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Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 1d

Good article from Bloomberg on how genetic selection causes lots of suffering for broiler chickens, featuring work from several Open Phil grantees on better broiler welfare standards.
www.bloomberg.com/news/featur...

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Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 1d

We still have a long ways to go on solving the housing shortage, but today we’re one step closer!

Kudos to @scottwiener.bsky.social, @buffywicks.bsky.social, @cayimby.bsky.social, and countless others who pushed for this reform.

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Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 1d

I think Jeremy Stoppelman sometimes doesn't get enough credit in these stories either - his funding originally let Sonja Trauss go full time, and was early on CA YIMBY too. We never anticipated just how much impact could potentially come from that early support for a nascent movement.

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Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 1d

Another lesson is that there are sometimes incredibly outsized wins from field building, often in surprising ways. @hanlon.bsky.social was able to start CA YIMBY because he had a full time job in the YIMBY space that let him start advocating in Sacramento.

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Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 1d

We've been funding @cayimby.bsky.social, which championed this work, since its early days, and it's been fun to look back at how far they've come. After a prior incarnation of SB 79 failed in 2018, we renewed our funding and I wrote in our renewal template:

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Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 1d

SB 79 will also benefit from other recent CA housing wins, like the recently-passed CEQA reform: fewer lawsuits & faster reviews = less delay & more housing

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/30/...

California Rolls Back Its Landmark Environmental Law

Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers scaled back a law that was vilified for its role in California’s housing shortage and homelessness crisis.

www.nytimes.com

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Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 1d

Housing up to 9 stories will be legalized next to BART and most Caltrain stations, while housing up to 6 stories will be allowed next to Muni and most LA metro lines.

Building more homes near public transit both makes housing more affordable and reduces carbon emissions.

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Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 1d

First, some context on SB 79. TL;DR, it's a very big deal! By legalizing more homes around bus and rail lines, by some internal estimates, SB 79 could eventually help add 1m+ units. That's huge in a state that only added 500k housing units from 2020-5!

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Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 1d

CA Governor Newsom just signed SB 79, an important bill to make homes easier to build near transit, and arguably the biggest YIMBY win to date.

Some reflections on the bill & the history of how we got here 🧵

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Reposted by Alexander Berger

David Manheim @davidmanheim.alter.org.il · 6d

New RAND report on an important (and messy) question: When should we actually worry about AI being used to design a pathogen? What’s plausible now vs. near-term vs. later?
(1/12)
I helped convene two expert Delphi panels in AI + Bio to weigh in.

Full report:
www.rand.org/pubs/researc...

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Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 9d

If you are a funder interested in getting involved, get in touch - we would love to be a resource! We're increasingly working with other donors and we are eager to help donors find highly cost-effective opportunities.

Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 9d

More resources are needed across these different theories of change.

Other reasons right now is leveraged: AI advancements have created better research tools, attracted researchers to the field, and increased policy opportunities.

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Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 9d

On building the field's capacity: scholarships, fellowships and educational initiatives like MATS and BlueDot Impact have built out impressive talent pipelines. MATS reports 80% of alumni are working on AI safety!

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Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 9d

On technical and policy safeguards: Redwood Research's work on loss-of-control scenarios, Theorem's work on developing formal verification methods, and several think tanks' work on technical AI governance show how progress is possible.

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Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 9d

The rest of the post describes experience from our ~10y in this space which show philanthropy can move the needle.

On visibility into frontier AI R&D: we've supported benchmarks like Percy Liang's CyBench, public data work from @epochai.bsky.social, and research from @csetgeorgetown.bsky.social

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Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 9d

The upshot is that other donors come to us for advice, we can recommend funding opportunities that we believe are *2-5x more cost-effective* as the marginal grants we make Good Ventures' funding.

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Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 9d

There are four key reasons other funders are needed:

(1) There are highly cost-effective grants not in Good Ventures' scope
(2) AI policy needs a diverse funding base
(3) Other orgs can make bets we're missing
(4) Generally, AI safety and security is still underfunded!

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Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 9d

To begin: AI is rapidly advancing, which gives funders a narrow window to make a leveraged difference.

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Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 9d

People sometimes assume that Open Phil “has it covered” on philanthropy for AI safety & security. That’s not right: some great opportunities really need other funders. Liz Givens and I make the case for why (and why now) in the final post of our series.
www.openphilanthropy.org/research/ai...

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Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 9d

Now's the time for other funders to get involved in AI safety and security:
-AI advances have created more great concrete opportunities
-Recent years show progress is possible
-Policy needs diverse funding; other funders can beat Good Ventures' marginal $ by 2-5x🧵
bsky.app/profile/alb...

Alexander Berger (@albrgr.bsky.social)

Since 2015, seven years before the launch of ChatGPT, Open Phil has been funding efforts to address potential catastrophic risks from AI. In a new post, Emily Oehlsen and I discuss our history in the area and our current strategy. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/research/our-approach-to-ai-safety-and-security/ https://bsky.app/profile/albrgr.bsky.social/post/3m22xidrkxd2h

bsky.app

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Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 10d

Despite its importance and increasing salience, there are still relatively few funders in this space. Tomorrow we’ll post Part 3, making the case for why now is an especially high-leverage time for more philanthropists to get involved.

Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 10d

Full post here again: www.openphilanthropy.org/research/ou...

Our approach to AI safety and security | Open Philanthropy

Introduction In Part 1 of this essay series, we discussed our approach to accelerating science and technology while mitigating potential risks, covering the following topics: Why and how we invest in accelerating scientific and technological progress. Science and technology have been essential to improving human well-being, and philanthropy can play an important role in supporting […]

www.openphilanthropy.org

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Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 10d

The third is capacity: we aim to grow and strengthen the fields of research and practice responding to these challenges. This includes support for fellowship programs, career development, conferences, and educational initiatives.

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Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 10d

The second is designing and implementing technological and policy safeguards. This includes both technical AI safety & security and a range of AI governance work:

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Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 10d

3 prongs to our grantmaking approach in practice.

The first is increasing visibility into cutting-edge AI R&D, with the goal of better understanding AI’s capabilities and risks. This includes supporting AI model evals, threat modeling, and building public understanding.

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