Effective Altruism Global


Effective Altruism Global, abbreviated EA Global, is a series of philanthropy conferences that focuses on the effective altruism movement. The conferences are run by the Centre for Effective Altruism at Oxford University. Huffington Post editor Nico Pitney described the events as a gathering of "nerd altruists", which was "heavy on people from technology, science, and analytical disciplines".

History

An original Effective Altruism Summit was hosted in 2013.
In 2015, there were three main EA Global events. The largest was a three-day conference that took place on the Google campus in Mountain View, California with speakers including entrepreneur Elon Musk, computer scientist Stuart J. Russell, and Oxford philosophy professor William MacAskill. There were also conferences in Oxford, UK and Melbourne, Australia. According to MacAskill, the nature of the conferences improved coordination and ideological diversity within effective altruism. Talks included subjects such as "global poverty, animal advocacy, cause prioritization research, and policy change". There were also workshops on choosing careers, Q&A sessions, and panels on running local EA chapters.
At the Google conference, a moderated panel featured Elon Musk with AI researchers on the topic of existential risk from artificial general intelligence. Panel member Stuart Russell stated that AI research should be about "building intelligent systems that benefit the human race". Vox writer Dylan Matthews criticized the event for its perceived focus on existential risk, potentially at the expense of more mainstream causes like fighting extreme poverty.
EA Global 2016 was held on the UC Berkeley campus in August,. EA Global 2017 was held at The Palace of Fine Arts Exhibition Center, and EA Global 2018 was held at Bespoke Events.