This is a crosspost from the new Animal Welfare Alignment Newsletter by Anima International. You can subscribe on Substack if you are interested in following these efforts. Audio reading also available on Substack.
The goals of this post are to:
1. Raise a question I see as crucially important to the goal of aligning AI to animal welfare...
“How long have you been v*g*n?”
This is one of the most common icebreakers at animal protection events. It’s a baseline assumption, and it mostly holds true: if you’re out advocating for animals not to be tortured or abused, realistically these days you are v**n, or close. And it makes for good conversation. It seems fairly safe to assume when you meet strangers.
But this assumption is hurting the movement in a way which we don’t always notice: someone new comes into the sp...
Summary
Back in November 2023 I posted here to launch Spiro and raise our first $198k. Two and a half years later this is an update and a fundraiser for the next step.
The short version: we've now reached over-5,900 people with TB preventive medicine, including over 3,000 children under five years old. Our early results have held up well an...
26th February + 12th March - Negotiating for Good - A free training programme in salary negotiation, to help you increase the amount you donate to effective charities. Organised by Training for Good and split over two sessions. Apply by the 30th of January
17th March - 7th April - Impactful Policy Careers Europe - A free training programme to help you plan for a high-impact career in policy. Organised by Training for Good. Apply by the 20th of February
Latest Research and Updates
Meta
CEA has created the EA Groups Resource Centre, which has a curated collection of resources for anyone interested in setting up an EA group
The LSE, Political Science Foundations of Animal Sentience (ASENT) Project and Rethink Priorities are sponsoring a conference on the problems and prospects for making interspecies welfare comparisons, which will be held at the LSE on 28-29 April 2022. They currently have a call for abstracts, with a January 31st deadline
The Institute for Progress is a new think tank aiming to 'accelerate scientific, technological, and industrial progress while safeguarding humanity’s future'
The Institute for Replication was recently launched and they work to improve the credibility of science by systematically reproducing and replicating research findings in leading academic journals