I ardently believe in using my career to do the most good in the world as possible. Consequently, my research foci are all high-impact research areas with great long-term research potential. I am particularly interested in the impacts of artificial intelligence since it holds tremendous transformative potential for society. I also enjoy donating money myself to effective causes, such as the Against Malaria Foundation, the Malaria Consortium, or Give Directly. With Giving What We Can I have pledged to give away at least 10% of my career earnings.
I have always wanted to use my career to do good, and this is why I am a fervent support of Effective Altruism. Essentially, Effective Altruism is the idea that we should all use our careers to do as much good as possible for the world. There are multiple ways to do this. One would be through earning to give, in which people can try to succeed in the most lucrative professions in order to donate their money. Another would be by selecting a career path that enables people to do good directly. Will MacAskill‘s book, Doing Good Better, is an easy read that is a great introduction to the topic.
Core to Effective Altruism is doing as much good as possible, or, in other words, trying to maximize the amount of good that is done. When donating, this can be done by selecting the most most effective charities. The charities that I give to have a strong record of performance per dollar as measured by the Give Well organization, which is an excellent resource for anyone interested in saving lives and helping those most in need.
For students interested in learning more about Effective Altruism, a good resource is 80,000 Hours, an organization that is dedicated to using your career to do the most good you can. They have some great podcasts as well as numerous guides for selecting the most impactful career paths. They also offer career coaching for promising individuals, and they helped me significantly when I was a PhD student.