There’s a significant impediment to maximizing CRISPR’s potential for developing novel therapies: the lack of diversity in genetics research. | Paige Vickers/Vox; Getty Images
The genetic data that underpins CRISPR has a big diversity problem. Medicine has entered a new era in which scientists have the tools to change human genetics directly, creating the potential to treat or even...
Welcome to Import AI, a newsletter about AI research. Import AI runs on lattes, ramen, and feedback from readers. If you’d like to support this (and comment on posts!) please subscribe. Why are people skeptical of AI safety policy? …A nice interview with the Alliance for the Future…...
SuperClue’s April 2024 Report...
We can use Nvidia's stock price to estimate plausible market expectations for the size of the AI chip market, and we can use that to back-out expectations about AI software revenues and value creation. Doing this helps to understand how much AI growth is expected by society, and how EA expectations compare.
Lots of complicated details here: too many for me to summarize well. It involves an obscure Section 230 provision—and an even more obscure typo. Read this.
This second blog post is based on two projects that were run as part of our 2024 Intermediate training programme. Each project was run by one of our participants who implemented the project and wrote a report based on their outcomes and findings.
Around the end of Feb 2024 I attended the Summit on Existential Risk and EAG: Bay Area (GCRs), during which I did 25+ one-on-ones about the needs and gaps in the EA-adjacent catastrophic risk landscape, and how they’ve changed. The meetings were mostly with senior managers or researchers in the field who I think are worth listening to (unfortunately I can’t share names).
Le 25 avril 2024, le Simon Institute for Longterm Governance (SI) a facilité un atelier sur la gouvernance de l’intelligence artificielle…
Every ten seconds, one child is saved by a vaccine against a fatal disease.
Discuss...
Happy May the 4th from Convergence Analysis! Cross-posted on LessWrong. As part of Convergence Analysis’s scenario research, we’ve been looking into how AI organisations, experts, and forecasters make predictions about the future of AI. In February 2023, the AI research institute Epoch published a report in which its authors use neural scaling laws to make quantitative predictions about when...
God can be thought of as the maximal instantiation of various properties.
Summary: I think decreasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has benefits to humans of 0.00957 DALY/tCO2eq, of which:68.8 % are strictly linked to decreasing GHG emissions. 31.2 % are linked to decreasing air pollution from fossil fuels. GiveWell’s Top Charities Fund (TCF) is 0.00994 DALY/$. Corporate campaigns for chicken welfare, such as the ones supported by The Humane League (THL), is...
An article in Vox yesterday by Kelsey Piper notes that after suffering through the whole Covid pandemic, policymakers and publics now seem remarkably unconcerned to prevent another one. ‘Repeated efforts to get a serious pandemic prevention program through [the US] Congress', she writes, ‘have fizzled.’ Writing from Britain, I'm not aware of more serious efforts to prevent a repetition over...
TLDR: 20 to 22.
Confidence: Somewhat likely.
Health organizations such as the American Heart Association recommend a body-mass index (BMI) of 18.5 to 25. But that’s a wide range. Surely we can say something more specific, right? I don’t want to know what’s acceptable, I want to know what’s optimal. What’s the exact best BMI for health? 1.
Cross-posted from LessWrong. In this Rational Animations video, we discuss s-risks (risks from astronomical suffering), which involve an astronomical number of beings suffering terribly. Researchers on this topic argue that s-risks have a significant chance of occurring and that there are ways to lower that chance.
Many thanks to Spencer Greenberg, Lucius Caviola, Josh Lewis, John Bargh, Ben Pace, Diogo de Lucena, and Philip Gubbins for their valuable ideas and feedback at each stage of this project—as well as the ~375 EAs + alignment researchers who provided the data that made this project possible. Background.
Some people much smarter than you believe nearly every view
March was Women’s History Month, and in this newsletter, I’m excited to share some amazing campaign successes by the women of Vegan Outreach in India and Vietnam. Scroll down to learn what inspired Astha Gupta to leave her city life and live with animals in a sanctuary and how Nija and Sarani inspired students to […]. The post Women Making a Difference at Vegan Outreach!
