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> The sudden explosion of AI tech - both in the tech community and the public consciousness - seems like a trigger event as good as any. Aliens when humanity c

> The sudden explosion of AI tech - both in the tech community and the public consciousness - seems like a trigger event as good as any. Aliens when humanity comes up with the atom bomb * shrugs * Aliens when humanity invents a chatbot that can semi coherently talk about stuff "Oh my god this is a paradigm shift, singularity is so close, quick deploy the BALLOONS"

haswell 4y ago
Setting aside the obviously far-fetched notion of aliens, I think it is unwise to downplay the potential future impact of recent AI advances and the progress that is sure to follow. Nuclear weapons just make bigger and more hazardous explosions. That’s obviously a big deal. But the doomsday scenarios for AI are arguably scarier because of the current climate of unrestricted proliferation, and the potential impact on human cognition and future forms of warfare in the long term. That also doesn’t make those doomsday scenarios likely, but the impact of such scenarios is