Welcome to the monthly EA NYC newsletter! If you like what you see and know others who would be interested in subscribing, send them this email and they can sign up here! And don't forget to join the Facebook group and Slack if you haven't already!
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Our newsletters are long! To make them easier to skim, here's what you'll find below: - Intro from Rocky
- Announcements
- NYC Community Highlights
- Upcoming Events
- EA-Related Jobs in NYC
- Updates & Opportunities Around the Community
- Community & Global News
- Evergreen Resources
- Monthly Reading Group
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Hi there!
I hope everyone has been enjoying their summer thus far! I’m excited to share with you several big happenings and opportunities for the months ahead here in NYC and in the EA community at large, as well as some recent accomplishments from community members. But first, I want to take a moment to express just how amazing I believe this community to be:
Often, I speak to people new to EA or new to NYC and explain what I believe is so special about the EA NYC group. My pitch usually boils down to one thing: If you are passionate about "using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible, and taking action on that basis," you will find few communities as welcoming, supportive, and thoughtful as the community that has formed here over the past decade. Across professions, cause areas, and walks of life, we have a community of incredible sounding boards, eager to help each other do our best at doing good, and maybe have some fun along the way.
I know many of you read this newsletter each month (thank you!) without attending EA NYC events and I want to encourage you to consider attending one this summer. I personally leave each event inspired, having learned something new about world-improving work underway, met a newcomer eager to solve the world’s most pressing problems, heard an idea that never otherwise would have crossed my mind, and snacked on some oreos. I feel very fortunate to be a part of this community and whether you’re an online lurker, event regular, or EA NYC newcomer, I hope we continue to provide you with resources and support in your world-improving endeavors. If you're looking for a low-pressure entry point to the community, consider posting an intro on the EA NYC Slack or attending this coming Sunday's speedfriending picnic. We’d love to see you there 😊
~Rocky, EA NYC Director |
Here in New York, we’re preparing to grow our resources for the EA community. As you may have seen in our most recent newsletters, EA NYC is working with The Centre for Effective Altruism to open NY EA Hub, a coworking and events space in Manhattan, and we are accepting applications for usership. EA NYC is also expanding our team over the rest of 2022 and we are accepting expressions of interest for a number of roles. Below, you’ll find information on new subgroups we’re launching and a number of local weekly events. In EA at large, there have been several major updates over the past month. The FTX Future Fund published an update on their giving thus far of 262 grants and investments, totaling ~$132M. The Criticism and Red Teaming Contest for writing that critically engages with theory or work from the effective altruism community is underway with many substantial and contentious submissions. I highly recommend occasionally skimming the EA Forum to see the latest in a community work and thinking. You can use this link to see the most popular posts from each month and you can read the "Community & Global News" section of this newsletter for an abbreviated look.New EA NYC Subgroups: AI & LegalIn addition to our weekly public events, we have been growing the number of cause area and profession-specific subgroups for community members. Subgroups are shaped by their participants and range from monthly discussions over dinner to more structured spaces for collaboration, event organizing, or project development. We've seen a lot of value from both models and we're excited to see more subgroups take shape! We’re launching two new subgroups this month: The legal subgroup is a space for attorneys, paralegals, and laws students already familiar with effective altruism to meet and connect. The AI subgroup is a space for those focused professionally or academically in the areas of AI safety, AI alignment, and/or digital minds and sentience. If you are interested in joining either, please fill out the linked surveys. As a reminder, we have existing subgroups for EA community members working professionally in animal welfare, those passionate about effective environmentalism, and people working in finance. You can contact EA NYC Director Rocky if you think you would be a good fit for an existing subgroup, want to see a specific subgroup formed, or want to help launch a new subgroup! Apply for EA Global DC Applications are open for EAG DC (September 23 - 25), which will be an incredible opportunity to connect with the global EA community. EA Global brings together a wide network of people who have made helping others a core part of their lives. Speakers and attendees share new thinking and research in the field of effective altruism and coordinate on global projects. If you’re interested but not sure if the conferences are right for you or have other questions, Rocky is happy to chat by video or over email! When in doubt, apply! |
