effective altruism
In plain wordsA movement that treats charity like a research problem, comparing causes by how much good each dollar or working hour achieves; many of its members came to rank risks from advanced AI as a top priority.
A philosophy and social movement that treats doing good as a problem of measurement and comparison: estimate how much benefit each cause or intervention buys per dollar or hour, then back the best with donations, career choices or new organizations. Early priorities were global health (such as malaria prevention) and animal welfare; under the influence of longtermismlongtermism, n.: The belief that we should care a great deal about how things go for humanity thousands or millions of years from now, since far more people may live then than have ever lived., a growing share of attention and money went to reducing existential riskexistential risk, n.: A danger that could end humanity, or shut it out of a good future forever. Some experts count advanced AI among the largest such risks; others think this worry is overblown., above all from misaligned AI. EA-aligned donors and researchers helped build the field of AI safetyAI safety, n.: The effort to keep AI from doing serious harm, whether because it pursues aims its makers never intended, is turned to bad uses or simply malfunctions — a concern that grows as systems become more capable., so 'EA' is also used — often pejoratively, by accelerationistseffective accelerationism, n.: An online movement, known as e/acc, that wants AI and other technology developed as fast as possible, arguing that progress is good and that safety-driven regulation does more harm than good. and some policymakers — as a label for safety advocates and their influence on AI governance.
Half the safety grants in the field trace back to EA money, which is exactly what critics object to.
Origin
The name was adopted in 2011 by a group around Giving What We Can and 80,000 Hours in Oxford — including William MacAskill and Toby Ord — when they incorporated the Centre for Effective Altruism; the ideas draw on Peter Singer's arguments about giving. The collapse in 2022 of FTX, whose founder Sam Bankman-Fried was a prominent EA donor, and debate over EA's role in the November 2023 OpenAI board crisis brought the movement under intense scrutiny.
Usage note
Critics on the left object to its quantitative, philanthropic approach and its proximity to tech wealth; critics in industry argue that its focus on catastrophic AI risk distorts policy. Grouped by some critics with related ideologies under the contested acronym TESCREALTESCREAL, abbr.: A critical label for a cluster of related belief systems, including transhumanism, effective altruism and longtermism, that its coiners say drive the push to build AGI and share roots with eugenics..
Related
- longtermismlongtermism, n.: The belief that we should care a great deal about how things go for humanity thousands or millions of years from now, since far more people may live then than have ever lived.
- rationalist communityrationalist community, n.: A loose online community that prizes careful reasoning and spotting one's own biases; gathered around the forum LessWrong, it was one of the first groups to take the dangers of advanced AI seriously.
- existential riskexistential risk, n.: A danger that could end humanity, or shut it out of a good future forever. Some experts count advanced AI among the largest such risks; others think this worry is overblown.
- AI safetyAI safety, n.: The effort to keep AI from doing serious harm, whether because it pursues aims its makers never intended, is turned to bad uses or simply malfunctions — a concern that grows as systems become more capable.
- effective accelerationismeffective accelerationism, n.: An online movement, known as e/acc, that wants AI and other technology developed as fast as possible, arguing that progress is good and that safety-driven regulation does more harm than good.
- TESCREALTESCREAL, abbr.: A critical label for a cluster of related belief systems, including transhumanism, effective altruism and longtermism, that its coiners say drive the push to build AGI and share roots with eugenics.
- doomerdoomer, n.: Someone who believes advanced AI is likely to cause a catastrophe, possibly human extinction; often used as a put-down by people who think those fears are exaggerated.
Mentioned in
effective accelerationismeffective accelerationism, n.: An online movement, known as e/acc, that wants AI and other technology developed as fast as possible, arguing that progress is good and that safety-driven regulation does more harm than good., LessWrongLessWrong, prop. n.: An online forum, founded in 2009, about thinking clearly and avoiding mental biases; it became a main gathering place for people worried about the dangers of advanced AI., longtermismlongtermism, n.: The belief that we should care a great deal about how things go for humanity thousands or millions of years from now, since far more people may live then than have ever lived., OpenAI leadership crisis (2023)OpenAI leadership crisis (2023), n.: The five days in November 2023 when OpenAI's board fired chief executive Sam Altman, nearly all staff threatened to quit, and he returned with a new board., rationalist communityrationalist community, n.: A loose online community that prizes careful reasoning and spotting one's own biases; gathered around the forum LessWrong, it was one of the first groups to take the dangers of advanced AI seriously., transformative AItransformative AI, n.: AI that changes the world as deeply as farming or the Industrial Revolution did. It is defined by its effects on society and the economy, not by how humanlike or clever it is., Center for Security and Emerging TechnologyCenter for Security and Emerging Technology, prop. n.: A Georgetown University think tank in Washington, D.C., whose researchers advise the US government on AI and national security, paying special attention to China and to the chip supply chain., Distributed AI Research InstituteDistributed AI Research Institute, prop. n.: Timnit Gebru set up this institute in 2021, a year after her departure from Google, to research the damage AI can do, especially to marginalized communities, without relying on big-tech money., ForethoughtForethought, prop. n.: A small Oxford research nonprofit that asks what problems, besides keeping AI safe, the rapid arrival of superintelligent AI would create, from power grabs to the rights of digital minds., Future of Humanity InstituteFuture of Humanity Institute, prop. n.: Nick Bostrom's research center at Oxford University (2005–2024), where philosophers and scientists studied threats that could permanently derail humanity's future, advanced artificial intelligence among them., Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy, prop. n.: A large American charitable foundation, renamed Coefficient Giving in 2025, that has been the biggest private funder of research on the risks of advanced AI., Pascal's muggingPascal's mugging, n.: A puzzle about decisions: if someone promises an astronomically huge reward or threatens a huge disaster, even a tiny chance they are honest seems to justify paying them, which looks absurd., TESCREALTESCREAL, abbr.: A critical label for a cluster of related belief systems, including transhumanism, effective altruism and longtermism, that its coiners say drive the push to build AGI and share roots with eugenics., Toby OrdToby Ord, prop. n.: An Australian philosopher at Oxford who helped found effective altruism and estimated, in his book 'The Precipice', that unaligned AI is the largest threat to humanity's future this century.