SIAI does not presently exhibit high levels of transparency and accountability... For this reason together with the concerns which I express about Existential Risk and Public Relations, I believe that at present GiveWell's top ranked charities VillageReach and StopTB are better choices than SIAI

I have difficulty taking this seriously. Someone else can respond to it.

agree with what I interpret to be Dario's point above: that in evaluating charities which are not transparent and accountable, we should assume the worst.

Assuming that much of the worst isn't rational. It would be a convenient soldier for your argument, but it's not the odds to bet at. Also, you don't make clear what constitutes a sufficient level of transparency and accountability, though of course you will now carefully look over all of SIAI's activities directed at transparency and accountability, and decide that the needed level is somewhere above that.

You say you assume the worst, and that other people should act accordingly. Would you care to state "the worst", your betting odds on it, how much you're willing to bet, and what neutral third party you would accept as providing the verdict if they looked over SIAI's finances and told you it wasn't true? If you offer us enough free money, I'll vote for taking it.

I have to say that my overall impression here is of someone who manages to talk mostly LW language most of the time, but when his argument requires a step that just completely fails to make sense, like "And this is why if you're trying to minimize existential risk, you should support a charity that tries to stop tuberculosis" or "And this is where we're going to assume the worst possible case instead of the expected case and actually act that way", he'll just blithely keep going.

With Michael Vassar in charge, SIAI has become more transparent, and will keep on doing things meant to make it more transparent, and I have every confidence that whatever it is we do, it will never be enough for someone who is, at that particular time, motivated to argue against SIAI.