Hi there,
Welcome to the monthly EA Chicago newsletter 👋
Check this space for upcoming events and a debrief of the best EA Chicago content from across the web.
Be sure to stay in touch during the month via our Eventbrite page and Slack workspace.
EACHI November 2023 Event Schedule
November Social Event: Sultan’s Market Vegan Dinner on Thursday, November 9th from 6:30-8:30pm (event details can be found HERE)
November Learning Event: Dr. Elizabeth Huppert from Northwestern University will present some of her research on moral communication on Tuesday, November 21st from 6-8pm (event details can be found HERE)
Career Opportunities
The MATS Winter 2023-24 Cohort has launched! Apply by Nov 17 (or Nov 10 for Neel Nanda).
o The ML Alignment & Theory Scholars (MATS) Program is an educational seminar and independent research program. MATS provides talented scholars with talks, workshops, and research mentorship in the field of AI safety, and connects them with the Berkeley AI safety research community.
o The program takes place in Berkeley, CA from January 8 to March 17. If you’d like to sign up for program updates and application deadline reminders, fill out our interest form (~1 min)! If you know anyone you’d be excited to see apply to MATS, you can fill out our recommendation form (~1 minute). We’ll reach out to encourage them to apply! Read more about the winter program here.
Our World in Data is looking for a Communications & Outreach Manager. The salary is £45,000 – £65,000 per year with a preference for Oxford, UK (remote/in-office hybrid). The deadline to apply is end of day Sunday, 5 November 2023.
Open Philanthropy is hiring a People Operations Generalist. This person will support across many people-related projects, ensuring that all incoming, current, and departing employees are highly engaged and have positive experiences at Open Philanthropy. If you know anyone that would be a good fit for this please encourage them to apply! You can email Evan McVail (evan@openphilanthropy.org) with any questions or referrals.
The fund managers of the Long-Term Future Fund are looking for a full-time fund chair - and included a potential day in the life in their post.
News & Updates
Community
· Will MacAskill wrote an op-ed in the The Guardian, The big idea: how can we live ethically in a world in crisis?
· Rebecca Herbst just launched Yield & Spread's Giving Guide (posted here on the EA Forum). It was designed to help donors with their financial planning. It's a succinct and simple download, and covers things like the types assets you can donate (cash or securities), how to give from different accounts (like a brokerage account or DAF), and common tax optimization strategies for donating!
Evaluators, grantmakers and incubators
· Charity Entrepreneurship announced their four new high-impact charities in the space of large-scale global health and biosecurity, incubated through the July-August 2023 program: Clear Solutions, Lafiya Nigeria, Concentric Policies, and Alliance for Reducing Microbial Resistance (ARMoR).
· Find out what marginal grants for the EA Infrastructure Fund might look like in this post on funding priorities and grantmaking from the fund managers.
Cause areas
Animal welfare
· The Humane League UK’s appeal against a high court decision regarding the use of fast growing chickens has been granted, meaning they will have a new hearing to challenge the legality of fast growing breeds of chicken in the UK. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to change the lives of the 1 billion chickens raised for food each year.
· Jollibee Foods Corporation, the largest and fastest-growing restaurant group in Asia, has made a global cage-free egg commitment, following pressure from the Open Wing Alliance (OWA).
· Domination And Exploitation: Understanding Industry Costs For Chicken, Egg, And Fish Products In The United States, Brazil, And China: This latest Faunalytics study examines lesser known mechanics of animal agriculture industries, with the hope of highlighting leverage points that are thus far underused by advocates. The analysis covers the historical consolidation of these organizations, risks for these companies, and what factors determine the price of animal products, and findings include graphics about the chicken industry consolidation, hotspot regions for these industries, and a term sheet.
Global health and development
· Why we didn’t get a malaria vaccine sooner: Hundreds of thousands of people die from malaria each year, but it took 141 years to develop a vaccine for it.
· New Incentives has published its first video of its program! A Routine Immunization Provider named Magaji and a caregiver named Rashida talk about the impact that New Incentives’ cash transfers have had on childhood immunizations in Jigawa State.
· Listen to Elie Hassenfeld, the CEO of GiveWell, as he delves into how they identify a select group of charities for maximum impact during a discussion with EconTalk's Russ Roberts. They also touch on the risks of placing too much emphasis on data and the argument for segmenting our charitable contributions to support local or individualized giving.
Long-term future
· Prospect Magazine commemorates the 40th anniversary of Petrov Day by highlighting work that aims to reduce the risks of human extinction.
· On a recent 80,000 Hours podcast episode host Luisa Rodriguez interviews Kevin Esvelt — a biologist at the MIT Media Lab and the inventor of CRISPR-based gene drive — about the threat posed by engineered bioweapons.
(Please contact EACHI’s organizer, Samantha Kassirer, if you have something you’d like featured here next month!)
We look forward to seeing you in person or online!
