climate 200, a crowdfunded organisation that supports the election campaigns of independents committed to science bas…

Chetan Kharbanda - Starting a Charity Entrepreneurship charity on-ground. This talk is aimed at sharing key learnings from the journey of going from incubation to launching real-world operations. It outlines how the CE program equipped the charity with tools and funding and the execution required to navigate complex systems and lots of uncertainty.…

Ryan is Co-Director of the ML Alignment Theory Scholars Program, a Board Member and Co-Founder of the London Initiative for Safe AI, and a Manifund Regrantor. Previously, he completed a PhD in Physics at the University of Queensland and ran UQ’s Effective Altruism student group for ~3 years. Ryan’s ethics are largely preference utilitarian and cosm…

Hon Dr. Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury Assistant Minister for Employment in the Albanese ministry. Leigh holds a PhD from PhD in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School. Dr Bidda Jones AM leads the Australian Alliance for Animals' strategy for animal welfare and evidence-based research. A zoologist …

Jenna Ong is the co-creator of Insights for Impact, a Youtube channel which works on communicating research insights for positive impact in the form of documentary-style, entertaining and explanatory videos. She was also the co-founder of Effective Altruism Canberra.Wellbeing science has seen rapid development in the last few decades thanks to new …

The richest countries in the world are about one hundred times wealthier per person than the poorest countries. How did such immense differences arise, and why do they continue to exist? This talk summarises various proposed solutions to this paradox of economic development, including theories emphasising culture, geography, dependency, and institu…

Victoria Baranov is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Melbourne. In her research, Victoria couples RCTs and longitudinal data in her research that looks into how psychological factors may perpetuate poverty traps. Her team conducted an RCT in rural Pakistan, providing psychotherapy to depressed mothers in the treatment group,…

Climate change is one of the biggest problems we have to face. This talk discusses some of the more effective and neglected methods of addressing climate change, and unpacks what Australia can do to make a difference in climate on a global scale.Jack Rafferty is the Manager of Climate Giving for Giving Green Australia. Prior to joining Giving Green…

This talk introduces the audience to the philosophical and scientific study of animal consciousness. It explains why understanding animal consciousness is inseparable to the project of animal welfare, and why the current ‘valence-based’ and ‘preference-based’ approach to animal welfare are inadequate. It ends by urging effective altruists concerned…

Chelsea and Krystal give a talk on pursuing EA-aligned policy careers in Australia. They go through what's important to consider in your fit for policy work, what EA-aligned policy work looks like day-to-day and across different types of organisations, the current landscape of EA policy organisations, and different routes to impact. Chelsea Liang i…

Cellular Agriculture has the potential to create a more ethical, accessible and sustainable food system. However, this potential won't be realised unless the sector can overcome a number of significant and pressing challenges, such as accessing regulatory approval, scaling manufacture and gaining social acceptance. Cellular Agriculture Australia fo…

Alternative proteins hold the potential to move humanity beyond animal agriculture. If successful, this would have substantial benefits, in animal suffering, climate change, public health, food security and more. Yet after the initial wave of excitement in recent plant-based products such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, it’s clear there are si…

We all agree that suffering matters, but how much does it matter compared to other issues we could devote resources to? In this talk, Jonathan Leighton will discuss the relationship between happiness and suffering, including how it is understood by many rationalists and members of the EA community, and argue for an alternative ethical framework tha…

In this session, Loic presents the concept of emerging innovations in international development (a.k.a Best Bets) and goes over the 14 that IPA has identified in a recent flagship report.As Chief Research & Policy Officer for Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), Loic's work is about championing research and evidence that is connected with real-wor…

Simon Goldstein is a research fellow at the Center for AI Safety, and an associate professor of philosophy at Australian Catholic University. His research focuses on AI safety and AI wellbeing. He is especially interested in new types of AI systems that enrich LLMs with agential scaffolding, to create AI systems that have the semblance of a folk ps…

