It's good to see some pushback happening on AI, there are so many dangers. Being based on stolen intellectual property, where is our government putting on the brakes? Ha, ha. AI's very information set is likely skewed, white, western and wealthy, not to be trusted. Real truth requires digging. Trusting a bot is a step way too far. It's also another form of job loss, obviously, and its energy and water use is anathema in an overheated world that doesn't understand we have exceeded the limits of growth. I wrote about energy use and other issues here for those interested. It's boggling.https://geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/artificial-intelligence-is-hot
The potential energy use and need for additional infrastructure is ghastly. I mainly write about the climate crisis, but AI is a subject I may return to at some point. Unfortunately, there are no protests taking place near me.
May 10·edited May 10Liked by Birgitte Rasine, sean pan
This is thoughtfully written and articulated. I love it. Thank you for sharing with the world!
The AI hype, craze, and cool-aid is so real!
I've been pondering on this thought and question for the last 12+ months. It leaves my friends and peers, and even myself still pondering...
"In society, we have a code of conduct and ethics that guide us. We know that lying, stealing, cheating, and killing are wrong regardless of whether we are religious or not. This moral compass guides our interactions and keeps things checked and balanced. But what is keeping the creation and evolution of AI and technology in check?"
May 10·edited May 10Liked by Birgitte Rasine, sean pan
Thanks Sean for your heartfelt message!
Having been already through one AI wave that came and went, I feel positive that this one will pass too. Will there be people that will suffer because of this wave? Yes, unfortunately there will be.
After this wave passes, there will be another one, and another one. I think it is human nature to seek to make a higher being.
I am not advocating to do nothing, and seeing this wave through more mature eyes than the one I went through in my 20s, the non-facts are clearer to me.
One thing that has crossed my mind many times these last few months, is that I am not sure that everyone that is doing jobs that may be temporarily replaced by today's "AI" would want to keep doing them.
I actually want to ask each and every person that has being laid off because of "optimization" or because "this is what everyone is doing", if they want to continue doing what they were doing just before. Would they want to do anything else?
There are financial considerations in my professional decisions, and I am trying to approach a place where I am executing on my passions for a living.
I am starting to put together a solution for people to pursue their passions AND make a living. It is being done one project at a time, with one or more people at a time.
I encourage everyone to try to pursue their passions AND support others in doing the same.
I am pro-AI, but like everything, it requires common sense and foresight. Every day I see people posting benevolent innovations that represent forward progress. But every day I also see stupid things that people created “because they can” not because they SHOULD
And you know this isn't a pro-AI vs anti-AI debate. The technology is stunning and holds tremendous potential. It's just being hijacked by misguided business models that have not been thought through very well.
I love the idea of an AI slowdown of some sort, but I fear that we're simply stuck in a prisoner's dilemma, a powerful flywheel reinforced by money ad nauseam.
This is certainly a challenge but we should note that we have agency as people if we take it grassroots and act in unison. We do have a huge amount of the public in support, at almost 45% being very worried. Even a few thousand people protesting should get our representatives to at least comment and talk to us.
This is why we have PauseAI - join us, and see what we can do together.
This feels like Luddites who smashed mechanical machines because they feared jobs being taken away from human labor. AI is a tool. Nothing more. If an AI breaks the law the owner of the AI should be held accountable. Humans have a bad habit of blaming "things" vs. blaming humans who created faulty things or humans who use things to harm others.
It's way too easy to blame "things" rather than face the difficult challenges of how to deal with faulty human decisions and atypical mental states. Sadly, in the USA we seem to have punted on humans with mental issues and have decided that the streets are where we want people with mental challenges to live. I'm very doubtful that trying to survive on the street is a meaningful solution, let alone beneficial to those whose mental state poses challenges for their survival in modern society.
I'm also doubtful that pausing AI will result in any meaningful benefit. The likely result is that authoritarian governments will use the pause to advance their own AI efforts and leave the "free"/democratic world defenseless to new AI technology.
AI is not just a tool, but essentially some vision of an alternate digital species and thus merits significantly more concern; but even from the purely humanistic angle, it is being introduced into our world by the same people who seem to be pretty heedless of the harm they are causing and thus it does not seem like this will improve as they further disempower us.
As for other nations, this is why coordination is a strategy. As with nuclear weapons, despite major ideological differences, most of humanity can agree that we don't want to die and we don't want to be disempowered.
