It was noted that the pledge had been substantially weakened, to "I intend, at least in part, to use my career in an effective way to make the world a better place.". My recollection says that it used to be more like "I will use my career to most effectively reduce global poverty". There wasn't any particular defence of the choice of wording or any indication that there had been deep thought about precisely what that pledge should constitute.

I agree that this is very difficult, and am not entirely happy with the latest version. But it's hard to come up with an acceptable version that doesn't just re-state consequentialism. For example, if you explicitly mention global poverty, you force people to donate there even if Xrisk charities might be better for the world as a whole.

disclaimer: I volunteer for GWWC. As it would be tiresome to mention this on every thread in this conversation, I shan't do so again, and will trust this suffices for transparency, especially as I am not a salaried employee.