This is the best piece I’ve read yet on the dangers of AI.
“Language is the operating system of human culture. From language emerges myth and law, gods and money, art and science, friendships and nations and computer code. A.I.’s new mastery of language means it can now hack and manipulate the operating system of civilization. By gaining mastery of language, A.I. is seizing the master key to civilization, from bank vaults to holy sepulchers.“
@ct_bergstrom Not that anyone asked, but I strongly disagree about the quality of this piece. It is *extremely* hyperbolic and much of the piece is based on the incorrect assumption that GPT-4 is AGI.
They anthropomorphize : "a large percentage of stories, melodies, images, laws, policies and tools are shaped by nonhuman intelligence, which knows how to exploit with superhuman efficiency the weaknesses, biases and addictions of the human mind — while knowing how to form intimate relationships with human beings".
They makes sensational unsupported claims: "By 2028, the U.S. presidential race might no longer be run by humans." and "A.I. could rapidly eat the whole of human culture " and "unleashing godlike powers decoupled from responsibility, could be the very reason the West loses to China.".
C'mon man. Regulation is certainly a good idea, but these kind of scare pieces aren't going to help policy makers develop reasonable legislation. See TikTok.
@ct_bergstrom And, of course, I didn't read your follow up because ... social media! My apologies for not checking to see if you had edited your response.
@twitskeptic I’m not sure if you’re responding to the original post, or my edit. Everything you say is it fair critique of the original post. Hence the edit. I don’t have a very good explanation for how I managed to just ignore all the bullshit and then pull one point out of it that I was excited about and then decide I had read a great essay — but I did.
Fortunately, several friends called bullshit.