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How is AI different than any other technology in this respect? As far back as the discovery of fire, new technology has enabled more positive outcomes than neg

• puttycat 4y ago
  Rule of thumb: reductionist arguments don't hold for technologies from the Internet onwards. For example, the Internet is nothing like TV, so arguments like "we grew up on TV and ended up ok" don't hold. Same holds in my opinion to AI-scams.
  • bawolff 4y ago
    I disagree. Do you have examples to back that up? > we grew up on TV and ended up ok Not sure what you are comparing here, but we (people in early 30s) also grew up on the internet and mostly ended up ok. Some people who grew up on tv did not end up ok.
    • pixl97 4y ago
      Quantity is a quality in itself. If I catch a fish in a lake that's not problem. If I catch all the fish in the lake we need to stock the lake again with fish. If I catch 10^30 fish on the planet, fish are extinct.
      • ta1243 4y ago
        > If I catch 10^30 fish on the planet, fish are extinct. The entire planet is extinct
        • pixl97 4y ago
          Oopsie, I turned the visible universe into paperclips.
  • comfypotato 4y ago
    I’m not sure I subscribe to this rule of thumb, but I definitely agree with the general idea that comparisons make weak arguments.
• Hizonner 4y ago
  What have nuclear weapons done for you lately?
  • anonymouskimmer 4y ago
    The tech is the same tech used in nuclear reactors, and depending on how far you go certain therapies. Nuclear weapons are just one instance of the tech.
    • sidewndr46 4y ago
      Simply put: no. This is just misinformation. Thermonuclear weapons derive their energy from fusion, not fission. The prompt criticality of the igniting fission weapon has nothing to do with the criticality seen in a nuclear reactor used for generating energy.
      • anonymouskimmer 4y ago
        All fusion weapons use a fission core as the spark. This is why we need plutonium or uranium for nuclear warheads. https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/how-nuclear-weapons-work https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/how-nuclear-weapons-work > Modern nuclear weapons work by combining chemical explosives, nuclear fission, and nuclear fusion. The explosives compress nuclear material, causing fission; the fission releases massive amounts of energy in the form of X-rays, which create the high temperature and pressure needed to ignite fusion.
        • sidewndr46 4y ago
          And if you'd read my post, you'd note I already covered that.
          • deleted 4y ago
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          • anonymouskimmer 4y ago
• kroolik 4y ago
  What makes me so negative is that it has a tremendous productivity boost regardless the intentions. ChatGPT saves you hours daily generating content, but it makes it as easy to generate convicing content on any subject, at scale. It may be in your nature to question everything you see, hear or read. I'm pretty sure that's not the case for the vast majority of population. And as magical ChatGPT seems to all the tech and non-tech people, it is really difficult to predict what it will look like in 30 years from now. It may now take 100 trolls to spread fake news about Ukraine on Twitter. In 5 years from now it might take one prompt and you will be able to cover every single social media on the planet in convicing information from many spectrums of the opinions. What you might see could be 10 people violently arguing on the internet, whilst its all bots whose only purpose is incite emotions and polarize people.
  • bawolff 4y ago
    > It may be in your nature to question everything you see, hear or read. I'm pretty sure that's not the case for the vast majority of population. But we have been here before. When radio first came out, it had an almost magical sway on people. People attribute the newness of radio as a significant factor in hitler's rise to power. Eventually we adapted to it though, and it lost its magic sway.
    • kroolik 4y ago
      Its indeed interesting future ahead of us, curious what will come out of it.
  • pempem 4y ago
    Doesn't this remind you of ender's game? The two siblings manipulating social discourse by creating and then whipping up opposing sides? We know that this already happens, but now its in the grasp of many people and thus much harder to pin down where its coming from and what that party's motive is. How can you 'follow the money' when - it requires almost no money to spam every social media channel - then get picked up by news bc they turn to social media for fast/new/relevant information
  • comfypotato 4y ago
• sidewndr46 4y ago
  Using fire seems like an odd comparison to me. Fire exists in nature. Even if you can't create it, there is nothing to stop you from understanding and likely avoiding it. You can even extinguish it without understanding the creation of fire in most circumstances. Systems like Chat GPT and other large models do not exist in nature that we know of.
• deleted 4y ago
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• yeck 4y ago
  Because it is digital. Other technology adoption was slow to spread, because it couldn't simply be cloned and integrate immediately with most pre-existing infrastructure. AI can be copied and can integrate with a lot of existing infrastructure right out of the box. Combine this with the magnitude of the capabilities and our societal "immune system" doesn't stand a chance of being ready for whatever is about to emerge. That lack of time to learn and adapt is a massive difference.