Ask HN: AI Panic, you buying it?

#1

Post by elai-intelligen » Wed, Sep 16, 2026, 5:00 PM UTC

In your opinion, do you buy into the panic about AI eliminating humanity or potentially disrupting and taking down the internet? Is this a marketing ploy?

Give me your best thoughts on this most recent call for AI slowdown.

Re: Ask HN: AI Panic, you buying it?

#2

Post by blinkbat » Wed, Sep 16, 2026, 5:11 PM UTC

at this moment? no. one day, perhaps soon? yes

Re: Ask HN: AI Panic, you buying it?

#3

Post by JohnFen » Wed, Sep 16, 2026, 5:12 PM UTC

No, I don't buy into that at all.

I think that the genAI companies themselves present a greater danger to us (arguably not an existential danger, though) than genAI itself.

Re: Ask HN: AI Panic, you buying it?

#4

Post by blinkbat » Wed, Sep 16, 2026, 5:12 PM UTC

blinkbat wrote: post #2

at this moment? no. one day, perhaps soon? yes

also, taking down the internet for a couple days doesn't sound so bad. we could all hang out again.

Re: Ask HN: AI Panic, you buying it?

#5

Post by deepsquirrelnet » Wed, Sep 16, 2026, 5:28 PM UTC

No. Frontier AI companies need the government to shield them from becoming commodity. That's why they're begging for regulation.

On the other side, the current administration also has powerful backers whose businesses are complemented by AI and would benefit from it becoming a commodity. Think about who Vance is speaking on behalf of.

So the AI companies need to use fear to drive public demand for their regulation efforts. IMO there's little to no honest discourse and a lot of attempts to manipulate public opinion for objectives that we have little stake in. I personally don't trust any of the involved parties to make decisions for the public good.

Re: Ask HN: AI Panic, you buying it?

#6

Post by taurath » Wed, Sep 16, 2026, 5:42 PM UTC

They’re not giving any details about why or how.

If they were the moral people they say they are, and believed what they say about it killing humanity they would stop unilaterally. These are the “rationalists” but they act like the fundamentalist church I grew up in. Every fact serves the same conclusion.

Re: Ask HN: AI Panic, you buying it?

#7

Post by setnone » Wed, Sep 16, 2026, 5:48 PM UTC

blinkbat wrote: post #4

blinkbat wrote: post #2

at this moment? no. one day, perhaps soon? yes

also, taking down the internet for a couple days doesn't sound so bad. we could all hang out again.

i wish internet had a day off on sunday

Re: Ask HN: AI Panic, you buying it?

#8

Post by ahmedhossamdev » Wed, Sep 16, 2026, 5:50 PM UTC

[dead]

Re: Ask HN: AI Panic, you buying it?

#9

Post by setnone » Wed, Sep 16, 2026, 5:54 PM UTC

if AGI will come in versions i think we are safe

Re: Ask HN: AI Panic, you buying it?

#10

Post by herbst » Wed, Sep 16, 2026, 5:54 PM UTC

From my perspective it looks like working to deep in AI makes you crazy. No other way to explain all the weird bullshit these billionaires throw around.

Sure AI sucks, but not to that degree (yet)