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Contemporary Utilitarians: Sam Bankman-Fried — Utilitarianism.com
webutilitarianism.com·utilitarianism.com/sam-bankman-fried.html
This profile is relevant to AI safety discussions as SBF was a major funder of AI safety research; his subsequent fraud conviction raised questions about utilitarian ethics, EA movement credibility, and the risks of purely consequentialist reasoning in high-stakes environments.
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Summary
A profile of Sam Bankman-Fried as a contemporary utilitarian, examining his application of utilitarian ethics to earning money and donating it effectively through effective altruism. The piece explores how his philosophical commitments shaped his business decisions and philanthropic strategy, including his focus on existential risk reduction.
Key Points
- •SBF applied utilitarian reasoning to justify 'earning to give' — maximizing income in order to maximize charitable impact
- •He was a prominent figure in the effective altruism movement and donated heavily to causes including AI safety and pandemic prevention
- •His utilitarian philosophy included willingness to take high-variance bets if expected value was positive, which critics linked to his later conduct
- •The resource provides a philosophical framing of SBF's worldview prior to the FTX collapse, which later became a cautionary case study
- •Highlights tensions between rule-based ethics and pure consequentialism in high-stakes decision-making contexts
Cited by 1 page
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| Longtermism's Philosophical Credibility After FTX | -- | 50.0 |
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> > > > > CONTEMPORARY UTILITARIANS
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> > > > > ## Sam Bankman-Fried (1992 - )
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> > > > > [](https://www.utilitarianism.com/private/going-infinite.pdf)
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> > > > > Classical utilitarian entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried ( [SBF](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Bankman-Fried)) is the founder and former CEO of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange. SBF also managed assets through Alameda Research, a quantitative [cryptocurrency](https://www.utilitarianism.com/private/cryptomania.pdf) trading firm of effective altruists; until November 2022, SBF was the wealthiest billionaire in the cryptosphere.
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> > > > > In November 2023, a New York jury found SBF [guilty](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/02/technology/sam-bankman-fried-fraud-trial-ftx.html) of fraud and conspiracy. He will appeal. In March 2024, SBF was given a prison sentence of [25 years](https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2024/mar/28/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-sentencing-live-updates).
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> > > > > Around the age of 12, SBF spontaneously developed an interest in utilitarianism. A vegan, SBF has been heavily involved in the effective altruist ( [EA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_altruism)) community.
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> > > > > SBF describes himself as
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> > > > > > " _...a total, act, hedonistic/one level (as opposed to high and low pleasure), classical (as opposed to negative) utilitarian_”.
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> > > > > After graduating from MIT, SBF worked at [Jane Street](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Street_Capital) Capital, a proprietary trading firm that trades international ETFs. While at Jane Street, SBF gave away most of the money he made on the trading floor to the Center for Effective Altruism ( [CEA](https://www.centreforeffectivealtruism.org/)), [80,000 Hours](https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/sam-bankman-fried-high-risk-approach-to-crypto-and-doing-good/) and the [Humane League](https://thehumaneleague.org/), three charities his Oxford EA mentors had identified as especially efficient at saving lives (cf. _[Going Infinite](https://www.utilitarianism.com/private/going-infinite.pdf), The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon_ (2023) by Michael Lewis and [postscript](https://www.utilitarianism.com/private/sbf.html) (2024)).
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> > > > > His mother Barbara describes SBF as a "take-no-prisoners utilitarian". [Interviewed](https://conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/sam-bankman-fried/) by economist Tyler Cohen in March 2022, SBF set out his approach to risk in a discussion of the [St. Petersburg paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Petersburg_paradox). The St. Petersburg paradox is widely reckoned a severe challenge to classical utilitarianism:
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> > > > > > TC: _Ok, but let’s say there’s a game: 51% you double the Earth out somewhere else, 49% it all disappears. And would you keep on playing that game, double or nothing?_
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