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How has FTX's collapse affected public perception of EA?
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Ben_West🔸
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3/5
Good(3)Good quality. Reputable source with community review or editorial standards, but less rigorous than peer-reviewed venues.
Rating inherited from publication venue: EA Forum
Relevant to AI safety insofar as FTX's collapse disrupted major EA-aligned funding streams for AI safety research and governance work, and damaged public trust in longtermist organizations.
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97
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26
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eaforum
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Building effective altruismCommunityFTX collapseEA Strategy FortnightSurveys
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Importance: 35/100blog postanalysis
Summary
This EA Forum post examines the reputational and public perception fallout for the Effective Altruism community following the collapse of FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried's fraud. It likely analyzes media coverage, polling data, or community responses to assess how the scandal damaged EA's credibility and influenced public trust in EA-affiliated organizations and cause areas.
Key Points
- •FTX's collapse created significant reputational damage for the EA movement due to SBF's prominent role as an EA donor and figure
- •The scandal raised questions about EA's ethics, governance, and susceptibility to 'ends justify the means' reasoning
- •Public and media perception of EA shifted negatively, potentially affecting fundraising and recruitment
- •The episode prompted internal EA debate about accountability, oversight, and movement values
- •Long-term effects on EA-affiliated AI safety and longtermist funding remain a concern
Cited by 1 page
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| EA Epistemic Failures in the FTX Era | -- | 84.0 |
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How has FTX's collapse affected public perception of EA? — EA Forum
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by Ben_West🔸 Jun 16 2023 4 min read 26 97
Building effective altruism Community FTX collapse EA Strategy Fortnight Surveys Frontpage How has FTX's collapse affected public perception of EA? Purpose of post The EA Community University Students General Public Major Donor Impacts Factors not tested in these surveys Commentary 26 comments Purpose of post
As part of the EA Strategy Fortnight , we want to compile some survey results addressing how FTX has impacted the EA brand—particularly people’s sentiments towards EA. From the research we have on attitudes toward EA from the EA community, the general public, and university students, it seems that the FTX crash hasn’t, overall, impacted sentiments toward EA very much.
This is not to say that FTX has not significantly impacted people in many ways, including mental and emotional health, levels of trust in EA leadership, and increased uncertainty in EA as a movement. We hope compiling these survey results will help contextualize our individual experiences and improve our understanding of general attitudes toward EA.
The EA Community
In December 2022, Rethink Priorities ran a survey to gauge how the FTX crisis affected EA community members’ attitudes toward the EA movement, organizations, and leadership (fuller results of that survey from Rethink are here ). [1]
Data points:
Results demonstrated that FTX had decreased satisfaction by 0.5-1 points on a 10-point scale within the EA community, but overall community sentiment remained positive at ~7.5/10.
Around half of the respondents reported that the FTX crisis gave them concerns with EA meta-organizations, the EA community and its norms, and the leaders of EA meta-organizations.
More respondents agreed that the EA community had responded well to the crisis so far (47%) than disagreed (21%), though roughly a third of respondents neither agreed nor disagreed with this.
Most respondents reported continuing to trust EA organizations, though over 30% said they had substantially lost trust in EA public figures or leadership.
University Students
The CEA groups team surveyed some university group organizers regarding the states of their individual groups in May 2023. From November 2022 to February 2023, Rethink commissioned a survey to measure campus awareness of EA and whether students’ awareness of EA was because of FTX. [2]
Data points:
When CEA polled university group organizers, they gave an average response of 3.8/10 to “How worried are you about how your group is perceived on campus?” Only two organizers mentioned FTX, and both of them only did so to state that they haven’t seen impacts from FTX—though one said that this might change
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