(Tangential but related) There is probably a strong case to be made for recruiting the help of EA sympathetic celebrities to promote effective giving, and maybe even raise funds. I am a bit hesitant about "cause promotion" by celebrities, but maybe some version of that idea is also defensible. Turns out, someone wrote about it on the Forum a few years ago, but I don't know how much subsequent discussion there has been on this topic since then.
I don't disagree. I was simply airing my suspicion that most group organizers who applied for the OP fellowship did so because they thought something akin to "I will be organizing for 8-20 hours a week and I want to be incentivized for doing so" — which is perfectly a-ok and a valid reason — rather than "I am applying to the fellowship as I will not be able to sustain myself without the funding."
In cases where people need to make trade-offs between taking some random university job vs. organizing part time, assuming that they are genuinely interested in organizing and that the university has potential, I think it would be valuable for them to get funding.
I agree with so much here.
I have my responses to the question you raised: "So why do I feel inclined to double down on effective altruism rather than move onto other endeavours?"
I wish more ever day EAs were louder about their EA-ness.
I don't disagree with this at all. But does this mean that blame can be attributed to the entire EA community? I think not.
Re mentorship/funding: I doubt that his mentors were hoping that he would accelerate the chances of an arms race conflict. As a corollary, I am sure nukes wouldn't have been developed if the physics community in the 1930s didn't exist or mentored different people or adopted better ethical norms. Even if they did the latter, it is unclear if that would have prevented the creation of the bomb.
(I found your comments under Ben West's posts insightful; if true, it highlights a divergence between the beliefs of the broader EA community and certain influential EAs in DC and AI policy circles.)
Currently, it is just a report, and I hope it stays that way.
And we contributed to this.
What makes you say this? I agree that it is likely that Aschenbrenner's report was influential here, but did we make Aschenbrenner write chapter IIId of Situational Awareness the way he did?
But the background work predates Leopold's involvement.
Is there some background EA/aligned work that argues for an arms race? Because the consensus seems to be against starting a great power war.
From: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2025/01/08/anthropic-60-billion-valuation-will-make-all-seven-cofounders-billionaires/
I don't know if any of the seven co-founders practice effective giving, but if they do, this is welcoming news!