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I hear a couple of different arguments from people regarding their fears of AI. 1. They fear that a superintelligent AI is coming, and that it will result in a
by noodlesUK 2y ago
I hear a couple of different arguments from people regarding their fears of AI.
1. They fear that a superintelligent AI is coming, and that it will result in an apocalyptic event.
2. They fear that the capabilities of various AI technologies that exist today, or will likely exist in the near-future will result in people's lives worsening in different ways, such as jobs being lost.
3. They fear that misinformation will become very common and democracies around the world are at risk.
It's very difficult to quantify the risk of argument 1 occurring because we don't know whether the current state of the art will ever advance to superintelligence.
Argument 2 will probably happen to some extent, but what extent remains to be seen - you can already see that AI generated garbage is killing search, and with it a lot of the open internet as we knew it.
Argument 3 I find difficult to understand. Misinformation has existed for a long time, and AI is just one more way of making it (perhaps at scale). You've always been able to claim that your political opponent was a puppy murderer with no basis in reality - the way I see things, AI is just a way of laundering that kind of claim.
- harimau777 2y agoFor argument 3, I think that the difference is the combination of scale, (potentially) ease of access, and believability. If AI allowed someone to flood the commons with believable misinformation at little cost then that could be a game changer.
- pookha 2y agoLOL this was the same argument they used against the printing-press.
- harimau777 2y agoAnd they where right. Printing has had untold positive impacts on society, but it also was a game changer in the ability to spread misinformation. That's probably one of the reasons that critical reading is taught in school and society has developed citation systems.
- rebeccaskinner 2y ago> Argument 3 I find difficult to understand. Misinformation has existed for a long time, and AI is just one more way of making it (perhaps at scale). You've always been able to claim that your political opponent was a puppy murderer with no basis in reality - the way I see things, AI is just a way of laundering that kind of claim. As someone who is neutral or leaning slightly positive on AI in general, I think misinformation is the biggest cause of concern. The change in scale is worth some concern I think. The ability to gather nearly unlimited information about people and then use that information to generate _bespoke_ propaganda designed to optimally persuade them is a significant shift from the days where a propaganda campaign required a team of experts and a long time to prepare. In that works a targeted propaganda campaign was only reasonable for very high value targets. Now, it can be used for everything from selling pants to convincing people to overthrow their governments. The commoditization of information warfare.
- Rastonbury 2y ago1 needs a bit more nuance. They fear that superintelligent AI is possible and potentially can end humanity, this risk alone means that we should proceed with extreme caution even if it turns out such intelligence is impossible - which we aren't certain of yet.