We want to highlight more community member accomplishments! Keep us posted on anything exciting we can include in future newsletters!Jeff Sebo launches New York University’s “Mind, Ethics, and Policy Program”EA NYCer and NYU professor Jeff Sebo will direct a new program that “will conduct pioneering research on the nature and intrinsic value of non-human minds, including those of animals and artificial intelligences.” The program’s affiliated NYU faculty includes many faces familiar to our community, such as computer scientist and linguist Samuel Bowman and marketing professor Joshua Lewis, among several others. Jeff will facilitate a relevant virtual discussion event for us on the 25th! Derek Shiller wins prize in Alignment Research Center ELK contestEA NYCer and Philosophy PhD Derek Shiller won a prize in the ELK contest hosted by the Alignment Research Center. The contest centered around proposals for figuring out how potentially deceptive AIs think about the world and what they know about the effects of their decisions. His proposal involved creating a scheme to decipher a primitive version of the eventual AI and updating both the AI and the scheme slowly and simultaneously in a process of gradual coevolution. Alex Bores wins New York State Assembly primary electionEA NYCer Alex Bores won his June 28th primary election for the New York State Assembly, representing District 73. Alex ran on a platform that included many cause areas near and dear to effective altruism, such as pandemic preparedness and animal rights. Gemma Moran wins poster prize at Bayesian Analysis conferenceEA NYC Board Member and Columbia Machine Learning postdoc Gemma Moran presented at the International Society for Bayesian Analysis conference in Montreal last month, where she won a prize for her poster on “The Posterior Predictive Null," a method for Bayesian model criticism that helps characterize the relationships between models. The idea behind the PPN is to check whether data from one model’s predictive distribution can pass a predictive check designed for another model. Garrison Lovely’s article on Progress Studies published in BBCFormer EA NYC Volunteer Organizer Garrison Lovely was published last month in the BBC, where he explained the history and ideas underlying Progress Studies, “a growing and influential intellectual movement aims to understand why human progress happens – and how to speed it up.” If this is an area you’re interested in, you may want to apply to attend August’s Future Forum, an experimental 4-day conference taking place after EA Global in San Francisco and designed to gather promising people from across communities interested in the long-term future of humanity, including from the Progress Studies community.
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To keep up to date on our upcoming events, check out our calendar on Facebook or Meetup, or add us to your Google Calendar!Weekly EventsEvery Monday, 2:00 - 4:00 pm: Virtual CoworkingJoin EA NYC’s weekly virtual coworking space! Drop in for a bit or stay for the full block using this Zoom link. Every Thursday, 1:30 - 2:00 pm: Office HoursJoin EA NYC Director Rocky on Thursdays using this Zoom link. From career advice to understanding EA concepts to anything else on your mind, stop by and chat! Planning and Prep Session for EA Global San Francisco 2022Tuesday, July 19th from 7:30 to 8:30 pmThis event is specifically for those registered to attend the EAG SF conference at the end of July. Attendees outside of NYC are welcome.EA Global SF begins on July 29, but advanced planning will help you make the most of this exciting event! During this hour-long session, we will: • Identify personal goals for the conference • Cover different styles of conference attendance • Work on our profiles in the conference app, Swapacard • Plan our agendas for the conference • Answer any questions about the conference or Swapcard (Virtual: Zoom Link. See details & RSVP on Facebook and Meetup.com.)