Making Sense with Sam Harris #467 — EA, AI, and the End of Work
176 snips
Mar 30, 2026 
William MacAskill, moral philosopher and effective altruism co-founder, joins for a brisk tour of big stakes and bigger futures. They get into EA’s recovery after FTX, why global health and pandemic preparedness still matter, factory farming and moral weirdness, collapsing AI timelines, concentrated AI power, the end of work, and what a post-scarcity future could look like.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Sam Harris on the Psychological Power of the 10% Pledge
- Sam Harris says taking the 10% pledge changed his psychology by treating part of his income as already committed to doing good.
- He calls it fun and virtuous because pre-committing removes constant re-deciding about generosity.
Why Global Health Still Dominates Effective Giving
- MacAskill argues global health remains a top EA cause because proven interventions save far more life-years per dollar than rich-country spending.
- He cites GiveWell's estimate of 340,000 lives saved at roughly $5,000 per life, versus about $50,000 for one extra U.S. life-year.
Factory Farming Is Huge Because Scale Beats Intuition
- MacAskill says factory farming is a vast moral emergency because billions of animals live lives so bad that death may be their best outcome.
- He points to cage-free campaigns that moved major retailers and improved conditions for 3 billion U.S. chickens each year.
