Description

Get together with others in the DC area interested in applying Effective Altruism ideas to global health and development. This is part of a monthly series of gatherings. All are welcome—no background or experience required!

Founding a charity can be a great way to turn EA principles into real-world impact, but how do you get started?

This month, Will Snider of D-Prize will give a Q&A on their work funding new ventures distributing proven poverty solutions. Applications open soon, and you could win up to $20K to launch your dream org.

Location

MLK Library

901 G St NW

Room 401-A

Join the AI cause area meetup for dinner at Pow Pow in Franklin Square at 6:30 PM. All are welcome! Dinner will be covered by EA DC.

For this month’s international security and foreign policy meetup, we will discuss two influential and moderately opposing summaries of US-China competition in the context of advanced artificial intelligence, from a hawkish and dovish perspective:

• The hawkish perspective: AI Nationalism by Ian Hogarth

• The dovish perspective: Bringing techno-globalism back: a romantically realist reframing of the US-China tech relationship by Jeffrey Ding (responding to Hogarth)

Obviously a lot has changed since these were published, but they remain useful foundations for current conversations about US-China AI competition. All are welcome. We’ll spend the first half of the conversation discussing the two pieces, and the second half opening the floor to more current debates about US-China AI competition. Please register below to attend!

Join other people interested in, thinking about, and working on EA-related topics in DC for a general meetup at The Admiral in Dupont Circle. A drink voucher, vegan tacos, guacamole, and salad will be provided.

We will be in the private bar space at the back of the building.

Please note that this event has been rescheduled from its original date by one week (to Monday Oct 27th).

For this month's animal welfare meetup, we will be discussing the essay by Anthony DiGiovanni, "What to do about near-term cluelessness in animal welfare."

In this essay, DiGiovanni considers how even short-term animal welfare interventions can have uncertain or counterintuitive effects—sometimes helping one group of animals while unintentionally harming others. He explores how advocates and donors can make decisions despite this "cluelessness," proposing principles for identifying interventions that are robust to such uncertainty.

The post invites readers to think more carefully about backfire effects, unknown unknowns, and the limits of our predictions. These topics are highly relevant for anyone trying to do the most good for animals and should make for an interesting discussion.

The essay should only take 15–20 minutes to read. Please try and read it in full before our meeting, but feel free to attend even if you don't get the time (or prompt an LLM with the link and ask for a summary!).

For this month’s Global Health and Development meetup, we will have a presentation by Andrés Parrado of Innovations for Poverty Action:

Context Matters: The importance of Market Size and Structure for Effective Graduation and Cash Programming

There is a large and dynamic literature focused on the effect of large unconditional cash transfers and poverty graduation programs. The literature consistently documents positive effects for program recipients, most notably on consumption and asset accumulation. Some papers have also reported long-term effects, particularly for poverty graduation programs in Bangladesh. But until now, discussions around the generalizability of these results have engaged less with two key contextual factors: the market size and structure.

This talk will show why market size and structure are relevant for the way we understand the plausible long-term effects of unconditional cash transfers and poverty graduation programs. It will discuss the nascent literature around these programs' effects' and market structure, particularly around fiscal multipliers and spillovers. Finally, it will delve into what this means for generalizability and the ex-ante possibility that these programs will have large and sustained impacts in program participants and non participants alike.

Join the AI cause area meetup group this Sunday to discuss all things AI safety and governance over vegan Asian-fusion cuisine.

Join us for a fun evening of conversation, drinks, food, and good vibes at The Admiral in Dupont Circle!

Drink vouchers, vegan tacos, guacamole, and salad will be provided.

We will be in the private bar space at the back of the building.

Join us for a discussion about tradeoffs in global health and development funding. Please listen to or read the materials beforehand!

Description

Recently, GiveWell announced it's expanding its focus on livelihoods programs—economic development interventions that increase people's incomes and purchasing power. Until now, EA organizations like GiveWell have often prioritized health interventions because their analyses suggest that health programs were more cost-effective than programs that increase people’s incomes.

