How AGI became the most consequential conspiracy theory of our time • Hacker News Board

Re: How AGI became the most consequential conspiracy theory of our time

#21

Post by TheAceOfHearts » Tue, Nov 04, 2025, 9:24 PM UTC

> At the core of most definitions you’ll find the idea of a machine that can match humans on a wide range of cognitive tasks.

I expect this definition will be proven incorrect eventually. This definition would best be described as a "human level AGI", rather than AGI. AGI is a system that matches a core set of properties, but it's not necessarily tied to capabilities. Theoretically one could create a very small resource-limited AGI. The amount of computational resources available to the AGI will probably be one of the factors what determines whether it's e.g. cat level vs human level.

Re: How AGI became the most consequential conspiracy theory of our time

#22

Post by hgomersall » Tue, Nov 04, 2025, 9:24 PM UTC

retube wrote: post #19

I had to click 5 (yes 5, I counted) pop up overlays to get to the article (including 2 cookie ones, cos I guess the usual one is not infuriating enough)

I just clicked on the article mode on Firefox. Worked perfectly.

Re: How AGI became the most consequential conspiracy theory of our time

#23

Post by ceejayoz » Tue, Nov 04, 2025, 9:25 PM UTC

mort96 wrote: post #18

ceejayoz wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who raw-dogs the internet without an adblocker? Have some standards.

I use uBlock Origin (the full fat version in Firefox, not the lite version). It doesn't help, because the pop-ups aren't ads. There's one asking me if I wanna be spied on, one asking me to subscribe or sign in, and one huge one telling me that there's currently a discount on subscriptions.

I've got uBlock Origin on Firefox desktop too, and none of those show. Turn on more of the filter lists in the settings - especially the stuff in the "Cookie notices" and "Annoyances" sections.

Re: How AGI became the most consequential conspiracy theory of our time

#24

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Nov 04, 2025, 9:26 PM UTC

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #21

> At the core of most definitions you’ll find the idea of a machine that can match humans on a wide range of cognitive tasks. I expect this definition will be proven incorrect eventually. This definition would best be described as a "human level AGI", rather than AGI. AGI is a system that matches a core set of properties, but it's not necessarily tied to capabilities. Theoretically one could create a very small resou…

[deleted]

Re: How AGI became the most consequential conspiracy theory of our time

#25

Post by Workaccount2 » Tue, Nov 04, 2025, 9:28 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #14

7734128 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who tolerates a website which immediately pushes three overlapping pop-ups in free user's face? Why would anyone subject themselves to so much hatred? Have some standards.

Who raw-dogs the internet without an adblocker? Have some standards.

The people making it still worthwhile to post content online.

Re: How AGI became the most consequential conspiracy theory of our time

#26

Post by krupan » Tue, Nov 04, 2025, 9:30 PM UTC

7734128 wrote: post #7

dang wrote: post #49

[stub for offtopicness]

Who tolerates a website which immediately pushes three overlapping pop-ups in free user's face? Why would anyone subject themselves to so much hatred? Have some standards.

You should probably ask an AI to read it and summarize it for you.

Re: How AGI became the most consequential conspiracy theory of our time

#27

Post by foxfired » Tue, Nov 04, 2025, 9:32 PM UTC

I remember when ChatGPT 3.5 was going to be AGI, then 4, then 4o, etc. It's kinda like the dooms day predictions, even if they fail it's ok. Because the next one though, oh that's the real doomsday. I, for one, am waiting for a true AI Scotsman [0].

[0]: https://idiallo.com/byte-size/ai-scotsman

Re: How AGI became the most consequential conspiracy theory of our time

#28

Post by ceejayoz » Tue, Nov 04, 2025, 9:32 PM UTC

erikerikson wrote: post #20

ceejayoz wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who raw-dogs the internet without an adblocker? Have some standards.

Rumor has it that some people saw the "ads pay for it all" business model and accepted the deal because they wanted the Internet to be sustainable.

I mean, that's a two-sided deal. "You watch ads, you read content". But that deal has been more and more broken by the ad networks and websites; a lot of sites are unnavigable without an adblocker now.

The days of plain text Google AdWords are long, long gone.

Re: How AGI became the most consequential conspiracy theory of our time

#29

Post by everdrive » Tue, Nov 04, 2025, 9:35 PM UTC

People are interested in consciousness much the same way that we see faces in the clouds. We just think we're going to find it everywhere: weather patterns, mountains, computers, robots, in outer space, etc.

If we were dogs, we'd invent a basic computer and start writing scifi films about whether the computers could secretly smell things. We'd ask "what does the sun smell like?"

Re: How AGI became the most consequential conspiracy theory of our time

#30

Post by Krasnol » Tue, Nov 04, 2025, 9:36 PM UTC

fabian2k wrote: post #12

Krasnol wrote: post #9

> Ilya Sutskever, cofounder and former chief scientist at OpenAI, is said to have led chants of “Feel the AGI!” at team meetings. There is...chanting in team meetings in the US? Has this been going for long now or is this some new trend picked up in Asia or something like that?

I don't think that is new. Back when Walmart tried to expand to Germany it was reported that they had employees do some Walmart chant. As you can guess this didn't go over well with German employees.

Yeah I heard that too but I assumed this is just a thing in this sector not something actually high paid employees have to participate in.