Why I think building EA is important for making AI go well

Abstract

Promoting Effective Altruism (EA) ideas and community engagement is a valuable strategy for navigating the development of advanced artificial general intelligence (AGI) and ensuring it “goes well.” This approach is supported by three key arguments. First, the inherent uncertainty and rapid evolution surrounding AGI necessitate individuals equipped with flexible thinking and the capacity for independent, course-correcting decisions, as robust solutions are not yet established. Second, the profound moral stakes and novel dilemmas presented by advanced AI, coupled with strong external incentives unaligned with the common good, require a movement explicitly committed to moral reasoning and continuous ethical innovation. Third, EA demonstrably embodies these crucial qualities: its abstract focus on effective good fosters methodological flexibility, and its explicit altruistic foundation has historically driven moral innovation (e.g., longtermism, s-risks). While other relevant communities possess some of these characteristics, none combine flexibility, explicit morality, and moral innovation as effectively as EA. Given the practical challenges of establishing an entirely new, purpose-built movement, strengthening EA’s role is presented as the most pragmatic and effective path forward. – AI-generated abstract.