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When former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud in November 2023, many critics blamed his ethical philosophy, effective altruism, for his wrong turn in life.
But in a video debate published on Aug. 28 by the nonprofit organization Open to Debate, philosopher Peter Singer defended effective altruism, claiming that Bankman-Fried was an advocate of the “earn to give” movement, which makes up just a small part of the philosophy’s community.
According to Singer, effective altruism is the view that human beings have a moral responsibility to alleviate suffering in the world, but also to make sure that they do so efficiently and rationally.
In the debate, Singer <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://opentodebate.org/debate/does-the-effective-altruism-movement-get-giving-right/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="null" text="null">faced</a> opponent Alice Crary, who claimed that effective altruism should be abandoned because it has a shallow understanding of how to measure efficiency.<iframe width="100%" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e1e_TUbRdlA" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Singer is the author of The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism Is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically and is often considered one of the co-founding members of the effective altruism community.
Crary, who co-edited The Good it Promises, The Harm it Does: Critical Essays on Effective Altruism, is one of the philosophy’s most prominent critics.
Bankman-Fried was <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/ftx-founder-sam-bankman-fried-found-guilty-on-all-charges" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="null" text="null">convicted of seven counts of fraud</a> in connection with his tenure as CEO of the FTX crypto exchange.
Prosecutors claimed he stole billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency from customers of the exchange, which he spent on expensive houses and political donations.&nbsp;
He advocated for effective altruism throughout the time he was CEO of the exchange.
At least one former employee who knew him <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/effective-altruism-fueled-ftx-founder-sam-bankman-fried-ridiculous-actions-former-alameda" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="null" text="null">blamed the philosophy for his fraud</a>, while others have claimed that his support for effective altruism was merely a facade used to cover up his crimes.
In his opening statement, Singer claimed that effective altruism is necessary because it is the only way to avoid wasting resources. Just as human beings research before they buy a car or a new phone, they should also do research before spending large sums of money on charitable projects, he said.
Related: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/michael-lewis-going-infinite-positive-spin-sam-bankman-fried" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="null" text="null">Michael Lewis’ new book puts a positive spin on Sam Bankman-Fried</a>
In response, Crary argued that effective altruism’s “notions of reason and evidence aren’t commonsensical.” It relies solely on randomized control trials and only recommends programs that “can be shown, with the metrics of welfare economics, to have maximal benefits,” she stated. As a result, its “failures, in my eyes, are so great that it should be abandoned.”
During the debate, moderator John Donvan asked Singer specifically about Bankman-Fried. “A lot of controversy swirled around Sam Bankman-Fried,” Donvan stated, “who was really, really a strong advocate in his heyday of effective altruism.”
The former CEO “kind of was that model” of someone “earning to give,” or trying to make as much money as possible so as to have more to give away.
“I wanted to ask you about that concept, if that is important to you,” Donvan said to Singer.
Singer responded that earning to give is a small part of the effective altruism movement. “I don’t think it’s the core of the movement,” he stated.
He claimed that the website 80,000 Hours, which is often used by Effective Altruists to choose a career, only treats earning to give as “one of the possibilities among a whole range of different careers where you can do good.”
However, earning to give works sometimes, Singer claimed, stating:
<blockquote>
 “I know some people who’ve done that, and who have given very substantial amounts to effective causes, and probably have done more good than they could’ve done if, for example, they’d gone to be a teacher in an elementary school or maybe an individual aid worker. But obviously, there are other cases where it’s blown up.”
</blockquote>
Singer cited Bankman-Fried’s life as a case where earning to give apparently went wrong, as the former CEO is now in prison and will no longer be producing wealth to be given away.
Even so, he was skeptical of the claim that Bankman-Fried was deliberately trying to defraud customers. Citing Michael Lewis’ book Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, which he said provides an “inside view,” Singer claimed that Bankman-Fried may have been “incompetent rather than deliberately trying to defraud customers.”
In response, Crary acknowledged that effective altruism organizations are “moving away” from earning to give as a “slogan.”
However, she argued that the example of Bankman-Fried illustrates “a real split between effective altruists and their critics.”
Effective altruism is “ahistorical,” she stated. It tells wealthy people to give their money to help those in need, and to do so rationally and efficiently, but it doesn’t consider how they became wealthy in the first place.
This can lead them to “see themselves as saviors of the poor, showing up with kind of top-down solutions in a manner that can seem to situate the global poor in the position of something like new colonial subjects.”
Magazine: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/bitcoiners-all-in-trump-since-bitcoin-2024-getting-risky/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="null" text="null">Bitcoiners are ‘all in’ on Trump since Bitcoin ’24, but it’s getting risky</a>
In an earlier part of the debate, Crary provided more details about this claim.
Because the cost of political change can be difficult to measure, “effective altruists mostly neglect or dismiss as ineffective the coordinated efforts of justice movements to change harmful social structures,” she stated, which leads them to “neglect the political roots of misery and injustice” and “reinforces the status quo.”
On March 28, Bankman-Fried <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/sam-bankman-fried-sentenced-years-prison-hold" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="null" text="null">was sentenced to 25 years in prison</a>. He maintains his innocence and claims that he will appeal his conviction and sentence.
During the trial, prosecutors asked for jury instructions to clarify that a defendant’s belief in effective altruism <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/sbf-trial-prosecutors-argue-effective-altruism-no-defence" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="null" text="null">cannot be the basis for a fraud defense</a>.

9 months after SBF conviction, Peter Singer defends effective altruism in debate

Cointelegraph

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