Every generation brings a new class of elites who claim they’ve discovered a new formula for saving humanity. Boomer elites peddled a regimen of public health, education, and science as a cure for social decay. Millennial gurus heralded environmental religion and social justice as their elixir for saving the earth from disaster. Regardless of which self-righteous brigade winds up pushing a moral mandate, the outcome is invariably zero social benefit while the elites somehow manage to award themselves small fortunes.
Today, the cause du jour is “effective altruism,” an alleged humanity-saving cure sold by a small but influential tribe of business leaders trying to convince us we’re on the brink of an AI apocalypse only they can stop. When applied to AI, effective altruism, as they describe it, uses reason, math, and transparency to make the world moral by limiting technology in ways that supposedly maximize societal impact and minimize harm to humans.
On the surface, effective altruism may seem like a philanthropic movement embedded in AI software solutions, but behind these “ethical” algorithms is a power play to justify government control and tech elite oversight. It’s a cult of control sold through scare tactics and AI doomerism. To wit, it is a most unwelcome development as America is in the midst of a crucial fight with China in the race to dominate AI, a race where not finishing first is truly finishing last.
The left, of course, is taking the bait and going back for seconds. Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders is behind a movement in the Senate already planning an AI “robot tax” while calling for a moratorium on new data centers until total government control of AI has been firmly entrenched. For America’s quest to remain the world leader in developing technology, this is tantamount to an Olympic runner taking a nap on the track.
Effective altruism’s core belief is that a few people should decide what’s best for everyone else. That notion is also the core problem. For a decade, billionaire effective altruists have poured money into think tanks, universities, various charities, and Silicon Valley startups, pushing a vision of top-down moral engineering in government, media, and technology. Their slogan is “doing the most good,” but their methods show they’re more about justifying government control and instilling tech elite oversight through central planning.
These effective altruists now sit at the heart of the AI industry, especially at AI systems software company Anthropic, the company behind the chatbot Claude. Anthropic was built on effective altruism ideals. But when they were hacked by China earlier this year, it showed how empty the effective altruist grandstanding really is. The same people lecturing the world about AI safety couldn't keep their own system safe.
Anthropic and the effective altruist movement have been largely funded by the infamous Sam Bankman-Fried, an effective altruist who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for stealing billions of dollars in customer funds from his FTX cryptocurrency exchange to finance investments, lavish homes, and political donations, and by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz through his nonprofit organization, Open Philanthropy. This nonprofit further supported Shaun King, founder of the Real Justice PAC, which influenced elections of liberal state attorneys general who have become notorious for refusing to prosecute crimes.
After the FTX scandal, effective altruism became synonymous with money laundering and legal meddling. To help preserve their self-centered cause, Open Philanthropy changed its name to Coefficient Giving – same donors, same ideas, same funding strategy. Only a new label.
This rebrand says everything we need to know. Those who preached transparency and holier-than-thou ethics are now hiding behind super PACs and AI doomerism marketing tactics that will continue influencing policy through the midterm elections.
When a handful of effective altruist elites decide what’s allowed, the biggest loser will be America’s future, with workers and consumers taking the brunt.
As all vast new technologies tend to do, AI is expected to cause disruptions in the labor market. But similar to past innovations, ranging from the automobile to farm equipment to the internet, AI will result in an economic boom through increased productivity, higher wages, and boundless new consumer choices. True technical innovation always expands personal freedom, not restricts it. The issue isn’t whether AI is coming but whether it will be driven by U.S. technology and innovation or by a foreign adversary, a prospect to which the adherents of effective altruism pose a direct and undeniable threat.
With AI still a nascent industry, America doesn’t have the luxury of morally compromised billionaires pushing a hollow ethos to buttress ethically flawed products from Anthropic. As the preachers of this false gospel amplify their sermon on AI end times, we’d be wise to note their ongoing efforts to divert the largesse of AI into their already flush bank accounts. Free markets and freedom of choice are far better options for humanity’s future than super wealthy moral overlords preaching a phony altruism from their beach home in the Bahamas.
Gerard Scimeca is chairman and general counsel for CASE, Consumer Action for a Strong Economy, a free-market consumer advocacy organization he co-founded.
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