Tell HN: Stall AI progress for the benefit of humanity
https://iceberg.mit.edu has got me spooked. If AI is going to be so disruptive to our way of life in such a short span of time causing immense economic pains to almost entire humanity, then every country's Government should take over and artificially control its progress. Civilian population should not be allowed to profit from it or spread it around even for free in the society. AI should be treated like a nuclear or a biological weapon. Countries should have non-proliferation treaties among themselves with perhaps mutually assured destruction.
Humanity's survival through a forced slow progress in automation is more important than being forced to "enjoy" the magic of automation. This isn't like replacing horses with cars.
FYI Tristan Harris of "infinite scroll is a slot machine" fame is also currently shining a light on this matter:
https://youtu.be/BFU1OCkhBwo?si=wOuNp3coXWqL9Tx5
I'm really not supposed to be sarcastic here, but you're miking it hard. So let me get that out of the way first...
You looked at the state of the world, you experienced climate change, witnessed the dismantling of the US govt, the destruction caused by killing USAID, the hot war between a nuclear state and a quasi-european nation, the genocide in the Middle East, plus a million other things this year, but yhd thing that really concerns you is AI?
On a more positive note, I know the world can be a scary place. I know change is unsettling. I know AI and the impact it will have is uncertain. But I have lived through multiple wotld-shattering changes. I grew up before we had TV, never mind computers or phones or smart phones. AI is just more of the same. And yhe future will bring more change. Self-driving cars will change everything.
The solution to change is not to try and ban it. The solution is to embrace it. Your life will be full of constant change. Don't worry about the future, the future will look after itself. Live in the moment that is now.
This is a patronising comment - first telling us what we should be concerned about than telling us there’s actually no point in being concerned about anything anyway, change just happens and we should get on with it.
What if AI isn’t like the other changes you’ve experienced? What if a superintelligence is developed (or emerges)? What are the implications of that? Can it be controlled?
The people running the biggest AI companies in the world are themselves worried these questions, so we should be too.
HN is exactly the type of place that should be interested in discussing issues like this and it’s unfair to just dismiss the concerns.
Any comment from an experienced person to an inexperienced one can be categorized as patronizing. (Including this one.)
So sure, if you want to fret about the future, if you want to be anxious about hypothetical things like singularities or super-AIs or whatever, then go for it. Whatever makes you happy.
All I'm suggesting is that this path is not particularly unique. I've lived through the cold war. Through the moral panic of the 80s and 90s with the emergence of personal computers. Through cell phones. Through Y2K.
Yes, this is different. But it's also exactly the same. Forgive me for being sanguine. The future, whatever it is is coming. Will worrying about it add a single day to your life?
If you want to change the trajectory of the future, then I recommend running for public office. Perhaps others will follow you.
The genie though is out of the bottle. It cannot be put back.
(For what it's worth, I don't think a big statistics machine will end civilization. )
Think of it like a weapon, because AI is very much like a sword or a gun. It's used by someone, and it's used on someone.
If it wasn't the case, AI companies wouldn't need to sell the AI's time. They would just run it themselves letting it do good things for humanity!
The Genie is now out of the bottle.
https://superintelligence-statement.org/
Too late for that.
What would have been the ideal point for it to have been curbed?
When US companies were still the only game in town. Given that AI progress is now driven by international competition across mutually hostile jurisdictions, there is absolutely no chance of putting the genie back into the bottle anymore.
The same could be said about nuclear weapons right and yet we achieved stability.
The difference is that states don’t benefit from using nuclear weapons, only from having them. But they definitely benefit from using AI.
We kinda didn't. There are undeclared nuclear states on the planet right now.
Sir, I'm truly sorry, but I think you should go to the hospital immediately.