Nick Beckstead - EA Forum Topic Page
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Good quality. Reputable source with community review or editorial standards, but less rigorous than peer-reviewed venues.
Rating inherited from publication venue: EA Forum
Useful for understanding the intellectual and institutional history of longtermism and AI safety philanthropy; Beckstead's dissertation is a key academic reference for longtermist philosophy, and his career trajectory illustrates the overlap between EA institutions and AI governance work.
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Summary
This EA Forum topic page profiles Nick Beckstead, an influential philosopher whose doctoral dissertation is credited as a foundational early contribution to longtermism. He held senior roles at the Future of Humanity Institute, Open Philanthropy, and the FTX Future Fund before resigning following FTX's collapse in 2022. His research spans existential risk, population ethics, space colonization, and differential progress.
Key Points
- •Beckstead's PhD dissertation from Rutgers is widely credited as one of the earliest systematic academic defenses of longtermism.
- •He held key institutional roles at FHI, Open Philanthropy (overseeing global catastrophic risk grantmaking), and the FTX Future Fund (as CEO).
- •He co-founded the first US chapter of Giving What We Can, pledging to donate half his post-tax income to effective global poverty interventions.
- •His research focuses on existential risk, population ethics, space colonization, and differential technological progress.
- •He resigned from FTX Future Fund and Effective Ventures boards following the FTX collapse in November 2022.
Cited by 3 pages
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| FTX Collapse: Lessons for EA Funding Resilience | Concept | 78.0 |
| Secure AI Project | Organization | 47.0 |
| Nick Beckstead | Person | 60.0 |
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Nick Beckstead - EA Forum This website requires javascript to properly function. Consider activating javascript to get access to all site functionality. Hide table of contents Nick Beckstead Edit History Discussion 0 Subscribe Edit History Discussion 0 Nick Beckstead Background Research Further reading External links Random Topic Contributors 3 Pablo 2 Amber Dawn 1 Leo Nicholas Beckstead (born 1985) is an American philosopher and AI governance and safety consultant. Background Beckstead majored in mathematics and philosophy at the University of Minnesota and obtained a PhD in philosophy from Rutgers University. As a graduate student, he co-founded the first US chapter of Giving What We Can , pledging to donate half of his post-tax income until his retirement to the most cost-effective organizations fighting global poverty in the developing world. [1] [2] After completing his studies, Beckstead became a Research Fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute and then a Program Officer for Open Philanthropy , where he oversaw much of that organization's research and grantmaking related to global catastrophic risk reduction. In November 2021, he joined the FTX Foundation as CEO, and ran the FTX Future Fund. [3] Along with the rest of the Future Fund team, he resigned in November 2022 when FTX collapsed. [4] Research Beckstead's research focuses on topics related to the long-term future and its normative implications, including existential risk , [ 5] [ 6] population ethics , [ 7] space colonization , [ 8] and differential progress . [ 9] His doctoral dissertation, which combines some of these interests, is often credited as an important early contribution to longtermism . [ 10] ... (Read more) Posts tagged Nick Beckstead Top Relevance 130 Nick Beckstead is leaving the Effective Ventures boards Eli Rose🔸 Eli Rose🔸 , lincolnq + 0 more · 3y ago · 2 m read 7 2 7 2 11 Conversation with Holden Karnofsky, Nick Beckstead, and Eliezer Yudkowsky on the "long-run" perspective on effective altruism Nick_Beckstead Nick_Beckstead · 12y ago · 8 m read 7 2 7 2 10 Rethinking longtermism and global development Eevee🔹 Eevee🔹 , ruthgrace + 0 more · 4y ago · 10 m read 2 2 2 2 7 Nick Beckstead: Fireside chat (2020) EA Global EA Global · 5y ago · 1 m read 0 2 0 2 Add posts
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