If your aim is to have positive impact on the world, we think we can make a rational case for setting ambitious goals. In short, our advice is to do as much as you can to set up your life so that you can afford to fail, eliminate paths that might cause significant harm, and then aim as high as you can. As a slogan: limit downsides, then target upsides.
80,000 Hours, Be more ambitious: a rational case for dreaming big (if you want to do good)
1. Introduction
This is Part 2 of my series Getting it right. This series highlights ways in which effective altruists think and act admirably.
Part 1 discussed altruism. We saw in Part 1 that many effective altruists donate large parts of their income to charity, and some go further by risking their health in challenge trials or even donating organs to total strangers.
Part 2 discussed global health. We saw that effective altruists were instrumental in the push towards more rigorous and evidence-based methods in global health, and have committed well over a billion dollars to global health causes.
Today’s post discusses the ambition of the effective altruism movement.
2. The importance of ambition
There are many good ideas for improving the world. Most of them are never enacted on any notable scale.
Effective altruists know this, and they want to be different. They want to make sizable and lasting changes to the shape of the world.
It is easy to forget just how unusual the ambition of effective altruism is. Given the movement’s moderate size, it has had remarkably strong impacts on a number of fields. Let us take a look at some places where that impact has been especially notable.
3. Existing impact
3.1. Funding
It is hard to make an impact without money. Effective altruists have had impressive success raising funds.
A recent estimate has it that effective altruist organizations were moving almost a billion dollars annually by 2022.
At its peak, available or pledged funds were estimated to lie in the neighborhood of perhaps 40 billion dollars.
A single organization, Open Philanthropy (now Coefficient Giving) has donated over 4 billion dollars. GiveWell has steered another 2.5 billion dollars in donations. Founders Pledge has donated more than a billion dollars and secured more than ten billion dollars in pledges.
These are impressive numbers, and the fact that they have been repeated across several organizations speaks well of the ambition and competence of effective altruist fundraising.
3.2. Technology
Effective altruists engage heavily with emerging technologies. They played major roles in the founding of FTX and Anthropic. They invested heavily in OpenAI where they secured a board seat and later contributed to the boardroom drama at OpenAI.
Effective altruists played a foundational role in the development of methods such as reinforcement learning from human feedback. They contributed substantially to founding the field of AI safety. They supplied key staff members for safety teams at leading organizations including OpenAI and Anthropic.
It would not be a stretch to say that effective altruists have been integrally involved with many of the most consequential companies and developments in the AI space in the past decade.
3.3. Politics
It used to be said that effective altruists were excellent researchers but poor politicians. Whatever truth that saying might once have held, it is no longer the case.
Effective altruists have established and funded an extensive network of think tanks and policy organizations in Washington, London and other political hubs.
They have circulated influential open letters signed by leaders including Elon Musk, Yoshua Bengio, and Stephen Hawking.
They convinced the sitting prime minister of the United Kingdom to convene an international conference on AI safety, leading to the formation of the UK AI Security Institute. Effective altruists likewise played a role in establishing similar institutes in the United States and elsewhere.
Effective altruists successfully lobbied for the concept of existential risk to be included in the United Nations’ common agenda for the next five years.
3.4. Global health and development
Part 2 of this series discussed impacts on global health, including a leading role in advancing rigor and evidential standards as well as significantly over a billion dollars in giving to date.
Effective altruists continue to donate to traditional causes including malaria prevention and cash transfers, as well as a range of newer cause areas including lead exposure, air quality, aid policy, and growth.
3.5. Animal welfare
Peter Singer’s Animal liberation is widely considered to be among the most authoritative and foundational works in the animal rights movement.
Effective altruists have donated hundreds of millions of dollars to animal welfare. They have raised consciousness and funds for neglected causes including wild animal welfare, shrimp welfare, and insect welfare.
Effective altruists have been leaders in securing corporate pledges to improve conditions on factory farms.
3.6. Books
Many books written by effective altruists and their allies have made a surprisingly large impact.
Will MacAskill’s NYT bestselling book What we owe the future was reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement, The Wall Street Journal, and The Guardian; took the podcast circuit by storm, and landed an appearance on The Daily Show.
Nick Bostrom’s bestselling Superintelligence was reviewed in The Guardian and has been cited by tech luminaries including Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Sam Altman.
Toby Ord’s The precipice was reviewed twice in The New Yorker, and has been influential in the United Nations as well as in UK politics.
Many of Peter Singer’s books including The most good you can do, The life you can save, and Animal liberation have been extremely influential.
3.7. Initiatives
Many of the initiatives founded by effective altruists have become well-known, or even household names in many circles.
These include 80,000 Hours, the Center for Effective Altruism, GiveWell, Giving What We Can, and The Life You Can Save.
In many areas, effective altruists have founded a number of prominent specialized initiatives. For example, in my own area of academic research, effective altruists have founded numerous institutes at Oxford, at Cambridge, Berkeley, Stanford and beyond.
4. Taking stock
Effective altruists have achieved a great deal in a short span of time in arenas such as fundraising, technology, politics, global health and development, animal welfare, mainstream books and large initiatives. This speaks to the ambition of the movement and the ability of many within the movement to achieve great ambitions.
Some of the developments surveyed above are developments I am glad to see. Others I wish had never happened. But there is no questioning the strong ambition and lasting impact that they have had on the world.
Those who disagree with effective altruists could do worse than to emulate them in their ambition and drive towards lasting change.
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