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Yann LeCun: AI one-percenters seizing power forever is real doomsday scenario

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Re: Yann LeCun: AI one-percenters seizing power forever is real doomsday scenario

#561

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> seize power via regulatory capture Not even a little bit. "Stop" is not regulatory capture. Some large AI companies are attempting to twist "stop" into "be careful, as only we can". The actual way to stop the existential risk is to stop. https://twitter.com/ESYudkowsky/status/1719777049576128542 > the push to close off AI with farcical licensing and reporting requirements "Stop" is not "licensing and reporting requ…

The fact that anyone may be taking Eliezer Yudkowsky seriously on this topic is mind-blowing to me. Simply mind-blowing. To imagine that anybody, including the UN, would have any power to collective put a stop to the development of AI globally is a laughable idea. The UN cannot agree to release a letter on Israel-Hamas, imagine policing the ENTIRE WORLD and shutting down AI development when necessary. We can't stop c…

Every time I see Yudkowsky’s writing I wonder why people take him seriously. Just a couple of months back he was duped by a fake story about an airforce AI deciding to kill it’s operators in a simulation. It turned out the whole thing was thought experiment.

Asking Yudkowsky what we should do about AI is like asking Green Peace what we should do about nuclear power.

Re: Yann LeCun: AI one-percenters seizing power forever is real doomsday scenario

#562

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> If they are Am I the only one slightly disturbed by the use of "they" in that sentence? I know that the HN commentariat is broad-based, but I didn't realise we already had non-human members ;-)

HN wIlegh tlhInganpu', Human.

wait do you actually speak Klingon?

Re: Yann LeCun: AI one-percenters seizing power forever is real doomsday scenario

#563

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He actually doesn't think it's viable, but thinks its the only card left to play. He's pretty sure that human civilization will be extinct this century.

Why exactly should I care what this person thinks?

He wrote a really engaging Harry Potter fanfiction.

Re: Yann LeCun: AI one-percenters seizing power forever is real doomsday scenario

#564

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If they are, it'll almost certainly[1] be climate change or nuclear war, it won't be AI. If we go extinct in the next 100 years, it's not going to be from climate change. How would that even work?

Basically, climate change would creates lots of problems, lots of hungry immigrants. And right now we are already close to a nuclear war, so climate change would not directly wipe out humanity.

Warming the climate would increase the amount of arable land.

Sea level rise happens very slowly, so most people don’t need to travel abroad to avoid it.

Re: Yann LeCun: AI one-percenters seizing power forever is real doomsday scenario

#565

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He actually doesn't think it's viable, but thinks its the only card left to play. He's pretty sure that human civilization will be extinct this century.

> He's pretty sure that human civilization will be extinct this century. If they are, it'll almost certainly[1] be climate change or nuclear war, it won't be AI. [1] leaving some wiggle room for pandemics, asteroids, etc.

Companies and three-letter agencies have persecuted environmental activists by all sorts of shitty means for decades, using "AI" to completely bury them online will be a welcome tool for them, I'm sure. As it is for totalitarian governments.

It's generally really weird to me how all these discussions seem to devolve into whataboutism instantly, and how that almost always takes up the top spots and most of the room. "Hey, you should get this lump checked out, it might be cancer!" "Oh yeah? With the crime in this city, I'm more likely to get killed for my phone than die of cancer". What does that achieve? I mean, if people are so busy campaigning against nuclear proliferation or climate change that they have not a single spare cycle to consider additional threats, fine. But then they wouldn't be here, they wouldn't have the time for it, so.

Re: Yann LeCun: AI one-percenters seizing power forever is real doomsday scenario

#566
post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He's pretty sure that human civilization will be extinct this century. If they are, it'll almost certainly[1] be climate change or nuclear war, it won't be AI. [1] leaving some wiggle room for pandemics, asteroids, etc.

AI can make a lot of other risks worse. For example, say someone asks GPT5 (or decensored Llama-5) how to kill everyone and it patiently and expertly walks them through how to create a global pandemic.

The actual work required to execute such a plan is vastly more difficult than being told how to do it. How the original atomic bombs worked is well-known, but even nation-states struggle with implementing it.

Re: Yann LeCun: AI one-percenters seizing power forever is real doomsday scenario

#567

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people who can do doomsday level harm need to complete a level of education that makes them smart enough and gives them time to consider the implications of their actions. They have a certain level of maturity before they can strike and this maturity makes them understand the gravity of their actions. Also, by this point they are probably set financially due to their education and not upset with the world (possib…

Counterpoint: the Unabomber

Lol : )

Re: Yann LeCun: AI one-percenters seizing power forever is real doomsday scenario

#568
post #409

"AI Godfather" is... pretty fucking ludicrous. Prominent figure, notable researcher? Sure. But it's like calling Neil deGrasse Tyson (who I enjoy a lot; Astrophysics for People In A Hurry was great) the "Godfather of Physics". Both "there's not one" and "anyway, if there were, he wouldn't be it" apply.

Yann LeCun: the CEO of AI.

Re: Yann LeCun: AI one-percenters seizing power forever is real doomsday scenario

#569
post #566
post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AI can make a lot of other risks worse. For example, say someone asks GPT5 (or decensored Llama-5) how to kill everyone and it patiently and expertly walks them through how to create a global pandemic.

The actual work required to execute such a plan is vastly more difficult than being told how to do it. How the original atomic bombs worked is well-known, but even nation-states struggle with implementing it.

For nukes I agree, and that's the main reason I'm less worried about nukes. But for bio it's mostly a matter of knowledge and not resources: for all the parts that do need resources there are commercial services, in a way there aren't for nukes.

Re: Yann LeCun: AI one-percenters seizing power forever is real doomsday scenario

#570

The way incumbents are attempting to seize power via regulatory capture, using "X-Risk" and fantastical claims of sudden human extinction is maybe one of the most cynical ploys in the history of tech so far. Open source is one of our greatest gifts, and the push to close off AI with farcical licensing and reporting requirements (which will undoubtedly become more strict) is absurd. The laws we have already cover male…

> The way incumbents are attempting to seize power via regulatory capture, using "X-Risk" and fantastical claims of sudden human extinction is maybe one of the most cynical ploys in the history of tech so far. How sure are you that they don't think the risk is real? I have only third hand accounts, but at least some of the low level people working for OpenAI seemed to think the risk is worth taking seriously, its not…

> but at least some of the low level people working for OpenAI seemed to think the risk is worth taking seriously

Everyone has an opinion, but the experts seem strangely silent on this matter. I mean experts in human risk, not experts in AI. The latter love to ramble on, but are unlikely to know anything about social and humanitarian consequences – at least no more than the stock boy at Walmart. Dedicating one's life to becoming an expert in AI doesn't leave much time to become an expert in anything else. There is only so much time in the day.

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