What are the largest software engineering tasks AI can perform? In our new benchmark, MirrorCode, Claude Opus 4.6 reimplemented a 16,000-line bioinformatics toolkit — a task we believe would take a human engineer weeks. Co-developed with @METR_Evals. Details in thread.

Exciting news on @malengo.org, the NGO that helps East African students move to Europe for education: Our research team has given us a glimpse of their early findings! Here is the full writeup, joint with @richardnerland.bsky.social: forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/CpZYHk... Thread follows!

Japan has more than doubled its foreign aid budget in just five years

I'd love to fund studies of interventions that reduce real-time pollution exposure, in the US, on outcomes related to violence and criminal behavior. (There is strong evidence that such exposure increases violence in real time; the next question is how much interventions can mitigate this effect.)

So excited to share what Saloni and I have been up to. Medical innovation is not inevitable. Sometimes breakthroughs take 40 years, thousands of people building on each others’ work & participating in clinical trials. Check out ep 1, and subscribe for more Hard Drugs! harddrugs.worksinprogress.co

Hard Drugs

Hard Drugs is a show by Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen about medical innovation: how to speed it up, how to scale it up, and how to make sure lifesaving tools reach the people who need them the mo...

harddrugs.worksinprogress.co

Saloni@scientificdiscovery.dev · last yr.

LAUNCH DAY 🚀 Today I’m launching a new podcast, Hard Drugs, with Jacob Trefethen (@jacobtref.bsky.social) Our first episode is about lenacapavir — a new HIV drug that blocks infections with an efficacy rate of nearly 100%, and which could completely change the fight against HIV worldwide.

As you ponder the likely consequences of the new steel tariffs, it's worth asking: A. How long does it take to build a steel mill? B. How long do you expect Trump's new 50% steel tariff to last? If A>B, then how can you expect any lasting gains from these tariffs?

Great podcast by GiveWell on $6.2M of grants to CHAI and PATH to support ministries of health in 6 African countries to respond to aid cuts Technical support units will work in-country to prioritise spending, improve procurement, manage funding transitions givewell.transistor.fm/episodes/sup...

GiveWell Conversations | Supporting Governments Navigating US Funding Cuts: May 15, 2025

This episode was recorded on May 2, 2025 and represents our best understanding at that time.Cuts to US government foreign assistance have created unprecedented challenges for global health programs...

givewell.transistor.fm

I signed the 10% Giving Pledge this year, and this week, I decided to donate 19% of my annual income to global health charities. It's not going to be anywhere near "enough", but I'm happy to do it --

We don't have to sit back and just watch the horror unfold

This month, I signed a pledge to donate at least 10% of my lifetime income to effective charities.

scientificdiscovery.dev

Why are solar panels and batteries from China so cheap? High levels of automation, cheap energy, and state-of-the-art manufacturing processes. It's less about low salaries than many people think. My latest Substack: www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/china-chea...

Why are solar panels and batteries from China so cheap?

It's more to do with automation and state-of-the art manufacturing processes than cheap labour.

sustainabilitybynumbers.com

A re-analysis of Ciacci's (2024) "Banning the purchase of sex increases cases of rape: Evidence from Sweden" Journal of Population Economics reveals major issues. A year ago, reproducers Adema, Folke, and Rickne found coding errors driving the paper's key results. Let's unpack this in a 🧵

🧵 NEW: Why is Britain so skint? We pay huge amounts of tax, yet the chancellor is expected to make widespread cuts. Where is all our money going? My column, and a primer ahead of Wednesday @thetimes.com 1/10 www.thetimes.com/article/e1a6...

Sounds like a cool job at Resolution Foundation, on a key focus area for Labour govt

Mike Brewer@mikebrewerecon.bsky.social · last yr.

We have a vacancy at Resolution Foundation for someone to lead our housing policy work. £55 - £68k, office based in Westminster. Closing date: 08:59am on 17 April 2025 (1/2)

We have a vacancy at Resolution Foundation for someone to lead our housing policy work. £55 - £68k, office based in Westminster. Closing date: 08:59am on 17 April 2025 (1/2)

Excited that Open Philanthropy is expanding our work on economic growth and scientific progress. The case for the Abundance & Growth Fund is simple: Economic growth isn’t just about GDP—it’s one of the most powerful forces for improving human lives. 🧵

Alexander Berger@albrgr.bsky.social · last yr.

Exciting update: @open_phil is doubling down on our YIMBY, innovation, and metascience success by launching a >$120m Abundance & Growth Fund to accelerate economic growth and boost scientific & technological progress. Funding from @goodventures.bsky.social, Patrick Collison, and others. Why now? 🧵

Exciting update: @open_phil is doubling down on our YIMBY, innovation, and metascience success by launching a >$120m Abundance & Growth Fund to accelerate economic growth and boost scientific & technological progress. Funding from @goodventures.bsky.social, Patrick Collison, and others. Why now? 🧵

Aspiring economists from Africa: Extended deadline 4 March Oxford's CSAE offers full scholarships >3 year for African students How? Apply for grad studies in Econ = 2 yr Master's course w/ progress to PhD We automatically consider all applicants www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/g...

