From FTX to Airstrikes on Data Centers: EA's Accountability Problem
VraserX · x · 2026-09-20
The author argues effective altruism has a serious accountability problem: SBF was celebrated for supposedly making money to help humanity while stealing billions, and TIME reported EA leaders received warnings about his conduct years before FTX collapsed yet kept backing him.
He also criticizes Eliezer Yudkowsky, influential in the overlapping AI safety movement, who publicly advocated willingness to destroy data centers by airstrike to enforce a global AI shutdown, viewing military conflict as preferable to a violated shutdown.
Core argument: once you believe humanity's entire future depends on your judgment, it becomes dangerously easy to rationalize imposing costs on others — and blocking AI could delay medical breakthroughs for millions. The author rejects letting a small circle of wealthy donors and philosophers decide how much freedom and progress everyone else must sacrifice.
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