Opiniestuk gepubliceerd in De Morgen (03-05-2024) 1824. In het Verenigd Koninkrijk werd de allereerste dierenwelzijnsorganisatie ter wereld opgericht, de Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Medeoprichter en tevens de eerste veganistische dierenactivist, Lewis Gompertz, publiceerde het allereerste boek … Lees verder →...
The worst futures that could come about aren't ones in which humanity goes extinct. This video explores an even worse category of risks: risks from astronomical suffering, or "S-Risks", which involve an astronomical number of beings suffering terribly. Researchers on this topic argue that S-risks have a significant chance of occurring and that there are ways to lower that chance.
Here, I explain what’s wrong with “ideal theory” in political philosophy. * [ *Based on: “Confessions of a Utopophobe”, Social Philosophy and Policy 33 (2016): 214-34. ]. I. Ideal Theory In political philosophy, there is some debate about the relative merits of “ideal” versus “non-ideal theory”. Ideal theory is described in two different ways (sometimes confused with each other):
The UN reports that over a trillion dollars worth of food gets thrown out every year worldwide. | Mykola Miakshykov/Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Think twice before throwing out your leftovers. A billion meals are wasted every single day, according to a recent report from the United Nations. And that’s a conservative estimate.
It’s not just food down the drain, but money, too.
➡️ Pour nous soutenir : https://www.kisskissbankbank.com/fr/projects/l-incroyable-souvenir-du-grand-pere-defunt-comedie-de-sf-par-the-flares
Imaginez un monde où l'on peut numériser la mémoire d’une personne, un monde pas si loin du nôtre au vu des avancées technologiques récentes... C'est ce que nous vous proposons avec notre tout dernier projet de court métrage : une aventure touchante...
A while back, I wrote a quicktake about how the Belgian Senate voted to enshrine animal welfare in the Constitution. It's been a journey. I work for GAIA, a Belgian animal advocacy group that for years has tried to get animal welfare added to the constitution. Today we were present as a supermajority of the senate came out in favor of our proposed constitutional amendment. [...].
Yesterday, I had a coronectomy: the top halves of my bottom wisdom teeth were surgically removed. It was my first time being sedated, and I didn’t know what to expect. While I was unconscious during the surgery, the hour after surgery turned out to be a fascinating experience, because I was completely lucid but had … Continue reading My hour of memoryless lucidity →...
Squid-shaped purses for sale.
As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.
Read my blog posting guidelines here.
I am dealing with repetitive strain injury and don’t foresee being able to really respond to any comments. I’m a little hesitant to post this, but I thought I should be vulnerable. Honestly, I'm relieved that I finally get to share my voice.
The following statement regarding the Ontario ag-gag ruling may be attributed to PJ Nyman, Corporate Engagement Manager, Canada of Mercy For Animals: “In a momentous victory for transparency and accountability, Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice has struck down a provincial “ag-gag” law, supporting whistleblowers and journalists who expose animal cruelty in Canada’s factory farms. Mercy […].
The debate over the Anthropocene epoch, explained. The word “Anthropocene” has gained cultural resonance in recent years, as it’s become clearer that humans have made an indelible and destructive impact on our planet. But it’s also a term with a specific technical meaning: an epoch, or geologic unit of time, named for humans.
I have spoken at several TED conferences over the years.
TEDxPSU 2010: “ Reconceptualizing Security”
TEDxCambridge 2013: “ The Battle for Power on the Internet”
TEDMed 2016: “ Who Controls Your Medical Data?”. . I’m putting this here because I want all three links in one place.
Here's a scenario* I imagine if it was aligned with my values. I imagine a pig in a factory farm, screaming as she is lowered into the gas chamber.I imagine suddenly, the gears stop moving.Suddenly, through something that looks like magic to us and to a pig, but is no more magic than the internet is, she is in a grass field with her babies.
Thank you to the people who have the strength and the moral resolve to look at the darkness in the world.I know it's hard, but we can only fix the problems we can look at.Let's try to make sure that the superintelligent AI doesn't learn from how most humans treat animals.
