Do Effective Altruists deserve power? A scorecard from FTX to Anthropic
NathanpmYoung · x · 2026-09-30
Nathan Young tallies the Effective Altruists' track record with large systems to ask whether they obviously deserve more power:
- FTX: no; 1.5 seats on OpenAI board: unclear; Anthropic: currently yes, a large successful company
- Situational Awareness: no; GiveWell: probably; Conjecture: hard to say
- For Rationalists: Lightcone Infrastructure yes; Yudkowsky and Scott Alexander unclear; the pause letter probably no, the AI existential risk letter probably yes
He admits it's sloppy thinking, but the question cuts at the legitimacy of AI-safety circles holding power over large systems.
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