However, these analyses rely on controversial assumptions about the moral weight of different outcomes: saving lives, preventing disability, and increasing incomes. Accordingly, changes in these moral weights could meaningfully shift which interventions EAs should prioritize.

Please join us for a discussion about these issues, facilitated by Rethink Priorities Senior Researcher, Laura Duffy. We will tackle questions such as:

• How do organizations like GiveWell calculate these moral weights?

• What might be the implications for program design or donor decisions if we assign more value to promoting income gains?

• What other outcomes deserve moral consideration in cost-effectiveness analyses, and how might we measure them?

Before attending, please either:

1. Listen to GiveWell's podcast episode on the livelihoods programs (31 min), or

2. Read this explainer on moral weights.

This event will be online. To receive the Zoom link, make sure to register below. An email will be sent before the event with the link.

The global system is passing through a major transition. The risk of great power conflict is rising, and with it, the dangers of nuclear war. The Global Stability Network (GSN) is a start-up network researching key neglected questions; and engaging in dialogue to explore effective foreign policy strategies that reverse the trends. One promising foreign policy strategy involves a policy of deepening economic interdependence with shared rules of the road enforced by economic punishments when states transgress. This expands incentives to cooperate for stability while at the same time raising the cost of war. It also recasts smart, targeted sanctions as weapons of deterrence in support.

Join us at this lunchtime discussion to learn more about the Global Stability Network's research and to explore, challenge, and improve ideas around enhancing global stability while reducing global catastrophic risks!

Join us for an evening of meaningful connection at our upcoming EA DC women’s meetup!

Enjoy delicious vegan food (on us!) in a welcoming space where women interested in effective altruism can come together, share ideas, and build lasting relationships.

Whether you’re new to EA or a seasoned advocate, you’l leave enriched with new friendships, expanded knowledge, and renewed motivation to create a positive impact.

This event is open to women (non-binary and trans welcome!)

Join the democracy preservation group for a relaxed social mixer. Food and drinks provided! Multiple EAs professionally working on democracy protection will be in attendance and available to talk with folks.

Meet other newer EA DC members, connect with cause areas and people you're interested in, and chat with one of the group organizers.

For this month’s animal welfare cause area meetup, we encourage folks to attend the ‘Revolutionist Night’ discussion at The Wonderland Ballroom in Columbia Heights. This gathering will bring together animal activists of different backgrounds to discuss this study by Pax Fauna.

Please RSVP here and check the description for more details.

UPDATE: Due to scheduling issues, we have made a last-minute call to change the format of this event to virtual only. Please keep an eye out for an email from Abhi with the meeting link.

For this month's International Security and Foreign Policy Meetup, we will be discussing the US-China relationship, how EAs should be thinking about the possibility of great power war, and different perspectives on US-China policy.

We will meet at the Venture X coworking office, in the meeting room located downstairs and to the left of the entrance. Please RSVP for the event to receive contact information for our host, Abhishek Garg (who will be available to let people into the building).

Join other people interested in, thinking about, and working on EA-related topics in DC for a general meetup at The Admiral in Dupont Circle. Drink vouchers, vegan tacos, guacamole, and salad will be provided.

We will be in the private bar space at the back of the building.

Join us for a casual hike through Rock Creek Park! We’ll meet outside the Nature Center and Planetarium here at 1 PM and walk the Boulder Bridge Loop trail, which is a 4 mile hike around most of the park. We’ll hang out after and snacks will be provided. Please be sure to bring water and sunscreen!

Toby Ord recently had two podcast appearances, on 80,000 Hours and ForeCast. Both were incredibly info-dense and have more conservative takes on AI progress than a lot of recent EA and EA-related media, and made a splash in a lot of conversations about AI in EA spaces in DC. Ord also recently posted some writing on scaling laws here. We’ll be meeting to discuss arguments made in the podcast and how to think about timelines to when AI can automate significant numbers of jobs or increase existential risk, and also just meet other people interested in AI governance and technical safety from an EA perspective. All are welcome!

We’ll meet outside in Meridian Hill Park at the Joan of Arc statue!

For this month's animal welfare meetup, we will be discussing a thought-provoking (and ahead of its time) article on wild animal welfare: "Policing Nature" by Tyler Cowen (2003).

