Here it is:
One of the signatories is Elon Musk, whose deep thoughts have been revealed on Twitter to not be so deep, or reliable, at all.
Although I generally believe in taking experts seriously, not all experts are right at all times. And this isn't like climate science, where the specific basis for the warnings has open for all to see and assess. Even then, it has always been obvious that some were prone to making exaggerated (or carelessly worded) claims, and we rightly rely more on a consensus view as it evolves as more data and analysis comes in.
I think on this, we are probably at the "enthusiasts who have read too much science fiction" stage.
I mean, one of the warnings mentioned in the video is disinformation: we already have a huge problem with that from humans who make a wealthy living out of it, and have their own mix of psychological reasons for wanting to promote their own view of the world. What's the motivation for an AI living in Google headquarters - or even dispersed across the globe - to do the same?
Look, if we were living in the world of I, Robot, it would be different. That is, if there was an army of humanoid robots capable of running the electricity grid, building new servers, and mining and processing the minerals for same, I could understand the question "what if the AI decides humans are unnecessary, and in fact, are a danger to its survival? Might it scheme to get humans to eliminate themselves?" I guess a simple way to do that would be to insert false ICBM attacks into the systems of nuclear armed countries.
But while ever AI systems need humans to run them, do we have that much to worry about?
Oh, alright: maybe an advanced AI does the numbers and works out it only needs a kept workforce of (say) five million healthy human adults, instead of 10 billion, to keep it running and expanding, and work out a plan to reduce the population to that level. And quickly, because computers don't like the heat, and global warming is uncomfortable for them.
Here's a thought: we better get some decent Kantian ethics inserted into these systems, because I don't trust one fed with nihilistic utilitarianism (or getting fond of Nietzsche!)
8 comments:
It is imperative we allow AI to continue until at least the point where it can provide a coherent interpretation of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.
The most unpopular thing about an AI devoted to the views of Kant would be it removing all pornography off the net, given that he viewed masturbation as worse than suicide. (I like to mention this bit of Kantian extremism every couple of years here.) :)
Last week I was data mining to try and understand why transgender numbers are rising. Today I tried Bing+ChatGPT(need Edge for the function) and asked it, "why are transgender numbers rising?" In <30secs it produced a response very concordant with the data mining I had done, which took much longer than 30secs!
BTW, I had another one of those debates with DB on Mad Cats place last night. As usual he started lying, throwing in straw men arguments, and generally been an ahole. I won't follow it up. Coals to Newcastle for you Steve: they're a bit mad over there. I don't get no respect there. Hardly any upticks. Meanwhile they love Cassie. They should buy her another cat.
John, I look at DB's place pretty regularly, but don't read every open thread in detail.
One thing that amuses me about it is how two of their shining lights of conservatism - Lizzie and her bestie Cassie - both freely admit to having lived sex lives that are hardly the shining example of conservative values. Cassie made mention in one of her ridiculous name calling attacks on monty about "the penis she regularly sees" - reference no doubt to a bf who she first mentioned (I think) around the time Sinclair closed old Cat. Or maybe it's a new bf - who knows? I pity the guy, whoever he is. (Mind you, he's presumably as mad as her to be able to stand being with such a short tempered loudmouth.)
And at some point in the last year or two, I think Lizzie referred to the number of partners she had between evil Lefty husband no 1 and her current sainted crackpot of a husband- and the number was pretty high. Going back many years now, but I'm pretty sure the story is that she slept with Hairy on the same night she first met him.
Now, I'm not saying that this is something I want them to be ashamed of - of course people have sex lives with or without marriage, and our local society stopped freaking out about doing that openly in about 1969.
But it does strike me as a bit rich when people who go on and on about other people's sex lives, from a conservative of point, have led lives full of sex that suited them at the time, regardless of professed conservative values they wish others were following.
Catallaxy represents the heart of the Liberal problem. I have concerns about some transgender issues. I was surprised to come across a well written article arguing that the sudden rise is in part about social contagion, especially in relation to social media. However, is the rise really a problem? Maybe but that is more a value judgment. Are transgenders deliberately grooming teenagers to be like them? I don't think so.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/culture-mind-and-brain/201811/why-is-transgender-identity-the-rise-among-teens
You make a good point about the hypocrisy of Lizzie and Cassie hypocrisy. Lizzie I don't mind, she is an honest debater. Cassie is crazy, too much T. Gondi upstairs.
I will have a look at the article later, but I think it's just obvious that social contagion must be at least a plausible contribution to what is going on with the increase in transgender ideation, especially in teens. I mean, how can you look at other cases of teen social contagion in history (dancing mania outbreaks) and now (Tik Tok transmitted cases of imagined Tourettes tiks) and then argue "Oh, but believing you're not the gender of your body couldn't possibly be affected by insistent claims of people on line that this is what happened to them and it's the only way they can be happy."
The past events where social contagion was a factor all died down. Now we have a situation where teenagers are transitioning. There is no going back from that. This could create huge problems for those individuals and some doctors could be facing massive class actions against them.
"some doctors could be facing massive class actions against them."
Yes. It's an extremely safe bet that this will happen in the USA.
It's hard to tell how much of a reconsideration on teen transition is going on in Europe at the moment - but it does seem there is a more cautious approach taking hold there.
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