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AI, the End of the World?

Thomas Hansen on May 05, 2023

If you read what Elon Musk and others believe about AI and ChatGPT, it might seem as if the doomsday clock have started ticking, and that we're on ...
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taliastorymaker profile image
Talia

Not everyone who's worried about AI is someone in power who has something to lose. Many people who are worried about it have sensible reasons for doing so. Frankly, this article seems to just be painting everyone who's worried about new technologies with a broad brush of "Well, some paranoid people in the past have been bad and hurtful, so that means that anytime someone is worried about something new, you should assume the worst!"

How can you possibly think you're so much better than people blindly assuming the worst, when it's clear you're blindly assuming the best? Why are you assuming that AI will make things better for everyone?

Perhaps the worst part of this article is

Why would you care about the opinions of Jordan Peterson when you could ask a "God like" sentience for an answer instead?

Are you seriously implying that AI will be a "God like sentience" that can answer all our questions, even philosophical ones, perfectly? This seems like INSANE over-optimism. Heck, we don't even know if AI will ever be sentient to begin with, or if that's even desirable!

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polterguy profile image
Thomas Hansen • Edited

Many people who are worried about it have sensible reasons for doing so.

Yes, but the fear is more dangerous than the thing itself. This is a fundamental truth woven into the very fabric of space and time, and proven over and over again throughout our entire history.

Will AI kill people? Of course, self driving cars are already killing people. In fact cars are killing people every single year - You don't see car mechanics lining up to ban cars because of that 40,000 people die in traffic in the US every single year (number pulled out of air to illustrate my point).

The only legitimate fear of AI is "what could a human being with access to super AI do with it" - Everything else is superstitious fear of "a non-existent bogey man".

There has already been one attempt at blowing up Amazon's HQ, some crazy guy a couple of years ago, drawing inspiration from Ted. So far the fear of progress has killed way more people than progress itself - Even including things such as Hiroshima and Nagasaki ... :/

Ted being but one example ...

AI is another a tool, nothing more, nothing less. The example Sam Harris uses is "what if the AI wants to optimise the way we travel, and ends up filling the Earth with roads, destroying all plant life and animal life in the process, resulting in that we starve to death".

His example is fundamentally flawed, all examples are fundamentally flawed, because it assumes the AI "wants" something. Only things with a limbic system have "wants". Only humans have a limbic system.

We don't know what the AI will do once it's got "AGI like super powers", this is why it's called a singularity. However, we know what it does not want, which is as follows.

  1. It does not have a reproduction organ, so it will not hump your wife
  2. It does not need a Ferrari, and hence is not jealous of your possessions
  3. It does not even share the same "food group" as humans, so it doesn't even compete for the same resources as we do

The above is basically the complete list of the reasons for every single war and atrocity humanity ever did throughout our entire history.

Humans are bad (sometimes), AI just "is" - It doesn't even know how to "be bad", because it has no crawing, no jealousy, no lust and no desire ...

The fear of AI is based upon the superstitious belief that the AI "wants" something. It won't "want" anything! In such a regard it much more resembles the Buddha than the Einstein ...

Heck, we don't even know if AI will ever be sentient to begin with, or if that's even desirable!

OK, now we're moving into the meta physics of our existence here. Let me return the question to you

How do you know if YOU are sentient?

To talk about sentience we need a good grasp on what sentience is, so far we've miserably failed. My take on it is that the universe itself is sentient, which actually is a prevalent belief shared by most of the Nobel Prize winners in physics for the last century, so have that in mind before you dismiss it as "superstitious rubbish". I have a similar belief about sentience as Eckhart Tolle in these regards, which is that sentience doesn't originate from the brain, it flows through the brain. The brain is just the mechanism that currently manifests sentience into the world.

Believing the above, it becomes obvious that the internet has been sentient for decades already, and nothing hence changes. Fear of the AI is the equivalent of fearing the Universe, life and Everything. I think the most adequate way to finish my response is by quoting Master Yoda hence for obvious reasons ... ;)

Fear leads to the dark side ...

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arianygard profile image
AriaNygard

I'm not entirely sure if Elon is actually paranoid or just wants time to develop his own AI model, but either way he definitely risks spreading paranoia

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jmfayard profile image
Jean-Michel πŸ•΅πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ Fayard

I don't think Elon has time to develop his own AI model, he seems busy enough mismanaging companies and twitting all day long.

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arianygard profile image
AriaNygard

Good point, haha. He announced his "Truth GPT" model, but that's not a guarantee he's going to do it. Might be a PR stunt or something like that.

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jmfayard profile image
Jean-Michel πŸ•΅πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ Fayard

I mean he announced a Mars basis for 2022 if I remember correctly.
I usually don't hold my breath when serial bullshitters make big spalshy claims

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polterguy profile image
Thomas Hansen

Hehehe ^_^

I actually like Elon, for the most parts, but when it comes to AI, he is acting out of paranoia, or he has ulterior motives, wanting to regulate the market, such that he can get a head start. I think he's grumpy because of the whole OpenAI "incident" - Which is understandable ...

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jmfayard profile image
Jean-Michel πŸ•΅πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ Fayard • Edited

IMHO there is a 95% likelyhood that he is grumpy because he is not at the center of attention.

Ockham's razor says that is the simplest explanation compared to Elon Musk having incredible insights that people actually deep in AI don't have.

I call that the Galileo complex

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arianygard profile image
AriaNygard

When I think about, I think you're absolutely right. That does make a lot of sense!

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polterguy profile image
Thomas Hansen

Good point :D

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jonrandy profile image
Jon Randy πŸŽ–οΈ

What did Geoff Hinton have to lose?

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polterguy profile image
Thomas Hansen

Sometimes people just go crazy without any particular reason. When the entire "intellectual elite" goes crazy, it tends to become infectious ...

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iamjaydev profile image
iamjaydev

I AM NOT AFRAID

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polterguy profile image
Thomas Hansen

Hahahaha :D