Toby Ord

Toby Ord is a Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy at Oxford University, and he has been working on the big picture questions facing humanity for nearly two decades. His work focuses on what we can do to create a better future for everyone. Toby’s earlier work explored the ethics of global health and global poverty, demonstrating that aid has been highly successful on average and has the potential to be even more successful if we were to improve our priority setting.
He then created an international society called Giving What We Can, whose members have pledged over $1.5 billion to the most effective charities helping to improve the world. He co-founded the wider effective altruism movement in 2009, which now has thousands of members worldwide.
He is currently researching the long-term future of humanity and risks to our potential on behalf of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University. His new book, The Precipice (2018), explores these topics and concludes that safeguarding our future is among the most pressing issues we currently face. Toby has advised organizations like WHO, World Economic Forum, and UK Prime Minister’s Office Cabinet Office.