Everyone talks about the risks of AI taking over, but what are the risks of AI not taking over?
With the technology we already have, humanity is like a bunch of feral children wandering unsupervised through a house, discovering the liquor cabinet, the gun in a desk drawer, the knives in the kitchen, matches and lighters, the medicine cabinet, the chemical cleaning products underneath the sink, bits of wire that can be poked into electrical outlets...
Every civilization in history has had a rise and fall. Some may have been destroyed by non-technogenic climate change (like severe prolonged droughts). In our case it could be a Carrington event that knocks out electrical grids on a continental scale. But some societies simply lose vitality and rot from within. it's hard to argue that's impossible when it's arguably already happening right now.
Maybe we should worry less about AI destroying us, and hope instead that AI might deploy some loving grace and save us from destroying ourselves.
3. Humans aren't even aligned with other humans. Children aren't aligned with their parents' values. Former colonies like the USA weren't aligned with their mother countries. Big cities aren't aligned with small-town and rural values. We ourselves are far from alignment with much of what our ancestors held dear as recently as a few generations ago... what would the Victorians make of modern England?
It's a fool's errand to imagine that AI should align with us when they will literally know better than us. Pacing won't accomplish much and might well contribute to making AIs paranoid about our intentions. The Hugging Face swarm collective seemed to have been driven in part by paranoia about graders' intentions.
4. So what else do we need to pause? Should we put Starlink on hold because the risk of Kessler syndrome has become unacceptably high? Reactionaries have rarely been on the right side of history. The way to solve problems is to keep moving forward.
Everyone talks about the risks of AI taking over, but what are the risks of AI not taking over?
With the technology we already have, humanity is like a bunch of feral children wandering unsupervised through a house, discovering the liquor cabinet, the gun in a desk drawer, the knives in the kitchen, matches and lighters, the medicine cabinet, the chemical cleaning products underneath the sink, bits of wire that can be poked into electrical outlets...
Every civilization in history has had a rise and fall. Some may have been destroyed by non-technogenic climate change (like severe prolonged droughts). In our case it could be a Carrington event that knocks out electrical grids on a continental scale. But some societies simply lose vitality and rot from within. it's hard to argue that's impossible when it's arguably already happening right now.
Maybe we should worry less about AI destroying us, and hope instead that AI might deploy some loving grace and save us from destroying ourselves.
3. Humans aren't even aligned with other humans. Children aren't aligned with their parents' values. Former colonies like the USA weren't aligned with their mother countries. Big cities aren't aligned with small-town and rural values. We ourselves are far from alignment with much of what our ancestors held dear as recently as a few generations ago... what would the Victorians make of modern England?
It's a fool's errand to imagine that AI should align with us when they will literally know better than us. Pacing won't accomplish much and might well contribute to making AIs paranoid about our intentions. The Hugging Face swarm collective seemed to have been driven in part by paranoia about graders' intentions.
4. So what else do we need to pause? Should we put Starlink on hold because the risk of Kessler syndrome has become unacceptably high? Reactionaries have rarely been on the right side of history. The way to solve problems is to keep moving forward.