On the present being an exceptional time, it really is. Technological advances in the last few hundred years have changed the human condition in developed count

On the present being an exceptional time, it really is. Technological advances in the last few hundred years have changed the human condition in developed countries to almost unrecognisable levels. I saw this in my grandparents. When I talked to them about what my life was like, much of it made no sense to them. When I showed them an iPad and video called my wife and kids in China, it took a while for it to sink in that this was a live two way video feed to another continent. For quite some time I’m convinced they were worried they were being tricked. I saw them experience real, disorienting future shock multiple times. So in many ways now really is exceptional historically, and this has been the case each generation for the last few generations. It’s likely this will continue to be true. The world my grandchildren grow up in might well be even more exceptional again. As for Hinton, he knows what he is talking about. A.I. alignment is a fiendishly difficult problem. A lot of alignment pathologies that were once theoretical are proving to be real and difficult to avoid phenomena in LLMs. This isn’t vague poorly specified paranoia. There are a lot of very real, verified failure modes for A.I. and for some of them we genuinely have no real idea at all how to properly address them. The reason Hinton changed course is because previously he didn’t think we were anywhere near the point where such problems could pose actual dangers, but the level of advancement in the last few years has been so rapid he’s changed his assessment. I highly recommend Robert Miles A.I. Safety channel on a YouTube. He has a lot of very good introductory videos on many issues in A.I. safety.