Will enhanced government control of populations' behaviors and ideologies become one of AI's biggest medium-term safety risks?   For example, China seems determined to gain a decisive lead in AI research research by 2030, according to the new plan released this summer by its State Council: https://www.newamerica.org/documents/1959/translation-fulltext-8.1.17.pdf One of China's... Read More

By Eve McCormick   The annual EA Survey is a volunteer-led project that has become a benchmark for facilitating a better understanding of the EA community in recent years. This post is the third in a multi-part series intended to provide the survey results in a more digestible and engaging... Read More

Like some others I was a little surprised the Good Food Institute (GFI) became a top recommendation for Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) this year.   The idea that a group with no discernible track record would ascend to top charity status seemed an unlikely proposition.  However, t he decision itself... Read More

*Cross-posted from my blog * Even if we don't takeoff very quickly we still have to deal with potential Superintelligence . There are lots of important uncertainties around intelligence that impact our response,  these are called by the community crucial considerations . The interlocking (non-exhaustive) list of crucial considerations list... Read More

  By: Katie Gertsch   The annual EA Survey is a volunteer-led project of Rethink Charity that has become a benchmark for better understanding the EA community. This post is the second in a multi-part series intended to provide the survey results in a more digestible and engaging format. Important... Read More

By: Ellen McGeoch and Peter Hurford   The annual EA Survey is a volunteer-led project of Rethink Charity that has become a benchmark for better understanding the EA community. This post is the first in a multi-part series intended to provide the survey results in a more digestible and engaging... Read More

With all the recent worries over AI risks, a lot of people have raised fears about lethal autonomous weapons (LAWs) which take the place of soldiers on the battlefield. Specifically, in the news recently: Elon Musk and over 100 experts requested that the UN implement a ban. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/aug/20/elon-musk-killer-robots-experts-outright-ban-lethal-autonomous-weapons-war However, we... Read More

A lot of people in the EA movement have a large say over their salary, whether it be earning to give where you can donate down to a certain amount or working for a nonprofit where you take a lower salary. EAs are a unique group in that many of... Read More

Use this thread to post things that are awesome, but not awesome enough to be full posts. This is also a great place to post if you don't have enough karma to post on the main forum.  

There is a good and widely accepted approach to assessing testable projects - roughly what GiveWell does.  It is much less clear how EA research organisations should assess projects, interventions and organisations with very uncertain non-testable impact, such as policy work or academic research. There are some disparate materials on... Read More