‘$5,000 to Save a Life Is a Bargain’

As Sam Bankman-Fried’s downfall sends effective altruism into a spiral of self-doubt, the idealist quant Elie Hassenfeld is still helping Silicon Valley richies give away hundreds of millions a year

(PHOTOGRAPH: JESSICA CHOU)

WHEN THE BOARD of OpenAI staged a bum mutiny last November, throwing out the company’s leadership only to have the bosses return while board members were pressured to resign, something seemed rotten in the state of effective altruism. Nominally, OpenAI’s mission had been to ensure that AI “benefits all of humanity.” Fiduciarily…