7 ms·
Dude is 64 years old, and was never seen using a computer. Give him a break on this one, he's likely just parroting Medvedev, who in turn is parroting one of hi
by 0xbear 9y ago
Dude is 64 years old, and was never seen using a computer. Give him a break on this one, he's likely just parroting Medvedev, who in turn is parroting one of his distant underlings.
- anigbrowl 9y agoHe doesn't need to be a computer expert to recognize a force multiplier when he sees one.
- 0xbear 9y agoI doubt very much that he understands, even in the most basic terms, what any of this is about. Nor does he really care about any of it. Source: am a Russian-American, with a pretty good understanding of what's going on over there.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- adventured 9y agoIt's a very fair point. Question however: is there a leader on the planet that has a greater, almost intuitive sense about threats to their position of power than Putin? Who would that be? Authoritarian survivors like him tend to have an extremely well tuned grasp of threats to their power. Whether those are technology based or people, and whether they are domestic or foreign based. The small group of people running the CCP are similarly competent at spotting such threats, regardless of their understanding of technology. Most of the politicians that have supported the great firewall over the years, very likely had a limited understanding of the technology involved. They didn't need to understand the technology at an intimate level, they understood some of what it could enable, they understood the potential threat to their power. These people develop an almost sixth sense about it, they spend their entire lives cultivating that awareness as a means of survival and promotion.
- 0xbear 9y agoNone of this is a threat to his survival, or indeed to Russia's survival. When you have nukes and the means to deliver them anywhere on the globe in 9 minutes, you don't have to care about aggression from other countries. The biggest (and only) threat to Putin's survival is a coup.
- adventured 9y agoPutin's only interest isn't just his survival though. He's a hyper nationalist Russian. There's no question he views the two as connected: in his mind what's good for Russia is good for him, what's good for him is good for Russia; that's typical of authoritarian types. That doesn't change that he's pretty big about the premise of the return of the Russian Empire in one form or another. AI as a military technology can threaten Russia. It can cripple their economy. It can cripple their military technology (depending). Over decades it will likely lead to faster advances in both the economic and military spheres (including nuclear weapons and missile defenses), which would net weaken Russia. The winner accelerates, which is exactly what happened to the US vs the USSR when it came to the massive tech economy the US built out post WW2 (now our economy is ~16x the size of Russia's).
- drewmol 9y ago>Question however: is there a leader on the planet that has a greater, almost intuitive sense about threats to their position of power than Putin? Who would that be? Kim Jung-un?
- adventured 9y agoMaybe his father. It's a little early to see if he's a long-term survivor. In the scheme of things, he's an authoritarian infant. Not to mention, North Korea is more likely being operated by a military cabal right now than by Kim Jong-un.
- riffraff 9y ago> North Korea is more likely being operated by a military cabal is there any evidence of this? This might be true, but does not seem self evident to me.
- justicezyx 9y agoI am not sure how much you realized you are under some illusion of how people view AI... People are not dumb. There is an instinct to fear things that matching you in any aspects or overpowering you. That's true existence threat...
- 0xbear 9y ago>> People are not dumb Citation needed
- justicezyx 9y agoWe already see many people, from all nations, with diverse backgrounds, point out the importance of AI.
- staunch 9y agoYou think Putin parrots Medvedev? I think you're got it backwards. But either way, it's more likely he's "parroting" secret U.S. military plans that his spies obtained for him. This is almost certainly what our military is planning and he almost certainly knows it.
- 0xbear 9y agoWhen it comes to tech, totally. They are personally close and Medvedev is a known technophile and Apple fanboy. This is probably something they talked about over tea at Putin's government dacha a few days before.
- staunch 9y agoI'm sure he chats with Medvedev about his iPhone. This isn't "tech" so much as the very highest level of military strategy. Putin has spent his entire life keeping tabs on the U.S. military's plans and actions. He knows definitely what the U.S. military is working on When he raises the issue publicly, he's executing a strategy against that effort.
- aleyan 9y ago> Dude is 64 years old, and was never seen using a computer. Putin became acting president of Russian Federation on New Years Eve 1999. In months since, the only thing he brought into Yeltsin's former office was a computer[1]. He may not be a digital native, but to underestimate him is a mistake. [1] https://youtu.be/EjU8Fg3NFmo?t=3m10s https://youtu.be/EjU8Fg3NFmo?t=3m10s