EA Newsletter: December 14, 2015

EA Newsletter header Hi everyone,

We hope you’re all happy with the progress EA has made this year! Whatever festive treats you’re looking forward to this month, they’re well deserved.

We have loved keeping you updated with this newsletter and starting in January we’ll be sending it out monthly rather than every two weeks. That way, we hope to create newsletters that contain even more of the best EA content out there. (It’ll also give us a bit more time between editions to act on feedback and improve things.)

Each edition will be sent out on the first Thursday of the month. You’ll receive the January 2016 edition on Jan. 7.

See you then! The Team

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Articles and Community Posts

It’s the holiday season, which means many effective altruists are doing Christmas fundraisers to raise money for top charities and spread the word about them. If you’re interested in asking for donations rather than Christmas presents, click this link.

Speaking of giving, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have announced a huge donation, as you probably have heard. Here, Will MacAskill debunks 5 pieces of criticism that emerged in response.

Ben Todd from 80k released a major research piece arguing that the EA community is more talent-constrained than funding-constrained.

We mentioned this last time but it’s worth repeating: GiveWell recently updated their charity recommendations, just in time for your year-end giving. The Against Malaria Foundation keeps the top spot.

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Updates from EA Organizations and Projects

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As we highlighted in a special email last week, the 2015 Effective Altruism Survey was released. The results help us understand where we stand on many levels. It only takes a few minutes, so fill it out straight away! The holiday shopping season is also a good time to remind you of Shop for Charity, an affiliate store which lets you do your Amazon shopping while sending a 5% commission to SCI via Charity Science at no additional cost.

80,000 Hours

80k has released an interview about an exciting new organization they helped join the EA community, Founders Pledge. They also launched their winter fundraising round: There’s only £48,000 out of £220,000 remaining, email ben@80000hours.org if you’d like to donate.

Animal Charity Evaluators

Two weeks ago, ACE announced their 2015 charity recommendations. The top charities (Animal Equality, Mercy for Animals, and The Humane League) remained the same as last year. ACE exceeded their goal of raising $50K during their matching campaign, which ended on December 8. In total, $61,844 was raised.

Centre for Effective Altruism

CEA has launched their winter fundraising round. So did Effective Altruism Outreach which is part of CEA.

Centre for the Study of Existential Risk

A new center studying artificial intelligence will be established at the University of Cambridge, an effort where CSER was substantially involved in.

Charity Science

Charity Science’s peer-to-peer Christmas fundraisers are in full swing – join now to raise money for effective charities and start conversations about them with your friends and family. For your own gifts to people, they’ve also launched charity gift cards, which let the recipient choose which of three GiveWell charities to direct money to.

Future of Humanity Institute

FHI director Nick Bostrom is one of Foreign Policy’s 100 “Global Thinkers” of 2015.

GiveWell

GiveWell staff members published where they plan to make their personal donations in 2015. GiveWell also discussed on their blog how to encourage friends and family to give to AMF for the holidays.

Giving What We Can

Giving What We Can is holding an online pledging event over December. If you haven’t joined GWWC yet, now is the ideal time to do so! 1,400 members are waiting for you. If you’d like to help out with the event, check out this group. Giving What We Can is alsofundraising for their 2016 budget. So far, they have £193,000 of £495,000 pledged.

Machine Intelligence Research Institute

MIRI is running its annual winter fundraiser through the end of December.

Raising for Effective Giving

REG is aiming to raise funds for several additional full-time staff to expand its activities into daily fantasy sports, professional gaming and finance.

The Life You Can Save

The Life You Can Save has released their list of recommended charities for 2016, featuring the latest addition of the One Acre Fund. They also have a new 1-minute video, “What Will Your Impact Be.”

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Job Postings

Want to work in artificial intelligence research? Check out 80,000 Hours’ new career review, then express interest in entering the field here and 80k will see if they can help you find a position.

Speaking of which, check out the new positions at the Future of Humanity Institute.

The Global Priorities Project is also looking for research interns for next summer.

Go forth and do the most good!

Do tell us how you like the Newsletter and how we can improve it further.

See you in two weeks!

The EA Newsletter Team Georgie, Michał, Pascal and Sören

The Effective Altruism Newsletter is a joint project between the Centre for Effective Altruism, the Effective Altruism Hub and .impact