Disclaimer: This blog post focuses on a new piece of research from Rethink Priorities. I was not involved with the funding or execution of this research, and therefore write this piece merely as a consumer. However, I am the Executive Director of Giving Green and a board member of Rethink Priorities, and acknowledge that these affiliations may bias my...
I am writing up two charity ideas I’ve wanted to investigate, but haven’t been able to, in the hopes someone will investigate them further. If you end up investigating either, I'd be most interested to see what conclusions you come to!
Vulture preservation as a global health intervention
Since the mid 1990's the vulture population in India has been rapidly declining. The reason is due to a few chemicals which are fed to livestock, which is highly poisonous to vultures.
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Summary
This post will summarize the trajectory of Wild Animal Initiative’s field-building for wild animal welfare science so far, along with patterns and indicators we want to see more of going forward. Beginning with an initial phase focused on establishing credibility and awareness of the field, through a second phase that has placed more emphasis on the distinctiveness and broad priorities of the field, we are now moving into a third phase designed to co...
When people realize they're in collective danger, they get really upset. If there is no body organizing that feeling into a movement, it happens chaotically. When it happens chaotically, it can go really wrong.
Organizing a movement requires short, relatable material to be seen by huge numbers of people in a short time. It needs a big campaign that gets people on their feet through hand-outs, lawn-signs, info booths, stunts, t-shirts, stickers. It has to provide a body of volunteers with support and logistics. Doing it right in a short time takes a lot of funding. Without that it fails to gel, or it goes sideways.
If something happens and the revolt over AI is spontaneous, that is probably going to get ugly. There is a high chance a knee-jerk reaction not backed by a carefully prepared organizing body will target the wrong goal. It could cause us to miss a key opportunity to reign in research before it's too late.
On the other hand, a well informed, clear-eyed, persistent campaign that grows organically from the right roots? That is really the best chance we have to create so much social pressure not to pursue AI that the race stops and sanity returns.
EA should back and help organize this work. It's the obvious choice, with all the right connections and several well structured communities already formed.