Ethan Roland
Bio
I'm currently interested in pursuing high-impact projects with EA-aligned goals, especially those that relate to AI safety. I find the most reward in directly contributing my time and talents to EA related projects. I hope that by attending an EA conference and becoming more active in the EA community, I can learn about relevant projects and get involved.
I think that AI safety in particular is important to pursue because of both the existential risk it poses, and the potential for AI to enable huge increases in quality of life. Given my background in computer science and machine learning, I think I am well poised to understand the issues within this cause area and to contribute towards solutions.
I'm currently involved with the EA community at Georgia Tech and have recently begun serving as a community organizer in their AI Safety sub-organization. I plan to dedicate a large amount of time to growing the EA community in Atlanta in the future. I currently spend ~5 hours each week organizing & contributing to the group.
I've been involved in EA since 2019, when I first began reading 80,000 hours on a regular basis. I've also been exposed to EA concepts through Less Wrong, The Alignment Forum, & The EA Forum, all of which I read regularly. Prior to the current year, I'd attended a handful of local EA meetups, including in Atlanta GA, Washington DC, and Austin TX. I've recently become significantly more involved in the newly started EA @ Georgia Tech group. Through that group I've already completed the Intro to Effective Altruism seminar and the Intro to AI Alignment Seminar. I was previously accepted into EAGxBoston conference and made arrangements to attend, but I was unable to take part in the event due to illness. I also attended EAGxPrague in May of 2022.
How others can help me
AI Alignment Research
How I can help others
Data Scientist Roles in Industry
Posts 1
Comments2
Is there any online aggregator for short term volunteering opportunities with EA-affiliated orgs?
Anecdotally I've seen a lot of interest in volunteering among the EAs in my area, but a quick search for volunteering opportunities online only shows the more traditional "staff a soup kitchen" or "do phone banking" style opportunities. While certainly these are good things, it seems against the ethos of doing the most good with limited resources. Many of the EAs near me are professionals with expertise in high-demand / low-supply skill sets, and it seems like there ought to be a low-friction way for them to use their competitive advantages towards direct-impact work.
To make things concrete I'm imagining a site like Fiverr with tasks like "help us analyze the data from this study" or "design marketing materials" or "copyedit this communications letter". I imagine all tasks would be relatively small in scope (1-15 hours of work) and self-contained (able to be comprehensively understood by someone with relevant skills with <30 minutes of explanation). Perhaps there could be something on the site where you can sort opportunities by expected impact / cause area / skills required / etc.
Does anything like this already exist?
Is there any online aggregator for short term volunteering opportunities with EA-affiliated orgs?
Anecdotally I've seen a lot of interest in volunteering among the EAs in my area, but a quick search for volunteering opportunities online only shows the more traditional "staff a soup kitchen" or "do phone banking" style opportunities. While certainly these are good things, it seems against the ethos of doing the most good with limited resources. Many of the EAs near me are professionals with expertise in high-demand / low-supply skill sets, and it seems like there ought to be a low-friction way for them to use their competitive advantages towards direct-impact work.
To make things concrete I'm imagining a site like Fiverr or Task Rabbit with tasks like "help us analyze the data from this study" or "design marketing materials" or "copyedit this communications letter". I imagine all tasks would be relatively small in scope (1-15 hours of work) and self-contained (able to be comprehensively understood by someone with relevant skills with <30 minutes of explanation). Perhaps there could be something on the site where you can sort opportunities by expected impact / cause area / skills required / etc.
Does anything like this already exist?