MPhil in Economics | University of Oxford

About the courseThe MPhil in Economics is designed to provide rigorous training in economic theory, applied economics, and econometric methods. It is comparable to the first two years of a PhD

ox.ac.uk

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer just cut the UK aid budget from 0.5% of GNI to 0.3% in 2027 to fund increases in defence spending. He says he’s making tough choices, but cutting funding for the world’s poorest people is the easiest—and cruellest—choice he could make (1/4)

Cutting Official Development Assistance to 0.3% of GDP means that a massive fraction of our aid budget will be spent in the UK on accommodation for asylum seekers. I don't have an up to date estimate, but could easily be half. Leaves much, much less for "traditional" aid.

In the last election, Reform — led by Nigel Farage — pledged to half the UK's foreign aid budget. Unfortunately, Labour has basically implemented this, now cutting it by 40%. www.reformparty.uk/slash-govern...

Ian Mitchell@ianmitchell1.bsky.social · 2y ago

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer just cut the UK aid budget from 0.5% of GNI to 0.3% in 2027 to fund increases in defence spending. He says he’s making tough choices, but cutting funding for the world’s poorest people is the easiest—and cruellest—choice he could make (1/4)

Starmer just confirmed UK aid cut from 0.5% to 0.3% GNI to fund increased defence spending This is so bleak - thousands in low income countries will die. I get (and support) that we need to increase defence spending/capabilities in europe, but surely better ways to fund it 🧵

This is an insanely big-hearted oped from the dad of a kid with a rare pediatric cancer who must be going through an unimaginably difficult experience www.bostonglobe.com/2025/01/22/...

Excellent post (as always!) by @kopalo.bsky.social, looks at 4 key trends in Africa in 2024: 1) African countries past the worst of fiscal squeeze from debt service obligations 2) mixed results in structural reforms (focus on S Africa and Nigeria) ... www.africanistperspective.com/p/2024-year-...

2024: Year in Review

African countries weathered ongoing fiscal squeeze better than expected, with emerging shoots of economic recovery. Electoral jamboree delivered mixed results, while weak state capacity endures.

africanistperspective.com

One of my wishes for 2025: Labour needs to take forward mandatory animal welfare labelling, which Defra consulted on before the election. Here’s one mock-up:

🚨 Apply for internships at Open Philanthropy by 12 Jan 🚨 7-9 interns in 3 research teams: - global health + wellbeing - global catastrophic risks - farm animal welfare Research track (masters/phd) Strategy track (policy/consulting/similar) Thread and link: jobs.ashbyhq.com/openphilanth...

Summer Internship, 2025

Open Philanthropy is looking for interns to help us conduct further research within our Global Health and Wellbeing (GHW) Cause Prioritization, Global Catastrophic Risks (GCR) Cause Prioritization, an...

jobs.ashbyhq.com

Well, I believe the thing to say is “some personal news”. In January I will be leaving @cgdev.org after four and a half very happy years to take up the role of Deputy Chief Economist (Development) for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

"Foreign-aid fiddle" Great to see the @economist.com highlight the UK's misuse use of aid (inc some of our @cgdev.org work w/ @samhugh3s.bsky.social ) economist.com/britain/2024...

To my veg*n UK people: you can make a genuinely good “salmon + cream cheese” bagel these days Caveat: I’m too far gone [ethical humble brag] to remember the real thing and have notoriously low standards for food (I happily let my children feed me like a bird) but I think these are tasty!

"There are hard questions in the ethics of philanthropy, but this is simply not one of them. Maybe when the bed nets crew amounts to more than 0.18 percent of giving, it’ll be worth asking if we’ve gone too far." www.vox.com/future-perfe...

The problem with US charity is that it’s not effective enough

The New York Times painted a misleading picture. Less than 0.2 percent of US charity is ruthlessly optimized.

vox.com

Dustin Moskovitz@moskov.goodventures.org · 2y ago

Most EAs, including one quoted in the piece, totally agree you “don’t have to” and give to all kinds of causes. The piece assumes a totalizing view of EA “everyone should do this all the time” but really it’d just be great if more people did it more of the time (far less than 1% of giving today).

Most EAs, including one quoted in the piece, totally agree you “don’t have to” and give to all kinds of causes. The piece assumes a totalizing view of EA “everyone should do this all the time” but really it’d just be great if more people did it more of the time (far less than 1% of giving today).

The New York Times@nytimes.com · 2y ago

Effective altruism, the recent trend in philanthropy, has been to look for the most bang for your buck. Maybe you don’t have to, Emma Goldberg argues.

Another great episode this week from @jerusalem.bsky.social on Good on Paper, learning from New Zealand's response to housing crisis. One of the best podcasts around IMO - only been 6 months, but consistently great interviews on important, interesting topics www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/goo...

Good on Paper

Check your thinking

theatlantic.com