person
William MacAskill
Oxford philosopher; What We Owe The Future
Moral philosopher and co-founder of the effective altruism movement. Author of What We Owe The Future (2022), which frames AI risk as part of a longtermist moral agenda.
Profile
expertise
Policy / meta
Specialises in AI policy, regulation, governance, philanthropy, or movement strategy. Reads the technical literature but does not produce it.
Oxford philosopher; co-founded GWWC, 80,000 Hours, EA movement infrastructure. 'What We Owe the Future' (2022). Not a technical AI contributor.
recognition
Field-leading
Widely known inside the AI and AI-safety community. Appears repeatedly in top venues, podcasts, or governance forums. Not a household name to outsiders.
Defining EA-movement figure; book NYT-bestseller; some mainstream press.
vintage
Pre-deep-learning
Active before AlexNet. The existential-risk frame matures (FHI, OpenPhil, EA). Public AI commentary still rare; deep learning not yet dominant.
Founded GWWC 2009 and 80,000 Hours 2011. EA-movement intellectual frame is pre-deep-learning.
Hand-classified. See the board for the criteria and the full grid.
Strategy positions
Existential primacyendorses
Extinction/disempowerment risk overrides ordinary cost-benefitArgues preserving humanity's long-term potential is a primary moral imperative; AI risk is the most pressing longtermist concern.
We live at an unusual time in history: we have the power to influence the lives of beings who will exist for millions of generations.
Closest strategy neighbours
by jaccard overlapOther people whose strategy tags overlap with William MacAskill's. Overlap is on tag identity, not stance; opposites can show up if they reference the same tags.
Record last updated 2026-04-24.