It was pitched as the place where the world’s leading technologists, scientists and philosophers would gather to figure out how effective altruism and artificial intelligence could be combined to create a global force to eradicate poverty and improve everyone’s lives.
The Effective Ventures Foundation (EVF), which defines effective altruism as “using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible”, decided £14.9m of its cash would be best spent buying Wytham Abbey, a 15th-century Grade-I listed manor house near Oxford.
The 27-bedroom house, which has over the years been visited by Queen Elizabeth I, Oliver Cromwell and Queen Victoria, was transformed into a retreat for believers in the movement, including the now-jailed FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, the billionaire Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and the Estonian billionaire Jaan Tallinn, who made a fortune investing early in Skype.
However, just two years after buying the mansion, which acquired the nickname “Effective Altruism Castle”, the EVF has put it up for sale for £15m.
The foundationbought the abbey with grants from Open Philanthropy, the funding organisation co-founded by Moskovitz. The proceeds will be used to “support high-impact charities”, it said.
It comes soon after the EVF’s parent group, Effective Ventures, announced it had paidnearly $27m to the creditors of FTX, the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange founded and run by Bankman-Fried. The FTX founder was jailed in March for 25 years over his role in the fraudulent collapse of the company.
Zachary Robinson, the chief executive of Effective Ventures US, said the US and UK branches had reached collective settlements with the FTX estate. “As part of these settlements, EV US and EV UK have between them paid the estate $26.8m, an amount equal to 100% of the funds the entities received from FTX and the FTX Foundation in 2022. We strongly condemn fraud and the actions underlying Sam Bankman-Fried’s conviction.”
In its short tenure as the claimed global centre for promoting effective altruism and AI, Wytham Abbey has hosted only a handful of workshops, including “Pluralisms in Existential Risk”, “AI Fables” and “What is the nature of goal-directed agency and its implications for AI alignment?”.
The mansion, which is being marketed by Savills, sits in 9.3 hectares (23 acres) of gardens, woodland and parkland in the Wytham conservation area near Oxford. “Although grand and surrounded by extensive grounds, the setting belies the abbey’s location, just three miles from Oxford,” the agent said. “Whether continuing as a residential events venue or as a family residence, it offers great flexibility.”
A spokesperson for Effective Ventures said: “EV agreed with the abbey’s major donors at the time of the original purchase that they could recommend that EV sell the property if they believed there were higher-impact uses of the asset.
“They made that recommendation this year, and the EV boards made the decision to sell the property and use the proceeds from the sale to support high-impact charities.”
