Hello!
This month's highlights:
Announcements this month include policy fellowships, many different conferences, and assorted calls to action.
— Lizka (for the EA Newsletter Team)
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Articles
Could ultraviolet light protect us from pandemics?
Imagine that installing special lights in places like schools and hospitals dramatically reduced indoor disease transmission (the primary driver of many epidemics). This isn’t fantasy; “germicidal” ultraviolet radiation can neutralize airborne pathogens — either in special zones removed from humans or throughout rooms via skin-safe “ far-UVC” light. Far-UVC is particularly exciting because of two major advantages; the lights would cut transmission of many different diseases (including novel diseases) and installing far-UVC in essential spaces would reduce pandemic risk without relying on individuals to take specific actions.
But we’re not yet ready to use far-UVC to prevent pandemics. In a recent overview, Max Görlitz argues that more work is needed before we can widely deploy the technology. For instance, it seems that far-UVC doesn’t penetrate human skin, but its effects on eyesight should be studied more carefully. And it might not be enough to make sure that far-UVC is safe and effective; getting the most out of far-UVC might mean supporting deployment, as purely commercially driven adoption might lead to less useful installations that underinvest in protection against less frequent but more extreme situations.
Pandemics are a growing threat (and the flu kills almost half a million people every year), so improving biological defenses is essential and urgent. If you’re interested in contributing, consider this policy fellowship, these jobs, or donating to projects like SecureBio or relevant funds.
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Why improving agricultural yields in sub-Saharan Africa could help both global health and the environment
To get as much value as an average U.S. farmer does in three to four days, the average farmer in Tanzania would need an entire year. In a similar vein, some regions have much higher crop yields (per unit of land) than others. A significant reason for this disparity is the fact that agricultural productivity has grown much slower in sub-Saharan Africa than in other regions, and the reduced productivity causes serious issues.
In a recent podcast episode on a range of environmental topics, Hannah Ritchie argues that improving agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa would significantly help global living standards. Many farmers (who account for the majority of the region’s poorest people) don’t have extra time or resources to invest in productivity improvements like better irrigation systems. They also lack access to richer markets (in part due to the EU’s agricultural policies). As a result, many are trapped in poverty. But the problem might be tractable; we know it's possible to increase agricultural productivity on a large scale as we've done it before. In the case of sub-Saharan Africa, influencing policy and supporting things like irrigation systems and high-yield crops could help launch an agritech market that helps with these problems.
These interventions would also significantly mitigate the environmental impacts of farming by reducing the need for more farmland. About half of the world’s habitable land is used for agriculture, leading to problems like biodiversity loss. Projections imply that without agricultural productivity improvements, we’d need 26% more cropland by 2050 — an area the size of India and Germany combined.
If you want to get involved, consider donating or applying for roles in climate change and global health.
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The world of AI safety is moving fast. Some highlights:
- Podcast interviews:
- Jan Leike, who leads OpenAI’s “Superalignment” team, on their plans for making subperintelligence safe and the kinds of people they’re interested in hiring.
- Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, on his expectations about AI development. (See also an article about Anthropic in Vox: “The $1 billion gamble to ensure AI doesn't destroy humanity.”)
- Ezra Klein, a journalist at The New York Times, on the role of policy in making AI safer.
- Holden Karnofsky, the co-founder of GiveWell and Open Philanthropy, on information security being underrated and his playbook for AI risk.
- Vox explains the AI rules that US policymakers are considering and how “windfall profits” from AI companies could fund a universal basic income.
- Two researchers push back on the perceived dichotomy between mitigating near-term and existential risks from AI in Time (paywalled).
- Another Time piece explains why AI progress is unlikely to slow down.
- OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and Microsoft have announced the Frontier Model Forum to make progress on AI safety.
- John Wentworth argues that AI alignment work is bottlenecked on funding.
If you’re interested in working on AI safety, consider exploring these opportunities.
In other news
For more stories, try these email newsletters and podcasts.
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Resources
Links we share every time — they're just that good!
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Jobs
Boards and resources:
- The 80,000 Hours Job Board features almost 700 positions. We can’t fit them all in the newsletter, so you can check them out there.
- The EA Opportunity Board collects internships, volunteer opportunities, conferences, and more — including part-time and entry-level job opportunities.
- You can see more positions in the EA Job Postings group on Facebook.
- If you’re interested in policy or global development, you may also want to check Tom Wein’s list of social-purpose job boards.
Assorted jobs
Centre for the Governance of AI
Epoch
Family Empowerment Media
Fish Welfare Initiative
GiveWell
IDinsight
Open Philanthropy
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Announcements
Applications are open for conferences in the United States, Germany, Australia, and the Philippines
EA Global and EAGx conferences:
- EA Global: Boston (27-29 October) is for people who have a solid understanding of effective altruism, and who are taking significant actions on the basis of key ideas in the movement. Apply by 13 October.
- EAGxBerlin, (8-10 September) is aimed at people in Western Europe. Tickets cost €0 - 80. Apply by 25 August.
- EAGxAustralia (22 - 24 September) is for people in Australia and New Zealand. Tickets are $75 - 150 (AUD). Apply by 8 September.
- EAGxPhilippines (20 - 22 October) is for people in South East and East Asia. Tickets are $0 - 100. Apply by 30 September.
There are also other EA-related conferences:
- The Manifest Conference, hosted by Manifold in Berkeley, CA, is for people interested in forecasting and prediction markets. It will run from 22 - 24 September. Get tickets (free - $220, depending on your circumstances) here.
- The Good Food Conference will run from 18-20 September and be hosted by the Good Food Institute in San Francisco and virtually. It brings together people from different backgrounds who are interested in promoting and developing alternative proteins. Register here by 31 August ($200 - $1,100).
Fellowships and other opportunities for working on AI safety, biosecurity, policy, and more
- The Horizon Fellowship is for people with a demonstrated interest in AI safety, biosecurity, or related emerging technology areas. It provides policy-focused training, mentorship, and support for getting into positions in the Washington, DC area (like executive branch offices and think tanks). Learn more and apply by 15 September.
- Other US emerging tech policy fellowships include:
- The AI Futures Fellowship is an 8-week program in Mexico City (January - February 2024) that supports fellows in understanding and mitigating catastrophic and existential risks from AI. Apply by 24 August.
Training and charity incubation programs
Other opportunities
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Organizational Updates
You can see updates from a wide range of organizations on the EA Forum.
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Timeless classic on radical empathy
“Who deserves empathy and moral concern?”
In a 2017 essay on “Radical Empathy,” Holden Karnofsky tries to answer this question and suggests policies that will help us avoid the mistakes that led to historical atrocities, like:
- Acknowledge — and act on — uncertainty. (For instance, Karnofsky isn’t sure that chickens are morally relevant, but there’s enough uncertainty and there are so many chickens that he believes improving their welfare is important.)
- Be careful about too quickly dismissing “strange” arguments on this topic.
- Avoid limiting our work exclusively to the “frontier” of radical empathy — widely recognized problems still do a lot of damage.
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We hope you found this edition useful!
If you’ve taken action because of the Newsletter and haven’t taken our impact survey, please do — it helps us improve future editions.
Finally, if you have feedback for us, positive or negative, let us know!
– The Effective Altruism Newsletter Team |
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