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I resigned from Anthropic today

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Re: I resigned from Anthropic today

#541

Post by neuroticnews25 »

areoform wrote: post #185

Please note, I'm not here to pick on anyone, or belittle them. I've avoided attaching names to statements below on purpose, because it's about ambient beliefs not those specific people. By-and-large a lot of AI-doomers are well intentioned. They genuinely believe this, and I might disagree but I respect the fact that they visible care and have thought a lot about the societal impact of this technology. . > The people…

Are robots and bioweapons really the threat that AI-doomers focus on? What about stuxnet-type attacks on all the critical infrastructure? Generally destroying is much easier than creating.

Re: I resigned from Anthropic today

#542

Post by jddj »

pingou wrote: post #497
King-Aaron wrote: post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the exact same way major sudden changes in the climate have lead to the extinction of the majority of plants an animals over this planets history. We are not special.

We are special in many ways, we have technology, we are everywhere, and we can think and plan (although considering global warming that is debatable). Global warming would have to create dramatic conditions everywhere on the planet, not leaving any small pocket of survivability to make humans extinct. Possible? Theoretically yes, but pretty unlikely. But obviously extreme global warming would be a catastrophe even if…

Runaway greenhouse effects on other planets have resulted in surface temps of 400C+

Re: I resigned from Anthropic today

#543

Post by nurumaik »

thomascountz wrote: post #417

No other human activity poses this level of danger. I do heed the warnings, but this comes across as detached hyperbole. See: global warming, nuclear weapon development, wealth inequality, war, technology dependence, etc. Also, this has nothing to do with LLMs or computers. Like all things, this is about humans.

Global warming: yes, kinda can wipe humanity, but I think much less likely

Nukes: zero possibility of extinction

Wealth inequality: this one is driver of progress, opposite of extinction

War: another driver of progress, also will always naturally stop before every single human is dead

Re: I resigned from Anthropic today

#544

Post by swiftcoder »

selectnull wrote: post #514
swiftcoder wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but there's no robot war in Asimov's foundation iirc, the apple screenwriters made it up There isn't in the early Foundation novels, but Azimov spent much of the later part of his career combining/retconning all of his work into a single universe - "Robots and Empire" links the foundation series to the robot series, and the subsequent foundation novels all reference the connection

As a big fan of the whole Foundation saga, I don't remember any wars in "Robots and Empire" 3 books. Granted, those were the only books I've read only once (and a long time ago), but I'm pretty sure there was no war.

That's fair, the books portray it as a quiet withdrawal from humanity, rather than a war with humanity

Re: I resigned from Anthropic today

#545

Post by geraneum »

thomascountz wrote: post #417

No other human activity poses this level of danger. I do heed the warnings, but this comes across as detached hyperbole. See: global warming, nuclear weapon development, wealth inequality, war, technology dependence, etc. Also, this has nothing to do with LLMs or computers. Like all things, this is about humans.

The AI perhaps wouldn't be such an "imminent threat" if not for wealth inequality, consolidation of power, monopoly, and the opaqueness of it all.

Re: I resigned from Anthropic today

#546

Post by minnowguy »

Ekaros wrote: post #489
parl_match wrote: post #474

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Non-example 2: There are worries about AI-facilitated biological weapons. I haven’t seen any evidence that’s happening. https://www.science.org/content/article/made-order-bioweapon... Being able to use AI to generate the steps to synthesize proteins means that you can use it to use it to generate the steps to synthesize known toxins. Suddenly, once difficult to attain knowledge is now available to everyone.

Still need to do it after getting those instructions. Not to forget equipment and precursors. I think just getting list of steps won't make it too much easier. Getting it mostly right is quite hard in many cases. And then with trivial cases you wouldn't even need AI. But just find something already documented.

Concur entirely. After reading _The Making of the Atomic Bomb_ (highly recommended, BTW) you know the steps to make a U-235 enriched atomic bomb. The difficulty comes from obtaining the enriched uranium.

Re: I resigned from Anthropic today

#547

Post by Certhas »

thomascountz wrote: post #417

No other human activity poses this level of danger. I do heed the warnings, but this comes across as detached hyperbole. See: global warming, nuclear weapon development, wealth inequality, war, technology dependence, etc. Also, this has nothing to do with LLMs or computers. Like all things, this is about humans.

Please explain how this has nothing to do with LLMs and Computers?

Re: I resigned from Anthropic today

#548

Post by raverbashing »

hypfer wrote: post #430
thomascountz wrote: post #417

No other human activity poses this level of danger. I do heed the warnings, but this comes across as detached hyperbole. See: global warming, nuclear weapon development, wealth inequality, war, technology dependence, etc. Also, this has nothing to do with LLMs or computers. Like all things, this is about humans.

In a way, that might also be driven by the huge ego (or really rather the very small ego) a _lot_ of people in tech have. Who doesn't want their work and what they're doing to matter? This is the ultimate mattering. And with that, you also get your own hero story. Same dysfunction as always. Our branch of the economy is funda-mentally unwell.

> that might also be driven by the huge ego (or really rather the very small ego)

100%

The hubris is immense

There are plenty of offline things that are more dangerous than AI

Is this Blake Lemoine 2.0?

Re: I resigned from Anthropic today

#549

Post by nullbio »

LarsDu88 wrote: post #400
nullbio wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is not the technology, the problem is the ideologues (Anthropic) who are steering the ship and the lack of decentralization and distribution of power. Your average Anthropic ideologue - including and most especially the main man himself - would love nothing more than to eradicate 9/10ths of the planet's population, pump the survivors full of memory wiping drugs, bury the existence of AI deep underground a…

Where exactly are you getting this view that folks at Anthropic want to eradicate 9/10ths of the planet's population? Who exactly is pushing this viewpoint?

Literally every single thing they do and say leads me to believe the scenario I described would be a fantasy for them. They're a radical cult collectively blinded by delusions of grandeur and a moral superiority complex who genuinely believe they are the only ones capable of wielding the proverbial sword.

Re: I resigned from Anthropic today

#550

Post by jdthedisciple »

michaelhoney wrote: post #399

I could imagine a 2027 AI swarm coordinating to eg hold the US and Russian and Chinese governments to ransom, by demonstrating some small thing (turning US army base freezers to defrost) and threatening to do something big unless some conditions were met – conditions which would be good or bad for the world depending on your POV. This happens either either because they were tasked to to it by (malicious or well-meani…

And then we pull the plug, after holding our breath for 10 seconds,. Then life resumes normally..
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