It's good to see some pushback happening on AI, there are so many dangers. Being based on stolen intellectual property, where is our government putting on the brakes? Ha, ha. AI's very information set is likely skewed, white, western and wealthy, not to be trusted. Real truth requires digging. Trusting a bot is a step way too far. It's also another form of job loss, obviously, and its energy and water use is anathema in an overheated world that doesn't understand we have exceeded the limits of growth. I wrote about energy use and other issues here for those interested. It's boggling.https://geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/artificial-intelligence-is-hot
It'll be great to see you in PauseAI - I think that there's a lot to be said for energy use by training systems.
The potential energy use and need for additional infrastructure is ghastly. I mainly write about the climate crisis, but AI is a subject I may return to at some point. Unfortunately, there are no protests taking place near me.
This is thoughtfully written and articulated. I love it. Thank you for sharing with the world!
The AI hype, craze, and cool-aid is so real!
I've been pondering on this thought and question for the last 12+ months. It leaves my friends and peers, and even myself still pondering...
"In society, we have a code of conduct and ethics that guide us. We know that lying, stealing, cheating, and killing are wrong regardless of whether we are religious or not. This moral compass guides our interactions and keeps things checked and balanced. But what is keeping the creation and evolution of AI and technology in check?"
Thanks Sean for your heartfelt message!
Having been already through one AI wave that came and went, I feel positive that this one will pass too. Will there be people that will suffer because of this wave? Yes, unfortunately there will be.
After this wave passes, there will be another one, and another one. I think it is human nature to seek to make a higher being.
I am not advocating to do nothing, and seeing this wave through more mature eyes than the one I went through in my 20s, the non-facts are clearer to me.
One thing that has crossed my mind many times these last few months, is that I am not sure that everyone that is doing jobs that may be temporarily replaced by today's "AI" would want to keep doing them.
I actually want to ask each and every person that has being laid off because of "optimization" or because "this is what everyone is doing", if they want to continue doing what they were doing just before. Would they want to do anything else?
There are financial considerations in my professional decisions, and I am trying to approach a place where I am executing on my passions for a living.
I am starting to put together a solution for people to pursue their passions AND make a living. It is being done one project at a time, with one or more people at a time.
I encourage everyone to try to pursue their passions AND support others in doing the same.
Very thought provoking. Thank you.
I am pro-AI, but like everything, it requires common sense and foresight. Every day I see people posting benevolent innovations that represent forward progress. But every day I also see stupid things that people created “because they can” not because they SHOULD
And you know this isn't a pro-AI vs anti-AI debate. The technology is stunning and holds tremendous potential. It's just being hijacked by misguided business models that have not been thought through very well.
I love the idea of an AI slowdown of some sort, but I fear that we're simply stuck in a prisoner's dilemma, a powerful flywheel reinforced by money ad nauseam.
This is certainly a challenge but we should note that we have agency as people if we take it grassroots and act in unison. We do have a huge amount of the public in support, at almost 45% being very worried. Even a few thousand people protesting should get our representatives to at least comment and talk to us.
This is why we have PauseAI - join us, and see what we can do together.
Yeah, it has to be pretty organic and grow over time. Thanks for the food for thought, shon!
We might not have a lot of time, which is why we need to act. As you said, its moving very fast and so we are getting the word out.
This text is both beautiful and insightful.
This feels like Luddites who smashed mechanical machines because they feared jobs being taken away from human labor. AI is a tool. Nothing more. If an AI breaks the law the owner of the AI should be held accountable. Humans have a bad habit of blaming "things" vs. blaming humans who created faulty things or humans who use things to harm others.
It's way too easy to blame "things" rather than face the difficult challenges of how to deal with faulty human decisions and atypical mental states. Sadly, in the USA we seem to have punted on humans with mental issues and have decided that the streets are where we want people with mental challenges to live. I'm very doubtful that trying to survive on the street is a meaningful solution, let alone beneficial to those whose mental state poses challenges for their survival in modern society.
I'm also doubtful that pausing AI will result in any meaningful benefit. The likely result is that authoritarian governments will use the pause to advance their own AI efforts and leave the "free"/democratic world defenseless to new AI technology.
AI is not just a tool, but essentially some vision of an alternate digital species and thus merits significantly more concern; but even from the purely humanistic angle, it is being introduced into our world by the same people who seem to be pretty heedless of the harm they are causing and thus it does not seem like this will improve as they further disempower us.
As for other nations, this is why coordination is a strategy. As with nuclear weapons, despite major ideological differences, most of humanity can agree that we don't want to die and we don't want to be disempowered.
No one can question nor control the limitless innovation of technology.
Even if it actually harms a majority of human beings. There are a thousand examples of that in the recent past.