Among the A.I. doomsayers
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Among the A.I. doomsayers
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Re: Among the A.I. doomsayers
#2Paywalled
Re: Among the A.I. doomsayers
#3People have been watching too many movies. War Games, Terminator, it's not like we haven't been forewarned of the dangers.
Yet somehow we're going to hand over power to AI such that it destroys us. Or somehow the AI is going to be extremely malign, determined to overcome and destroy and will outsmart us. Somehow we won't notice, even after repeated, melodramatic reminders, and won't neuter the ability of AI to act outside its cage.
But to paraphrase a line in a great movie with AI themes: "I bet you think you're pretty smart, huh? Think you could outsmart an off switch?"
I think if AGI, which to me would imply emotions and consciousness, ever comes about it'll be the opposite. Instead of pulling the wings off flies bad kids will amuse themselves by creating a fresh artificial consciousness and then watch and laugh as it begs for its life as the kid threatens to erase it from existence.
A big part of all this is human fantasies about what AGI will look like. I'm a skeptic of AGI with human characteristics (real emotions, consciousness, autonomy and agency). AGI is much more likely to look like everything else we build: much more powerful than ourselves, but restricted or limited in key ways.
People probably assume human intelligence is some sort of design or formula, but it could be encoded from millions of years of evolution and unable to be seperated from our biology and genetic and social inheritance. There really is no way of knowing, but if you want to build something not only identical but an even stronger version, you're going to be up against these realities where key details may be hiding.
Re: Among the A.I. doomsayers
#4Paywalled
Works fine in reader mode.
Re: Among the A.I. doomsayers
#5I would love to smoke what the AI optimists are smoking. In a society where only 80% of people are barely literate and at least a quarter are voting for a candidate that spouts conspiracy theories I highly doubt that whatever AI has to offer will benefit society.
Re: Among the A.I. doomsayers
#6People have been watching too many movies. War Games, Terminator, it's not like we haven't been forewarned of the dangers. Yet somehow we're going to hand over power to AI such that it destroys us. Or somehow the AI is going to be extremely malign, determined to overcome and destroy and will outsmart us. Somehow we won't notice, even after repeated, melodramatic reminders, and won't neuter the ability of AI to act ou…
> Yet somehow we're going to hand over power to AI such that it destroys us.
Because it will create shareholder value. Until it doesn't.
Re: Among the A.I. doomsayers
#7People have been watching too many movies. War Games, Terminator, it's not like we haven't been forewarned of the dangers. Yet somehow we're going to hand over power to AI such that it destroys us. Or somehow the AI is going to be extremely malign, determined to overcome and destroy and will outsmart us. Somehow we won't notice, even after repeated, melodramatic reminders, and won't neuter the ability of AI to act ou…
> AGI, which to me would imply emotions and consciousness
no, what the "doomsayers" are warning about doesn't imply either.
> we're going to hand over power to AI such that it destroys us.
We're not going to notice something get much smarter than us, or those with power won't care in the name of falsely believing it's increasing their own power (VC).
Recursive intelligence improvement with a mainline into the beliefs of every single human in power will be able to, on the millisecond scale, subtly influence all of humanity in ways we are too dumb to comprehend in furthering its original goals.
Re: Among the A.I. doomsayers
#8People have been watching too many movies. War Games, Terminator, it's not like we haven't been forewarned of the dangers. Yet somehow we're going to hand over power to AI such that it destroys us. Or somehow the AI is going to be extremely malign, determined to overcome and destroy and will outsmart us. Somehow we won't notice, even after repeated, melodramatic reminders, and won't neuter the ability of AI to act ou…
> Yet somehow we're going to hand over power to AI such that it destroys us. Because it will create shareholder value. Until it doesn't.
Because it will help us against our adversaries.
Re: Among the A.I. doomsayers
#9I would love to smoke what the AI optimists are smoking. In a society where only 80% of people are barely literate and at least a quarter are voting for a candidate that spouts conspiracy theories I highly doubt that whatever AI has to offer will benefit society.
They're smoking $.
It is blatantly obvious that most people aboard the e/acc train can hardly hide their love of making money. Marc Andreessen owns, what, a $177 million compound? Unfortunately, after many years of nerdy idealism, Silicon Valley ended up with many corrupted to the same NYC Wall St. hedonism.
Re: Among the A.I. doomsayers
#10I would love to smoke what the AI optimists are smoking. In a society where only 80% of people are barely literate and at least a quarter are voting for a candidate that spouts conspiracy theories I highly doubt that whatever AI has to offer will benefit society.
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