🐔Impacting Animals Around the World with Animal Equality🐔Thursday, July 21st from 6:30 to 9:00 pmAnimal Equality is a nonprofit focused on farmed animal welfare that works across four continents, with a focus on countries where there is the most opportunity to create lasting, systemic change for animals. They collaborate with society, governments, and companies to achieve their vision: a world in which all animals are protected and respected. In 2021, Animal Equality impacted an estimated 229 million animals across the globe, including nearly 44 million in the U.S. alone. For each $1 in funding, their team managed to affect on average 31.6 animals. For this event, we will hear from Sharon Núñez, the President of Animal Equality, who oversees their strategy, operations, and impact internationally, and Dulce Ramírez, the Vice President for Latin America. Under Dulce’s leadership, AE’s team in Mexico has achieved groundbreaking legislation in the country affecting over 376 million animals through welfare and anti-cruelty laws for farmed animals. (In-person at 334 East 30th, Apt. 3. See details & RSVP on Facebook and Meetup.)July Speedfriending PicnicSunday, July 24th from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pmIn advance of EA Global, we expect to have several out-of-town visitors passing through NYC, including the directors of several national EA groups. Which means it’s the perfect time for speedfriending! For these guided paired discussions, you will be paired randomly with someone to meet for 5 minutes and given a couple of guiding questions. After 5 minutes, you switch to the next person. It’s a great way to meet a lot of new people in the community at once! Afterwards, we’ll hang out in the park. Vegan snacks and drinks will be provided! (In-person at Frisbee Hill in Central Park. See details & RSVP on Facebook and Meetup.)Virtual Discussion: Digital Sentience, LaMDA, and Non-Human MindsMonday, July 25th from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pmThis summer, Google’s LaMDA — short for “Language Model for Dialogue Applications”— filled the news after Google engineer Blake Lemoine went public with his claim that the technology is sentient, with Lemoine later supporting LaMDA is hiring an attorney. You can read more of the headlines here. Professor Jeff Sebo, discussed above for his role directing NYU’s new “Mind, Ethics, and Policy Program,” will lead an hour-long virtual discussion spurred by the LaMDA story on digital sentience and the questions they spur on the moral, political, and legal status of nonhuman minds. If you’re interested in reading more before the virtual discussion, here is a good place to start. (Virtual: Zoom Link. See details & RSVP on Facebook and Meetup.)
TBD 8/6 or 8/7 Outdoor Excursion!Either Saturday, August 6th or Sunday, August 7th, time TBDEA NYC Board Member Jacob will once again lead us on an outdoor excursion! While monitoring the weather, we will announce in the week before if this event will be Saturday or Sunday, and if it will be a full hike upstate or (if the temperature is *really* hot) a leisurely stroll in the city. (In-person, location TBD. See details & RSVP on Facebook and Meetup.)Monthly Reading Group: Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have FailedMonday, August 8th from 6:30 to 7:30 pmWe’re excited to now have our monthly reading group facilitated by community member Shine! This month, we are reading Seeing Like a State by James C. Scott. Please note this is a longer read, so we are meeting outside of our typical slot to give more time for reading. If you would like to join the discussion but don’t have time to read the full book, you may want to read this summary. If you need assistance paying for a copy of the book, please reach out to Rocky at least two weeks before the discussion. (Virtual: Zoom Link. See details & RSVP on Facebook and Meetup.)Virtual Post-EAG SF Debrief and Follow-Up SessionWednesday, August 10th from 7:30 to 8:30 pmThis event is specifically for those registered to attend the EAG SF conference at the end of July. Attendees outside of NYC are welcome.EA Global San Fransisco 2022 concludes on July 31. Following what is sure to be an intense weekend, we'll have a virtual meetup divided into two parts: - Attendees will share noteworthy and exciting experiences from their time at the conference. Did you learn something new that changed your views? Did you meet someone who particularly inspired you? While the conference is fresh, we'll take this time to recap as a group!
- During the second half of this session, we'll figure out next steps from the conference. You can utilize this structured time to plan and execute on any conference follow-ups. Are there connections you want to follow up with? Is there someone you couldn't meet for a 1-1 in person but would love to have a video call with? Did you learn about a job opening you want to apply for? Even though EAG is over, there are still ways to benefit from the event.
(Virtual: Zoom Link. See details & RSVP on Facebook and Meetup.)Save the Dates for August SpeakersAugust 18: Timothy Campbell of Institute for Futures Studies August 25: Jon Camp of The Humane League There are many events in the broader EA community you can join online!