Monitoring and evaluation 101: How to do it practically and purposefully for your projectSophie GulliverAs EA organisations, we are always aiming to do the most good we can with the resources we have. We know that a key part of doing this is to monitor and evaluate the impact of our work, but monitoring and evaluation can appear complex, daunting, …

This talk explores the different biorisks, and compares them across different axes. It then suggests different theories of change within different areas of biorisk, and points to some of the complexities and nuances of work within the biosecurity field. Finally, it explores some common areas of biosecurity work within EA, and suggests other promisi…

A large-scale nuclear exchange would kill billions and with geopolitical instability the risks are rising to cold war levels. Amidst this, a new arms race to gain a strategic advantage through the integration of advanced deep learning into nuclear systems is underway. Beatrice Fihn and Alice Saltini explore the heightened risks of nuclear war, the …

Want to know why aid orgs aren't bigger fans of GiveWell and GiveDirectly type interventions? Having run the Department for International Development (DFID) ($20b/yr budget), Rory shares what the priorities of aid orgs like and what he would like them to be. Rory speaks to how we connect the pipes between EA ideas/evidence and bureaucrats.Rory Stew…

Exploring the power of synergy in animal advocacy, this talk delves into how investigations, legal actions, legislative efforts, and corporate outreach can be intertwined for maximal impact on farmed animal welfare. Join Mahi as he uncovers optimal ways to combine these approaches.Mahi became an angry vegan and ineffective altruist in 2005. He's ma…

In this talk, Mary shares an overview of recent work by the DeepMind Frontier Safety team. Mary discusses 1) Evaluating frontier models for dangerous capabilities, and 2) GDM's Frontier Safety Framework.Mary is a research scientist on the Safety & Alignment team at Google DeepMind, where she works on dangerous capability evaluations and responsible…

Poverty is a scaled problem and requires solutions at scale. As programs scale, however, complexities arise which may not have been considered in the original pilot evaluation. In this talk, Neela focuses on one of those scaling complexities: policy take up and program implementation. What can we systematically understand about these factors? Neela…

In this session, Cecil and Roberto will discuss the importance of including the Global South in global AI governance and regulation efforts, recognizing that these regions must actively participate in shaping AI protocols to manage risks effectively.Cecil Abungu is a PhD student at the University of Cambridge, and a Research Affiliate at the Centre…

The talk discusses importance, tractability and neglectedness from a market shaping economics perspective, including why socially valuable innovations may be inadequately incentivized by commercial markets. Siddhartha discusses the application of pull mechanisms which reward outputs and outcomes, such as Advance Market Commitments, to pressing glob…

This session features testimony from Ms. Tanaka Toshiko, Mr. Ogawa Tadayoshi, and other representatives from the Peace Boat's Hibakusha Project. Ms. Tanaka Mr. Ogawa are survivors of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—this session will recount the devastating impacts of nuclear warfare through first-hand accounts, illustrating the importance of…

Katja Grace is the co-founder of AI Impacts, a non-profit focused on answering key questions about the future trajectory of AI development, which is best known for conducting the world's largest survey of machine learning researchers. We talked about the most interesting results from the survey, Katja's views on whether we should slow down AI progr…

Nathan Labenz is the founder of AI content-generation platform Waymark and host of The Cognitive Revolution Podcast, who now works full-time on tracking and analysing developments in AI. We chatted about where we currently stand with state-of-art AI capabilities, whether we should be advocating for a pause on scaling frontier models, Nathan's Red T…

Sheha Revanur is a the founder of Encode Justice, an international, youth-led network campaigning for the responsible development of AI, which was among the sponsors of California's proposed AI bill SB-1047. We chatted about why Sheha founded Encode Justice, the importance of youth advocacy in AI safety, and what the movement can learn from climate…

Nathan Young is a forecaster, software developer and tentative AI optimist. In this episode, we discussed how Nathan approaches forecasting, why his p(doom) is 2-9%, whether we should pause AGI research, and more! Follow Nathan on Twitter: Nathan 🔍 (@NathanpmYoung) / X (twitter.com) Nathan's substack: Predictive Text | Nathan Young | Substack My Tw…