Took this climate change comic and it's crazy how little I had to change to make it work. [...]...
Speaker. Anthony is the Executive Director & Secretary of the Board at the Future of Life Institute, and the Faggin Presidential Professor for the Physics of Information at UC Santa Cruz. He has done research in an array of topics in theoretical cosmology, gravitation, statistical mechanics, and other fields of physics.
Facing shelter overcrowding and a downturn in animal adoptions, this report explores why U.S. consumers may be reluctant to adopt their companion animals. The post Addressing Challenges In Shelter Animal Adoption appeared first on Faunalytics.
The right's brain has been eaten by the culture war.
We are looking for a Research Manager to amplify the impact of GovAI’s research.
Dan Faggella joins the podcast to discuss whether humanity should eventually create AGI, how AI will change power dynamics between institutions, what drives AI progress, and which industries are implementing AI successfully. Find out more about Dan at https://danfaggella.com
Timestamps:
00:00 Value differences in AI
12:07 Should we eventually create AGI? 28:22 What is a worthy successor?
Dan Faggella joins the podcast to discuss whether humanity should eventually create AGI, how AI will change power dynamics between institutions, what drives AI progress, and which industries are implementing AI successfully. Find out more about Dan at https://danfaggella.com
Timestamps:
00:00 Value differences in AI
12:07 Should we eventually create AGI? 28:22 What is a worthy successor?
Political liberalism has been tried in Russia’s history multiple times with poor results. Russia is still trying to chart a different path. The post Why Russia Doesn’t Want to Liberalize
appeared first on Palladium.
Rescued chickens gather in an aviary at Farm Sanctuary’s Southern California Sanctuary on October 5, 2022, in Acton, California. | Mario Tama/Getty Images
A pandemic response that amounts to hoping and praying isn’t nearly enough. The so-called “bird flu” H5N1 virus only rarely infects humans.
The Polish Embassy has posted a series of short interview segments with Marian Rejewski, the first person to crack the Enigma. Details from his biography.
Sun Amante is donating a percentage of sales from its sunglasses to support Sightsavers’ work to protect people from avoidable blindness.
Prior to the MIM Pan African Conference in Kigali in April, two other important malaria meetings took place; the RBM Vector Control Working Group (VCWG) and RBM Multi-sectoral Working Group (MSWG). VCWG is hosted by the RBM Partnership to Roll Back Malaria. It brings together researchers, funders and mosquito control practitioners to share research updates, […].
In 2016 I attended this conference with David Pearce. In 2018 I did so with Michael Johnson, Adam Safron, and Hunter Meyer. This year we went as a QRI + collaborators contingent with Chris Percy, Asher Soryl, Cube Flipper, Symmetric Vision, Hunter and I. Brad Caldwell also decided to join us at the last second. […]...
Announcing the first academic Mechanistic Interpretability workshop, held at ICML 2024! I think this is an exciting development that's a lagging indicator of mech interp gaining legitimacy as an academic field, and a good chance for field building and sharing recent progress! . We'd love to get papers submitted if any of you have relevant projects! Deadline May 29, max 4 or max 8 pages.
My favorite EA blogger tells the story of an early abolitionist. The subtitle, "somewhat in favor of guilt", is better than any summary I'd write. John Woolman would probably be mad at me for writing a post about his life. He never thought his life mattered.
I was interviewed in yesterday’s 80,000 hours podcast: Dean Spears on why babies are born small in Uttar Pradesh, and how to save their lives. As I say in the podcast, there’s good evidence that this is a cost-effective way to save lives. Many peer-reviewed articles show that Kangaroo Mother Care is effective. The 80k link has many further links to the articles and data behind the podcast.
On Bioregional Futures
Young people are literally wired to challenge the status quo, to think outside the box. (more) Strategy that an evolution could follow, would be to create a vehicle that reliably tended to start believing that the old power-structure was corrupt, and that the good of the whole tribe required their overthrow... young revolutionary's belief is honest.
The Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity (CLTC) and the U.S. Department of Education (ED) are proud to announce the Partnership for Advancing Cybersecurity in Education (PACE), an initiative to…. The post CLTC and U.S. Department of Education Announce Partnership for Advancing Cybersecurity in Education (PACE) appeared first on CLTC.
On April 22nd 2024, the Simon Institute for Longterm Governance (SI) hosted a set of briefings for UN diplomats in New York entitled, “Where…
Effective altruism, writing, life advice, politics, short stories
When people are satisfied with life, does it impact their perception of human-wild animal conflicts? This study of people living adjacent to African conservation areas seeks to find out. The post Life Satisfaction And Human-Wild Animal Conflicts appeared first on Faunalytics.
Contra Justin Smith-Ruiu
Useful conversations & resources from our Slack community
Among many of its goals, Open Science is a movement toward better, clearer research. Working toward that goal requires coordinated effort, and it is for that reason that a partnership between the EQUATOR Network and the Center for Open Science (COS) makes sense.
Matthew Connelly spoke to Nature about the future of future studies and CSER.
Read here.
Some career decisions are easy. There’s a clear best option. Many are not easy. Where are you a good fit? What would you be best at? What work is most important? These questions can feel baffling. How do you
even start getting the information to make these decisions well? Do you wish you could just look at how successful people made their
decisions? What made them confident in their plans?
Canceling people’s debt from unpaid medical bills does not lead to improvements in their health or finances, according to a new study. | Getty Images
A shocking new study suggests medical debt relief didn’t do much to improve patients’ finances or health. Four in 10 Americans carry some kind of medical debt, an affliction that is unique to the United States among wealthy nations.
The UK is the first country to ban default passwords on IoT devices.
On Monday, the United Kingdom became the first country in the world to ban default guessable usernames and passwords from these IoT devices. Unique passwords installed by default are still permitted.
As a corporate communications practitioner, I was always drawn to projects that aim to positively impact the economic and social development of communities in Africa. For this reason, I am very pleased to join Target Malaria as the new Global Communications Officer. My role will include managing media relations, developing messaging and supporting our teams […].
Farmer protests in Nîmes, France, in March. According to reports, large tires were set on fire during the blockade. | Luc Auffret/Anadolu via Getty Images
Road-clogging, manure-dumping farmers reveal the paradox at the heart of EU agriculture.
Upcoming: Biosecurity Roundtable & AI Governance Talk
Register for our biosecurity roundtable or AI governance introduction, Spring Retreat debrief, and EAG(x) applications. View this email in your browser
Upcoming: Biosecurity Roundtable & AI Governance Talk. Hey <<First Name>>,
Welcome to this month's update!
Crossposted from world spirit sock puppet.
Anybody who says that there is a 0% chance of AIs being sentient is overconfident.Nobody knows what causes consciousness. We currently have no way of detecting it, and we can barely agree on a definition of it. You can only be certain that you yourself are conscious.Everything else is speculation and so should be less than 100% certainty if you are being intellectually rigorous. [...]...
Because you know that it's not sci fi.You know that it’s already happening.You have seen what a superintelligent race does to those less intelligent.You know there are fates worse than death. And you know that we must fight it. With everything we've got. [...]...
A classic problem with Christianity is the so-called ‘problem of evil’—that friction between the hypothesis that the world’s creator is arbitrarily good and powerful, and a large fraction of actual observations of the world. Coming up with solutions to the problem of evil is a compelling endeavor if you are really rooting for a particular bottom line re Christianity, or I guess if you enjoy...
Topic: Why wasn't AI Safety Advocacy a thing until last year?
Many are optimists or pessimists by temperament; they tend to look for the bright side, or the dark, in most everything. (Except for us/them stuff, of course, where us seems bright and them dark no matter what.). In these terms, I’ve long leaned bright, especially re reforms and the future.
The following statement regarding the Farm Bill outlines proposed in Congress may be attributed to Leah Garcés, president and CEO of Mercy For Animals: “Mercy For Animals is disheartened to see that the House’s Farm Bill outline benefits only the corporations that profit from harmful, dangerous factory farms and aims to undo farmed animal welfare […].
