Comment on OpenAI Insider Estimates 70 Percent Chance That AI Will Destroy or Catastrophically Harm Humanity

darkphotonstudio@beehaw.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• Kichae@lemmy.ca ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I think much of it comes from “futurologists” spending too much time smelling each others’ farts. These AI guys think so very much of themselves.

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  • Hazzia@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    It’s crazy how little experts like these think of humanity, or just underestimate our tollerance and adaptability to weird shit. People used to talk about how “if we ever learned UFOs were a real phenomena, there would be global mayhem!” because people’s world views would collapse and they’d riot, or whatever. After getting a few articles the past few years since that first NY Times article, I’ve basically not heard anyone really caring (who didn’t already seem to be into them before, anyway). Hell, we had a legitimate attempt to overthrow our own government, and the large majority of our population just kept on with their lives.

    The same AI experts 10 years ago would have thought the AI we have right now would have caused societal collapse.

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    • darkphotonstudio@beehaw.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Idk about societal collapse, but think about the amount of damage the World Wide Web and social media has and continues to do. Look at the mess cars have made of cities around the world over the course of a century. Just because it doesn’t happen overnight, doesn’t mean serious problems can’t occur.

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  • darkphotonstudio@beehaw.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Agreed, partially. However, the “techbros” in charge, for the most part, aren’t the researchers. There are futurologists who are real scientists and researchers. Dismissing them smacks of the anti-science knuckleheads ignoring warnings about the dangers of not wearing masks and getting vaccines during the pandemic.

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    • Kichae@lemmy.ca ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      “Futurologist” is a self-appointed honorific that people who fancy themselves “deep thinkers” while thinking of nothing more deeply than how deep they are. It’s like declaring oneself an “intellectual”.

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• verdare@beehaw.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  The only danger to humans is humans.

  I’m sorry, but this is a really dumb take that borders on climate change denial logic. A sufficiently large comet is an existential threat to humanity. You seem to have this optimistic view that humanity is invincible against any threat but itself, and I do not think that belief is justified.

  People are right to be very skeptical about OpenAI and “techbros.” But I fear this skepticism has turned into outright denial of the genuine risks posed by AGI.

  I find myself exhausted by this binary partitioning of discourse surrounding AI. Apparently you have to either be a cult member who worships the coming god of the singularity, or think that AI is either impossible or incapable of posing a serious threat.

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  • darkphotonstudio@beehaw.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    You seem to have this optimistic view that humanity is invincible against any threat but itself

    I didn’t say that. You’re making assumptions. However, I don’t take AGI as a serious risk, not directly anyway. AGI is a big question mark at this time and hardly comparable to a giant comet or pandemic, of which we have experience or solid scientific evidence. Could it be a threat? Yeah. Do I personally think so? No. Our reaction to and exploitation of will likely do far more harm than any direct action by an AGI.

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