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Ask HN: Why isn't AI viewed as a way to prevent humanity from going extinct?
For example, maybe in 25 years, there will be mass brain fog due to repeated COVID infections.
If AI is already doing most people's jobs by then, then there will be a greater chance that humanity would be able to recover from this widespread decline in human intelligence.
- capestart 1y ago[dead]
- MrVandemar 1y agoThe number of (self-inflicted) existential threats facing Homo sapiens right now and all you come up with is "mass brain fog"? AI won't solve human obstinacy, human entitlement, human greed, human short-sightedness, anthropocentric hubris, etc. I seriously doubt anything can, let alone a large language model.
- joules77 1y agoWhy not? These are not new problems. They are ancient and different people have dealt with them with different levels of success. AI has access to all those strategies. So maybe one day AI dawns Mr. Rogers persona to solve one problem and Abe Lincoln to solve another. It can do it at scales no individual or group can, so there is potential to nudge the entire chimp troupe in directions never possible before, in ways that "will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills".
- techblueberry 1y agoI think most AI boosters suggest exactly this?
- dtagames 1y agoWhen airplanes were invented, it was believed they would end wars. Really. AI tools are tools, like typewriters and airplanes. Problems that people cause in the world (and can but don't fix) are just that: people problems.
- beardyw 1y agoIf you put it to the vote across all species in the world, humanity going extinct would be OK.