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As always, there’s a ton of high-impact job opportunities available at a wide variety of organizations. If you’re interested in a new role, we suggest checking out: Here are several jobs in particular we want to flag: |
Consider working at EA NYC! Check out our open roles here.Chief Operating Officer, AI Safety SupportAI Safety Support is a nonprofit with a mission to reduce existential risk from advanced AI by providing support for anyone who wants to contribute to work on the project of AI Safety.Various Roles, Animal EqualityAnimal Equality is a nonprofit focused on farmed animal welfare that works across four continents, with a focus on countries where there is the most opportunity to create lasting, systemic change for animals.Various Roles, Animal OutlookAnimal Outlook is strategically challenging the status quo of animal agribusiness through undercover investigations, legal advocacy, corporate and food system reform, and empowering everyone to choose vegan.Various Roles, Asia Society Policy InstituteASPI is a think-and-do tank designed to bring about changes that incorporate the best ideas from top experts in Asia and to work with policy makers to integrate these ideas and put them into practice.Various Roles, Blue Rose ResearchBlue Rose Research is a project with OpenLabs to develop a wide range of cutting-edge products used by the most important progressive organizations in the country.Various Roles, Brennan Center for JusticeThe Brennan Center for Justice is an independent, nonpartisan law and policy organization that works to reform, revitalize, and when necessary, defend the US’s systems of democracy and justice.Head of Finance, Centre for Effective AltruismCEA aims to improve the world by supporting the growth and development of the effective altruism community.Research Scholar, Centre for the Governance of AIGovAI is building a global research community dedicated to helping humanity navigate the transition to a world with advanced AI.Various Roles, Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air
CREA is an independent research organization focused on revealing the trends, causes, and health impacts, as well as the solutions to air pollution.Managing Director/Co-Founder, Climate RefarmClimate Refarm is a public benefit corporation aiming to accelerate the transition to a just, plant-based food system. Director of Membership, DialogDialog’s mission is to help global leaders learn and become more effective by facilitating deep, off-the-record conversations for participants varied in background and ideology.
Research Team, EpochEpoch is a team of researchers investigating and forecasting the development of advanced AI.Operations Manager, Fund for Alignment ResearchFAR is a non-profit supporting the AI alignment research community by partnering with AI safety researchers with an established track record and helping them scale and accelerate their agenda.Various Roles, GiveWellGiveWell is a nonprofit dedicated to finding outstanding giving opportunities and publishing the full details of our analysis to help donors decide where to give.Various Roles, Good Food InstituteThe Good Food Institute is a nonprofit working internationally to accelerate alternative protein innovation.Various Positions, Happier Lives InstituteThe Happier Lives Institute uses the latest subjective wellbeing data, we identify the problems that matter most to people and find evidence-based ways to solve them.Senior Manager of Public Policy Campaigns, The Humane LeagueThe Humane League (THL) is a global nonprofit ending the abuse of animals raised for food. Various Roles, Jameel Poverty Action LabJPAL's mission is to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. We do this through research, policy outreach, and training.Litigation Attorney, Legal Impact for ChickensLIC designs strategic lawsuits for chickens and other farmed animals. We develop and refine creative methods to civilly enforce existing cruelty laws in factory farms, and to sue companies that break animal-welfare commitments.Various Roles, Mercy for AnimalsFrom factory farms to corporate boardrooms, courts of justice to courts of public opinion, Mercy For Animals is there to speak up against cruelty and for compassion.Various Roles, MetaculusForecasting platform Mataculus aims is to improve human decision-making and coordination at scale by increasing analytic capacity, reasoning, and judgment.Executive Assistant/Operations Manager, NonlinearNonlinear is building the Y Combinator of longtermism - a charity incubator that identifies promising ideas and matches them with founders, funding, and mentorship. Various Roles, Open Philanthropy Project (and consider filling out their general app!) Open Philanthropy—one of the biggest funders in the EA community—is a philanthropic funder with a mission is to help others as much as they can with the resources available to them.Early-career funding for individuals interested in improving the long-term future, Open Philanthropy Project
Various Roles, Ought
Ought is a product-driven machine learning lab building Elicit, an AI research assistant. Elicit uses language models to automate and support research processes like literature and evidence review.Various Roles, RooteRoote is an educational hub and for-public startup studio accelerating the personal and collective transformation necessary for humanity's transition to the Wisdom Age.
