The Nonlinear Library EA - EA is good, actually by Amy Labenz
Nov 28, 2023
07:08
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: EA is good, actually, published by Amy Labenz on November 28, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.
The last year has been tough
The last year has been tough for EA.
FTX blew up in the most spectacular way and SBF has been found guilty of one of the biggest frauds in history. I was heartbroken to learn that someone I trusted hurt so many people, was heartbroken for the people who lost their money, and was heartbroken about the projects I thought would happen that no longer will. The media piled on, and on, and on.
The community has processed the shock in all sorts of ways - some more productive than others. Many have published
thoughtful
reflections. Many have
tried to come up with ways to ensure that nothing like this will ever happen again. Some people rallied, some people looked for who to blame, we all felt betrayed.
I personally spent November-February working more than full-time on a secondment to Effective Ventures. Meanwhile, there were several other disappointments in the EA community. Like many people,
I was tired. Then in April, I went on maternity leave and stepped away from the Forum and my work to spend time with my children (Earnie and Teddy) and to get to know my new baby Charley. I came back to an amazing team who continued running event after event in my absence.
In the last few months I attended my first events since FTX and I wasn't sure how I would feel. But when I attended the events and heard from serious, conscientious people who want to think hard about the world's most pressing problems I felt so grateful and inspired. I teared up watching Lizka, Arden, and Kuhan give the
opening talk at EAG Boston, which tries to reinforce and improve important cultural norms around mistakes, scout mindset, deference, and how to interact in a world where AI risk is becoming more mainstream. I went home so motivated!
And then, OpenAI.
I'm still processing it and I don't know what happened. Almost nobody does. I have spent far too much time searching for answers online. I've seen some
thoughtful
write-ups and also many many posts that criticize a version of EA that doesn't match my experience. This has sometimes made me feel sad or defensive, wanting to reply to explain or argue. I haven't actually done that because I'm generally pretty shy about posting and I'm not sure how to engage. Whatever happened, it seems the results are
likely bad for AI safety. Whatever happened, I think I've reached diminishing returns on my doomscrolling, and I'm ready to get back to work.
The last year has been hard and I want us to learn from our mistakes, but I don't want us to over-update and decide EA is bad. I think EA is good!
Sometimes when people say EA, they're referring to the ideas like "let's try to do the most good" and "AI safety". Other times, they're referring to the community that's clustered around these ideas. I want to defend both, though separately.
The EA community is good
I think there are plenty of issues with the community. I live in Detroit and so I can't really speak to all of the different clusters of people who currently call themselves EA or "EA-adjacent". I'm sure some of them have bad epistemics or are not trustworthy and I don't want to vouch for everyone. I also haven't been part of that many other communities. I am a lawyer, I have been a part of the civil rights community, and I engage with other online communities (mom groups, au pair host parents, etc.).
All that said, my experience in EA spaces (both online and in-person) has been significantly more dedicated to celebrating and creating a culture of collaborative truth-seeking and kindness. For example:
We have
online posting norms that I'd love to see adopted by other online spaces I participate in (I've mostly stopped posting in the mom groups or host parent groups because when I raise an ...
The last year has been tough
The last year has been tough for EA.
FTX blew up in the most spectacular way and SBF has been found guilty of one of the biggest frauds in history. I was heartbroken to learn that someone I trusted hurt so many people, was heartbroken for the people who lost their money, and was heartbroken about the projects I thought would happen that no longer will. The media piled on, and on, and on.
The community has processed the shock in all sorts of ways - some more productive than others. Many have published
thoughtful
reflections. Many have
tried to come up with ways to ensure that nothing like this will ever happen again. Some people rallied, some people looked for who to blame, we all felt betrayed.
I personally spent November-February working more than full-time on a secondment to Effective Ventures. Meanwhile, there were several other disappointments in the EA community. Like many people,
I was tired. Then in April, I went on maternity leave and stepped away from the Forum and my work to spend time with my children (Earnie and Teddy) and to get to know my new baby Charley. I came back to an amazing team who continued running event after event in my absence.
In the last few months I attended my first events since FTX and I wasn't sure how I would feel. But when I attended the events and heard from serious, conscientious people who want to think hard about the world's most pressing problems I felt so grateful and inspired. I teared up watching Lizka, Arden, and Kuhan give the
opening talk at EAG Boston, which tries to reinforce and improve important cultural norms around mistakes, scout mindset, deference, and how to interact in a world where AI risk is becoming more mainstream. I went home so motivated!
And then, OpenAI.
I'm still processing it and I don't know what happened. Almost nobody does. I have spent far too much time searching for answers online. I've seen some
thoughtful
write-ups and also many many posts that criticize a version of EA that doesn't match my experience. This has sometimes made me feel sad or defensive, wanting to reply to explain or argue. I haven't actually done that because I'm generally pretty shy about posting and I'm not sure how to engage. Whatever happened, it seems the results are
likely bad for AI safety. Whatever happened, I think I've reached diminishing returns on my doomscrolling, and I'm ready to get back to work.
The last year has been hard and I want us to learn from our mistakes, but I don't want us to over-update and decide EA is bad. I think EA is good!
Sometimes when people say EA, they're referring to the ideas like "let's try to do the most good" and "AI safety". Other times, they're referring to the community that's clustered around these ideas. I want to defend both, though separately.
The EA community is good
I think there are plenty of issues with the community. I live in Detroit and so I can't really speak to all of the different clusters of people who currently call themselves EA or "EA-adjacent". I'm sure some of them have bad epistemics or are not trustworthy and I don't want to vouch for everyone. I also haven't been part of that many other communities. I am a lawyer, I have been a part of the civil rights community, and I engage with other online communities (mom groups, au pair host parents, etc.).
All that said, my experience in EA spaces (both online and in-person) has been significantly more dedicated to celebrating and creating a culture of collaborative truth-seeking and kindness. For example:
We have
online posting norms that I'd love to see adopted by other online spaces I participate in (I've mostly stopped posting in the mom groups or host parent groups because when I raise an ...