I find it slightly concerning that many EAs come from privileged backgrounds, and the default community building strategy for acquiring new members is to target people from ... privileged backgrounds.

Whenever you're a Hammer and the solution you've arrived at is to look for Nails, I think an extra layer of scepticism should be applied. 

Hypothesis: The Naturalistic Fallacy has leapt from Animal Welfare into AI Capability Assessment

The naturalistic fallacy IMO influences how many people evaluate artificial intelligence capabilities, causing systematic underestimation of technological progress. In animal welfare discussions, this fallacy manifests when people justify consumption practices by arguing "humans have always eaten animals" or "it's natural to eat meat," improperly deriving an ethical "ought" from a historical "is." 

Similarly, in AI capability assessment, this fallacy operates through several key mechanisms:

• Historical cognitive dominance bias: Assuming humans must remain the dominant cognitive species simply because we've always occupied that position throughout evolutionary history.
• Biological exceptionalism: Believing intelligence must be biological in nature because it has only emerged through natural evolution previously.
• Anthropomorphic benchmarking: Judging AI capabilities exclusively against human-centric metrics while dismissing alternative forms of intelligence that may surpass humans in different domains.
• Status quo preservation: Psychologically resisting evidence of AI advancement because it threatens humanity's position as the most intelligent entities on Earth.

IMO this manifestation of the naturalistic fallacy blinds observers to exponential progress in AI capabilities by conflating what has been "natural" with what should continue to be, making the objective assessment of technological advancement particularly challenging.

*I wrote this up as dot points and Claude built it out for me. I don't even know why I added this point, it just feels honest to do so.

You don't need EAs Greg - you've got the general public!

If you could set a hiring manager a work task for an hour or two, what would you ask them to do? In this situation you're applying for a job with them.

ooft, good point. 

If antinatal advocacy was effective, wouldn't it make sense to pursue on animal welfare grounds? Aren't most new humans extremely net negative?

I have a 3YO so hold fire!

• Most new humans will likely consume hundreds (thousands?) of factory farmed animals over their lifetime, creating a substantial negative impact that might outweigh the positive contributions of that human life
• Probably of far less consequence, the environmental footprint of each new human also indirectly harms wild animals through habitat destruction, pollution, and climate change (TBH I am being very speculative on this point).

Mange is spreading in wombats in Australia. I saw a severely debilitated (dying) wombat on my parents farm. WIRES animal rescue couldn't help, so I was left wondering whether to kill it or not. I didn't because I worried about making the suffering worse. Kind of wish I owned a gun in that moment.

AI Safety Monthly Meetup - Brief Impact Analysis 

For the past 8 months, we've (AIS ANZ) been running consistent community meetups across 5 cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Wellington and Canberra). Each meetup averages about 10 attendees with about 50% new participant rate, driven primarily through LinkedIn and email outreach. I estimate we're driving unique AI Safety related connections for around $6.

Volunteer Meetup Coordinators organise the bookings, pay for the Food & Beverage (I reimburse them after the fact) and greet attendees. This initiative would literally be impossible without them.

Key Metrics:

• Total Unique New Members: 200
  • 5 cities × 5 new people per month × 8 months
  • Consistent 50% new attendance rate maintained
• Network Growth: 600 new connections
  • Each new member makes 3 new connections
  • Only counting initial meetup connections, actual number likely higher
• Cost Analysis:
  • Events: $3,000 (40 meetups × $75 Food & Beverage per meetup)
  • Marketing: $600
  • Total Cost: $3,600
  • Cost Efficiency: $6 per new connection ($3,600/600)

ROI: We're creating unique AI Safety related connections at $6 per connection, with additional network effects as members continue to attend and connect beyond their initial meetup.

Great image selection!

Thanks for asking! So you're saying I can use the bot to summarise any post just by tagging it in the comments?