Under fire over AI, effective altruism wants to tell its own story

Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei is considered a key figure in effective altruism’s early days, although he now denies any link. | REUTERS

Nov 10, 2026

New York – The effective altruism movement, which has close ties to the AI industry and the companies leading the artificial intelligence boom, has drawn mainstream attention and accusations of cult-like behavior and alarmism.

The hard-to-define movement is still growing, and wants to better explain its values amid bitter criticism from the Trump administration and some powerful voices in Silicon Valley.

Its founding principle is to give money or time to major causes as effectively as possible, an intentionally dispassionate approach has at times been called out of touch.

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