80,000 Hours Narrations

Jan 09 2025 164 ep. 22 mins 33

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Narrations of articles from 80000hours.org.

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[Career review] Nuclear weapons safety and security

Jan 09 2025 27 mins

Find out how you could use your career to prevent a nuclear war and reduce the risks posed by nuclear weapons. ---Outline:(01:22) Recommended(01:31) Review status(01:37) Why working to prevent nuclear conflict is high-impact(03:10) What goals should we be aiming towards?(07:29) What does this path involve?(08:28) Working in the US government(14:12) Other governments and internation

[Skill profile] Specialist knowledge relevant to a top problem

Jan 09 2025 3 mins

Which areas of specialist knowledge are most applicable to solving the world's most pressing problems? ---Outline:(02:20) How should you get started building specialist knowledge?(02:50) All our career reviews relevant to building specialist knowledge(03:14) Explore other useful skills--- First published: September 18th, 2023 Last updated: December 15th, 2023 Source: ht

[Article] The case for reducing existential risks

Jan 05 2025 54 mins

What experts say are the most likely existential risks, why they're more likely than people think, and what we can do about them. ---Outline:(00:54) Prefer a podcast?(03:14) How likely are you to be killed by an asteroid? An overview of naturally occurring existential threats(04:45) A history of progress, leading to the start of the most dangerous epoch in human history(07:24) Nucl

High-leverage ways to speed up economic growth

Our overall view Sometimes recommended We’d love to see more people working on this issue. But you might be able to do even more good working on one of our top priority problem areas. See the scores for all problems we've investigated. -- Profile depth Exploratory That's the end of the summary. The main problem profile begins now. Why might economic growth be a pressing issue?

[Problem profile] Understanding the moral status of digital minds

Oct 17 2024 76 mins

We don't know how to assess whether future AI systems will have moral status. Here's why that could be a big problem. ---Outline:(02:23) Summary(03:09) Our overall view(04:49) Why might understanding the moral status of digital minds be an especially pressing problem?(04:56) 1. Humanity may soon grapple with many AI systems that could be conscious(10:38) Clearing up common misconce

[Article] Anonymous answers: could advances in AI supercharge biorisk?

Oct 11 2024 19 mins

This is Part Four of our four-part series of biosecurity anonymous answers. You can also read Part One: Misconceptions, Part Two: Fighting pandemics, and Part Three: Infohazards. One of the most prominently discussed catastrophic risks from AI is the potential for an AI-enabled bioweapon. But discussions of future technologies are necessarily speculative. ---Outline:(01:23) Who we

[Article] Anonymous answers: How can we manage infohazards in biosecurity?

Sep 26 2024 22 mins

*This is Part Three of our four-part series of biosecurity anonymous answers. You can also read Part One: Misconceptions and Part Two: Fighting pandemics. In the field of biosecurity, many experts are concerned with managing information hazards (or infohazards). This is information that some believe could be dangerous if it were widely known — such as the gene sequence of a deadl

[Article] Anonymous answers: What are the best ways to fight the next pandemic?

Sep 11 2024 28 mins

*This is Part Two of our four-part series of biosecurity anonymous answers. You can also read Part One: Misconceptions. Preventing catastrophic pandemics is one of our top priorities. But the landscape of pandemic preparedness is complex and multifaceted, and experts don't always agree about what the most effective interventions are or how resources should be allocated. ---Outline:

[Career review] Should you work at a frontier AI company?

Aug 28 2024 36 mins

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[Career review] Think tank research

Aug 28 2024 28 mins

Working in a think tank for a few years early in your career is a plausible way to influence government policy for the better, and in the meantime gain... ---Outline:(00:40) Pros(01:02) Cons(01:29) Key facts on fit(01:45) Next steps(02:35) Get free, one-on-one career advice(02:53) Recommended(03:03) Review status(03:08) Research process(03:21) What is a career in a think tank?(05:3