The EA Newsletter

The EA Newsletter provides news and updates about the effective altruism community. To subscribe, enter your email below.

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The newsletter is a project of the Centre for Effective Altruism. In the past, we’ve had help and support from Rethink Charity and the Effective Altruism Hub.

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2024 Editions

  • October - Every third child is lead-poisoned. We can change that.
  • September - Fruit flies act depressed, AI regulation might pass in California, and more
  • August - Buffett’s breakup with the Gates Foundation, how factory farming ends, and much more
  • July - Revisiting The Precipice, Soviet lab leaks, and more
  • June - Funding ambitious technologies, MrBeast and GiveDirectly, and much more
  • May - Vaccines saved 150 million children in 50 years
  • April - Will AI safety tests be ready in time? Also: the small body problem, reforming research, and more
  • March - How AI experts disagree, why factory farming is so big, and more
  • February - Compensating organ donors, understanding AI chips, and more
  • January - Expert survey on AI progress, USAID announcements, and more

2023 Editions

  • December - Charity spotlights, reflections on 2023, and opportunities for 2024
  • November - AI (safety) news, the invisible toll of air pollution, and more
  • October - An upcoming virtual event, biotech risks and opportunities, and many open roles
  • September - TED: What could we accomplish if the global 1% gave 10%?
  • August - Can far-UVC light protect us from pandemics? (Also, the environment, AI safety, and more
  • July - Why regulating advanced AI chips could be important, farmed animal welfare reform cost-effectiveness, and more
  • June - Proposals for AI governance, lessons from charity evaluation, and many opportunities
  • May - A huge win for pig welfare, promising malaria vaccines, and featured jobs
  • April - AI, why unconventional approaches can be better for climate change, and more
  • March - GPT-4, the history of a simple cure, and more
  • February - New charity ideas, the abolition of slavery, and research on animal welfare
  • January - EA Global, an update on the ozone layer, and staring into the abyss

2022 Editions

2021 Editions

2020 Editions

2019 Editions

2018 Editions

December 7, 2018

  • Charity evaluators posted their thoughts for this giving season, including GiveWell, ACE, and two of the EA Funds management teams.
  • CEA launched the new EA Forum, and users have already shared nearly 100 new posts.
  • We’d like to thank Pascal Zimmer for his work. As a volunteer, he helped start the EA Newsletter and led the team for three years, sending out most editions and growing the newsletter to 50,000 subscribers. Thank you, Pascal!

November 6, 2018

October 4, 2018

September 6, 2018

Highlights:

August 7, 2018

Highlights:

  • Almost 50% of tickets have already been sold for EA Global: London, which takes place on 26-28 October 2018.
  • CEA have announced their initial plans for the new EA Forum, which include sorting by quality of posts, a community subforum, and a new karma system, alongside much else.
  • Several EA-aligned organizations are hiring, including BERI, FHI, and GiveWell.

July 11, 2018

Highlights:

  • The Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA) is hiring for a variety of roles.
  • Peter Hurford and Marcus A. Davis have created Priority Wiki, a cause prioritization wiki anyone can edit which categorizes particular interventions within broader causes.
  • Applications are now open for Effective Altruism Global: London, which takes place on 26-28 October.

June 16, 2018

Highlights:

  • Should effective altruism groups continue to focus on community building rather than direct work? CEA has argued for the former, whilst in this article, Richenda Herzig argues the potential value of the latter.
  • EA Global: San Francisco took place June 8-10. View the conference highlights here.
  • EA Global: London is taking place between October 26 and 28 at University College London. Apply now.

May 10, 2018

Highlights:

  • Joey Savoie introduced some empirical data to what extent value drift might be happening within the community. Darius Meissner shared some suggestions of how value drift can be prevented or reduced.
  • Submissions were open for the academic poster session taking place at EA Global: San Francisco (June 8-10).
  • CEA announced Larissa Hesketh-Rowe has moved from COO to CEO. CEA published more about their current thinking, including their models of community building, and were hosting an operations forum from May 24-28.

April 13, 2018

Highlights:

  • Currently there’s an unusually large number of operations positions open in the effective altruism community.
  • The theme for this year's EA Global conference is Stay Curious, and it will be targeted mainly to people already familiar with core ideas in Effective Altruism.
  • Dates and locations for EAGx conferences this year have been announced!

March 6, 2018

Highlights:

February 7, 2018

Highlights:

  • Peter Singer's new article looks at the “pain gap” - comparing opioid availability in the United States with India and Nigeria.
  • The Open Philanthropy Project has published a major update on cause prioritization.
  • Videos are available to let you catch up on talks from EA Global 2017.

January 9, 2018

Highlights:

2017 Editions

December 5, 2017

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November 7, 2017

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October 10, 2017

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September 9, 2017

Highlights:

  • 80,000 Hours' podcast discusses risks from engineered pandemics.
  • Cullen O’Keefe argues that people who care about social justice should also care about cause prioritization.
  • Spotlight on doing good together: the theme of last month’s EA Global conference in San Francisco was the importance of doing good together as a community.

August 3, 2017

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July 7, 2017

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June 2, 2017

Highlights:

  • The student-run Oxford Prioritization Project wrapped up their cause prioritization research, quantitatively modeling the four remaining charities in their shortlist.
  • Max Dalton, on behalf of the Centre for Effective Altruism, explores funding gaps, room for funding and diminishing returns here and here.
  • Tim Urban from Wait Buy Why on the benefits and risks of the AI revolution
  • Spotlight on how graduation programs reduce poverty

May 6, 2017

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April 6, 2017

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March 2, 2017

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February 2, 2017

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January 5, 2017

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2016 Editions

EA Global 2016 Group Photo Arms Up Photo from Effective Altruism Global in 2016

December 2, 2016

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November 7, 2016

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October 7, 2016

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September 02, 2016

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August 04, 2016

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July 07, 2016

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June 02, 2016

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May 05, 2016

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April 07, 2016

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March 03, 2016

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February 04, 2016

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January 07, 2016

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2015 Editions

EAG 2015 SF Photo from Effective Altruism Global: Googleplex in 2015

December 14, 2015

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November 23, 2015

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November 9, 2015

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October 26, 2015

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October 12, 2015

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