The post Dean Spears on why babies are born small in Uttar Pradesh, and how to save their lives appeared first on 80,000 Hours.
Coauthored by Dmitrii Volkov1, Christian Schroeder de Witt2, Jeffrey Ladish1 (1Palisade Research, 2University of Oxford). We explore how frontier AI labs could assimilate operational security (opsec) best practices from fields like nuclear energy and construction to mitigate near-term safety risks stemming from AI R&D process compromise.
YouTube link. Top labs use various forms of “safety training” on models before their release to make sure they don’t do nasty stuff - but how robust is that? How can we ensure that the weights of powerful AIs don’t get leaked or stolen? And what can AI even do these days? In this episode, I speak with Jeffrey Ladish about security and AI. Topics we discuss: Fine-tuning away safety training.
Plus, AI Labs Fail to Uphold Voluntary Commitments to UK AI Safety Institute, and New AI Policy Proposals in the US Senate
How the U.S. can proactively recruit high-potential immigrants
Gazans are facing real struggles. But the solution is dialogue, not shutting down conversation with those with questions.
This month's Faunalytics Index provides facts and stats about monkeys used in research, the prevalence of in-ovo sexing in the E.U., cultivated meat in the U.K., and more. The post Faunalytics Index – May 2024 appeared first on Faunalytics.
Faunalytics is seeking a summer Philanthropy Intern. Read on to learn how you can contribute to our mission and help us build a better animal advocacy movement. The post Opportunity: Philanthropy Intern appeared first on Faunalytics.
Somewhat in favor of guilt
April 2024 Newsletter
In the April 2024 newsletter, read about launching the Cape Town Water, Air, and Energy Lab, a new Policy Insight on preventing crime and violence, and lessons from the Nobel Symposium.
sdicioccio
Wed, 05/01/2024 - 10:41...
This is a cross-post and you can see the original here, written in 2022. I am not the original author, but I thought it was good for more EAs to know about this. I am posting anonymously for obvious reasons, but I am a longstanding EA who is concerned about Torres's effects on our community. An incomplete summary. Introduction.
The Witness, Ancient Fertility, and Progress Studies Skepticism
If the Ancient Greek philosophers had had access to the internet, perhaps they would have created something like Reddit’s “Am I the Asshole?” | Getty Images
In which philosophy tries to understand how normal people think about morality. Philosophers, bless them, are trying to understand how normal people think about morality. Normal people, as you may have heard, hang out on the internet.
EA Forum Digest #187
Hello!. This week in your EA Forum Digest, insights from effective 20th-century animal advocates, research roles at GiveWell, an argument for protesting AI development, and much more. Also, Lewis Bollard, Program Director of Farm Animal Welfare at Open Philanthropy, is holding an AMA on the EA Forum.
EAG London, FHI shutting down and reflections from MacAskill
Scammers tricked a company into believing they were dealing with a BBC presenter. They faked her voice, and accepted money intended for her.
This announcement was written by Toby Tremlett, but don’t worry, I won’t answer the questions for Lewis. Lewis Bollard, Program Director of Farm Animal Welfare at Open Philanthropy, will be holding an AMA on Wednesday 8th of May. Put all your questions for him on this thread before Wednesday (you can add questions later, but he may not see them).
The US government poured $8 billion dollars down the drain when politics and poor planning left its efforts to dispose of Cold War-era plutonium at the Savannah River Site a failure. Now, it wants to produce plutonium pits at the site.
Does the mind "approximate" Bayesianism? What does that mean?
The UK government’s public consultation for their proposed animal welfare labelling scheme closes on the 7th of May. I.e. a week away. If you’re in the UK and care about animal welfare, I think you should probably submit an answer to it. If you don't care about animal welfare, forget you saw this.
In our services for farmers, PxD aims to provide timely, relevant, and actionable information to help them make better decisions. In this post, we reflect on our efforts to design a customized weather forecast product.... Read more. The post Customized Weather Forecasts for Improved Farmer Decision Making appeared first on Precision Development.
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