AI for social good! What does existing rigorous evidence tell us about the most promising opportunities for AI to fulfill its potential? On the @j-pal.bsky.social blog, we outline six pathways:

Consider yourself lucky if this doesn't frighten you. It's a nightmare on the Northeast Regional Corridor.

Recently unearthed my favorite tweet in the history of twitter, posting here so I never lose it again (hi @mosenkis.bsky.social )

This looks like a phenomenal resource!

“the food marked for destruction could have met the nutritional needs of every child facing acute food insecurity in Gaza for a week”

No words for this hypocrisy. These people sacrificed millions of human lives, decades of progress against the world’s toughest challenges, and our country’s soft power—all while COSTING Americans $6B. news.bgov.com/bloomberg-go...

1. Trump's tax cuts overwhelmingly help the rich 2. His spending cuts are targeted at the poor 3. Tariffs cost the poor a larger share of their income Roll these three regressive policies together and you get the largest redistribution from poor to rich in American history. The anti-Robin Hood.

📅 On June 12, join @hanshengchia.bsky.social, Samantha Carter, & Farhan Abrol for a @voxdev.bsky.social event exploring the potential applications of AI. W/ @cgdev.org, @j-pal.bsky.social & @agencyfund.bsky.social. Register! ⬇️ cepr-org.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Excellent podcast summarizing both a new RCT (tinyurl.com/findingtalen...) and the general discussion on "AI for the Global South." Two things I particularly liked:

“Behavioral economist Sendhil Mullainathan has never forgotten the pleasure he felt the first time he tasted a delicious crisp, yet gooey Levain cookie" is an excellent lede computing.mit.edu/news/the-swe...

USAID cuts have left major aid programs without funding. @cgdev.org is now hosting a team analyzing which ex-USAID programs are most cost-effective—and connecting them with donors willing to step in. Learn more in @npr.org: www.npr.org/sections/goa...

If it looks like the intervention you evaluated didn't work, what does that really mean? blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva... My summary of a taxonomy by Glewwe & Muralidharan #throwbackthursday

Quite the quote.

Great interview with @deankarlan.bsky.social! On generalizability (it matters but it's solvable), whether RCTs really are too slow (no, the eval method doesn't determine timelines, the outcomes of interest do), agency (exciting, need more research), etc.

If you find yourself confused by, tired of, and/or wanting more conversation about "evaluation" in AI, fear not! A new, practical framework from @theagencyfund.bsky.social is here. Hans @cgdev.org and I love it, and are helping to spread the word!

Just came across this piece, and agree with it wholeheartedly! "Governments must realign incentives [from the current focus on automation] to encourage AI that serves social needs, such as enhancing education, improving health outcomes, and tackling climate challenges."

What do we get wrong (i.e. misperceive) about the world? Why does it matter? How does fixing misperceptions improve society? Research on @voxdev.bsky.social has answered all these questions and more, documenting a series of misperceptions that can be fixed 🧵

Worried about the people hurt by Trump’s cuts? @sigalsamuel.bsky.social has curated some great resources for how to help:

“The world must now affirm that human lives matter, no matter where they are.” In a new op-ed, Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo call for governments, multilaterals, and philanthropists to double down on investing in evidence-backed programs that improve people’s lives. www.ft.com/content/43e9...

Your tax dollars did amazing things.

Another op-ed by someone whose ACTUAL JOB was making US govt. more efficient, for everyone's benefit. "Our work was about trying to learn how to make government work better and more efficiently. I would have been very open to investigate the questions they had, but I didn’t have an opportunity to."

How can AI be used for social good? A new piece in Nature highlights a few examples (1/n) www.nature.com/articles/d41...

"We now have a million million tragedies that could have been avoided."