Writing in November 2023, a former active member of effective altruism says they valued its evidence-based approach to reducing poverty and suffering through interventions such as deworming, vaccines and malaria nets. They recall noticing a shift toward AI existential risks at a 2015 summit on Google’s campus. Their criticism centers on arguments treating global poverty as a “rounding error” compared with the potential loss of future lives to AI. Despite that criticism, they say they still mostly donate to causes the movement recommends.