Before the meeting, please take the time to read the article and come prepared to discuss it! If you don't find the time but are keen to discuss this topic, you are still welcome to attend.

If you have any questions or suggested discussion prompts, please email Arthur@EffectiveAltruismDC.org

This will be the first in a series of structured international security discussions following our well-attended international security dinner last month. Whether you're a professional in the field or a curious outsider, feel free to join us to learn from others and share your perspective!

Join the AI cause area meetup group to discuss all things AI safety and governance over vegan Asian-fusion food!

Join other people interested in, thinking about, and working on EA-related topics in DC for a general meetup at The Admiral in Dupont Circle. Drink vouchers, vegan tacos, guacamole, and salad will be provided.

Note: Like May's happy hour, we will be in the private bar space at the back of the building.

We will meet on the patio of our host, Abhishek Garg's, apartment building in Courthouse. Vegan burgers, condiments, toppings, refreshments, and some grilled veggies will be provided, but feel free to bring additional side dishes and drinks for the group!

Details about building access will be provided by email before the event, so make sure to RSVP.

We are thrilled to announce that our new cause area group, International Security, will have an inaugural dinner at DC Vegan.

Given our location, this cause area is naturally of interest to many in our community. We are delighted to be giving it more attention and hope you will join us to discuss topics such as risks from great power conflict (antagonistic superpowers), nuclear weapons, and military brinkmanship.

Dinner will be provided by EA DC funding, and we hope you will attend if you are interested in these topics or work on related issues in your career! We will meet in the restaurant's upstairs dining area.

Please RSVP below so we have an accurate headcount!

If you are interested in attending, please RSVP on Partiful here.

A gathering for parents to discuss issues on their minds, like: preparing kids for emerging tech, approaches to present-day tech (screens, etc.), experiences with "low effort" / free range parenting, and anything else you’d feel like talking about!

The location has lots of parking, a small playground, a bathroom, and a gazebo area. Our host Ben Schifman will bring a few snacks.

The alternative, bad weather location is his house a few blocks away. If the group needs to move, Ben will post a message on Partiful—so make sure to RSVP!

Join us for an evening of meaningful connection at our upcoming EA DC women’s meetup!

Enjoy delicious vegan food (on us!) in a welcoming space where women interested in effective altruism can come together, share ideas, and build lasting relationships.

Whether you’re new to EA or a seasoned advocate, you’l leave enriched with new friendships, expanded knowledge, and renewed motivation to create a positive impact.

This event is open to women (non-binary and trans welcome!)

Description

Join us at Workshop House for a conversation with Parth Ahya, Chief of Staff at Renaissance Philanthropy and co-founder of Taimaka, an organization combating pediatric malnutrition in Nigeria.

Parth was previously a Program Lead at Schmidt Futures and is currently an advisor to Talent Mobility Fund and Interact.

During the meetup, Parth will discuss several topics in development that he thinks are worthy of increased attention:

• Migration

• Planned urban expansion

• Economic and industrial policy

• Aid policy advocacy in the US and other high-income countries

A short Q&A and open discussion will follow.

Details

We will gather at Workshop House, 1717 15th St NW, on May 29th at 5:30 pm. A light dinner will be provided from Shouk.

Join other people interested in, thinking about, and working on EA-related topics in DC for a general meetup at The Admiral in Dupont Circle. Drink vouchers, vegan tacos, guacamole, and salad will be provided.

Note: For those who have attended these in the past, we're happy to share that we'll have an entirely private space this time, so it should be quieter and less packed.

Are you curious about effective altruism? Would you like to learn more about what EAs in DC are doing with their careers, time, and donations? Then come by the West End Library to chat and ask any questions about the group or EA in general!

This is our quarterly event for new members. If you're new and want to meet other new members and more established members, this is a great opportunity. The event will be a relaxed but professional meetup led by one of the EA DC organizers.

Join the AI cause area meetup group for lunch at Pow Pow in Franklin Square. All are welcome! Discuss AI progress, technical safety, and governance with other EA DC members.