CEO, The Roots of ProgressThe Roots of Progress is working to establish a new philosophy of progress for the 21st century and beyond—one based on the ideas of humanism and agency, and one that puts forth a bold, ambitious vision for the technological future.Various Roles, Schmidt FuturesSchmidt Futures, a philanthropic initiative of Eric and Wendy Schmidt, is building a network of the sharpest minds on Earth — helping them to solve hard problems in science and society by connecting them across fields, bringing multiple types of capital to bear, and applying modern tools and technology thoughtfully.Various Roles, Trail of BitsTrail of Bits helps secure the world’s most targeted organizations and products by combining high-end security research with a real-world attacker mentality to reduce risk and fortify code.
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If you decide to apply to any of the above or other EA-aligned roles, let us know! We're happy to help how we can.
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Updates & Opportunities Around the Community
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Opportunities- Applications are still open for the second round of The Centre for Effective Altruism’s University Group Accelerator Program (UGAP) next semester and due by July 25.
- Wildlife Research plans to publish a special issue on Wildlife Fertility Control in 2023, with a submission deadline of July 30.
- Legal Priorities Project is running a writing competition to provide practical guidance to the US federal government on how to incorporate existential and catastrophic risks into agency cost-benefit analysis, with a deadline of July 31.
- The Centre for the Governance of AI fellowships: 3-month research fellowships to give early-career individuals the opportunity to work on an AI governance research project, learn about the field, and make connections with other researchers and practitioners. The 2023 Winter Fellows will work from their Oxford office full-time for up to 3 months between January and April 2023 to conduct independent research on a topic of their choice. Fellows receive a salary of £3,300 per month, plus a one-time £2,000 accommodation stipend, for the duration of the fellowship and support in applying for a Skilled Worker visa upon acceptance to the programme.Applications are due by August 1.
- The Future of Life Institute is supporting the Blue Sky Scriptwriting Contest, offering fellowship grants for television scripts whose storylines focus on a world set between 2045 to 2100 when we achieve lives that reflect our better selves.
- Open Philanthropy Project's Cause Exploration Prizes are focused around a set of questions that will help them explore new areas. They’re most interested in responses to our open prompt: “What new cause area should Open Philanthropy consider funding?” Submissions are due by August 4.
- Magnify Mentoring supports a global community of people who are motivated to have a positive impact with their careers and lives by offering mentorship to people from under-represented groups who are enthusiastic about pursuing a high-impact career. Their team and expert advisors pair mentees who are interested in pursuing high-impact careers with more experienced mentors for a series of one-on-one meetings. Applications are currently open for their next round of mentorships and are due by August 5.
- The Open Philanthropy Undergraduate Scholarship aims to provide support for students who are hoping to start an undergraduate degree at one of the top universities in the USA or UK. Applications close August 15.
- An EA Criticism and Red Teaming writing contest has been launched, with $100,000 worth of prizes for the winning submissions that critically engage with theory or work in EA. Submissions can be in a range of formats and can focus on a range of subject matters, from assessing empirical or normative claims to evaluating organizations and practices. Submissions must be posted by September 1.
- Open Philanthropy is seeking applicants for a US policy fellowship program focused on high-priority emerging technologies, especially AI and biotechnology. Selected applicants will receive policy-focused training and mentorship and be supported in matching with a host organization for a full-time, fully-funded fellowship based in the Washington, DC area. Potential host organizations include executive branch offices, Congressional offices, and think tank programs. Applications are due by September 15.
