Many AI leaders have turned their ire to effective altruism. Peter Thiel isn’t a fan himself, but he thinks the movement got “one big thing” right.
Thiel spoke to Walter Isaacson on his forthcoming podcast, “The Builders.” In a clip shared exclusively with Business Insider, Thiel compared effective altruism to a cult — but said that followers were right in their early AI predictions.
“It had maybe the good dimension of a cult, where there was one big thing they knew that the other people did not,” Thiel said.
Effective altruists believe in using evidence and reason to pick how best to use their money and careers to benefit humanity. While the movement was once personified by FTX founder and convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried, it has taken on new meaning with the calls for AI safety.
On the podcast, Thiel said that the AI theories of past effective altruists were closer to reality than one might expect. In the midst of an “AI desert,” when the technology was overpromised but never fully developed, these futurists believed it would come, he said.
The effective altruists predicted that it would be an “enormously socially transformative thing,” Thiel said, and that “it could be weaponized.”
Thiel also linked effective altruism to the AI giant Anthropic.
“A billion-dollar company seems bigger than a crazed cult could build,” Thiel said. “Has a cult ever done something like that?”
Anthropic cofounders Dario and Daniela Amodei both have histories with effective altruism, though neither currently identify with the title. The Financial Times reported that more than 60 current and former Anthropic employees pledged to donate part of their income.
Thiel was deeply critical of effective altruists. This was his argumentation strategy, he said: he was trying to “steel-man” them by pointing out one big thing they got right.
Isaacson asked him to clarify exactly what the one thing was.
“AI,” Thiel said. “AI is around the corner.”