- Open Philanthropy’s University Organizer Fellowship provides funding for individuals who want to direct or support university student groups focused on topics relevant to improving the long-term future, including effective altruism, longtermism, rationality, or specific cause areas. Individuals are eligible for funding at any college or university and may apply without a particular university in mind. Applications are open on a rolling basis.
- Open Philanthropy are running The Century Fellowship - 'a 2-year program that supports people early in their careers who want to work on challenges the world may face this century that could have a lasting and significant impact on the long-term future' and applications are open until the end of the year.
- Schmidt Futures launched the Act 2 Network to amplify the impact of exceptional executives, technologists, and entrepreneurs working to solve humanity's greatest challenges.
- 80,000 Hours released a short census for anyone who could ever see themselves doing longtermism-related work.
Community & Global NewsEA Publications- Future Fund published an update on their giving thus far, comprised of 262 grants and investments, totaling ~$132M.
- Popular Youtube channel Kurzgesagt's teamed up with 80,000 Hours for their recent video, "The Last Human – A Glimpse Into The Far Future," which invites viewers to consider the potential for a vast number of future people. "If we don't kill ourselves in the next few centuries or millennia, almost all humans that will ever exist will live in the future."
- GiveWell has more cost-effective opportunities than funding. This is partly because they discovered more funding opportunities that meet their bar for cost-effectiveness, and partly because they will probably receive less money than projected due to recent market declines. At the same time, Open Philanthropy Project published "Update on Our Planned Allocation to GiveWell’s Recommended Charities in 2022."
- Open Philanthropy Project published the new Report on Social Returns to Productivity Growth, which evaluates the view that accelerating economic growth, or at least productivity growth, should be a major philanthropic and social priority going forward.
- Legal Impact for Chickens files a lawsuit against Costco.
- Progress on machine-learning benchmarks happened significantly faster than expected by forecasters in a competition run by a Berkeley AI safety research group.
EA Announcements & New Projects
- Giving What We Can now has short and snappy video newsletters!
- Fønix: Bioweapons shelter project was announced and is recruiting a team with backgrounds in disaster response, physical security, or physical design to join a project building biological weapons shelters.
- The monthly Future Matters newsletter covered digital sentience, AGI ruin, and forecasting track records.
- The new Impactful Animal Advocacy Community Newsletter was launched.
- Epoch was announced: a new research organization working on investigating trends in Machine Learning and forecasting the development of Transformative Artificial Intelligence.
- The Future of Life Institute announced the winners of their world building contest, in which participants designed visions of a plausible, aspirational future that includes strong artificial intelligence.
- High Impact Professionals has a new directory of the various workplace and professional EA groups, including tech, policy, engineering, communications, finance, consulting, healthcare, sports, law, and entrepreneurship.
- The new Historea Club is a peer-led exploration club for history enthusiasts in the EA community.
- The new EAecon aims to develop and reinforce the social cohesion of economists from different levels of academic seniority and EA-engagement through sharing relevant resources and online and in-person events.
- Effective Self-Help recently published a summary of more than 100 recommendations for increasing your productivity. These suggestions were compiled from 40 different articles, primarily written by members of the effective altruism and rationality communities. For more background on why they made this table and how it works, take a look at this article they wrote for the EA Forum introducing it.
- Non-trivial is a new platform for learning the key ideas behind effective altruism in free, 5-10 minute, and interactive lessons.
Global News & Research
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Reading Group:
Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed |
This month, we'll be reading (or listening to) Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. “Compulsory ujamaa villages in Tanzania, collectivization in Russia, Le Corbusier’s urban planning theory realized in Brasilia, the Great Leap Forward in China, agricultural "modernization" in the Tropics—the twentieth century has been racked by grand utopian schemes that have inadvertently brought death and disruption to millions. Why do well-intentioned plans for improving the human condition go tragically awry? In this wide-ranging and original book, James C. Scott analyzes failed cases of large-scale authoritarian plans in a variety of fields.”
Make sure to join the #reading-group channel on the EA NYC Slack ( join here) to discuss throughout the month. Stick around since that's where we decide on the books for future months!
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Have a lovely month!
Cheers,
Rocky
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