https://www.techdirt.com/2023/04/14/the-ai-doomers-playbook/
"AI Doomerism is becoming mainstream thanks to mass media, which drives our
discussion about Generative AI from bad to worse, or from slightly insane to
batshit crazy. Instead of out-of-control AI, we have out-of-control panic.
When a British tabloid headline screams, “Attack of the psycho chatbot,” it’s
funny. When it’s followed by another front-page headline, “Psycho killer
chatbots are befuddled by Wordle,” it’s even funnier. If this type of coverage
stayed in the tabloids, which are known to be sensationalized, that was fine.
But recently, prestige news outlets have decided to promote the same level of
populist scaremongering: The
New York Times published “If we don’t master AI,
it will master us” (by Harari, Harris & Raskin), and
TIME magazine published
“Be willing to destroy a rogue datacenter by airstrike” (by Yudkowsky).
In just a few days, we went from “governments should force a 6-month pause”
(the petition from the Future of Life Institute) to “wait, it’s not enough, so
data centers should be bombed.” Sadly, this is the narrative that gets media
attention and shapes our already hyperbolic AI discourse.
In order to understand the rise of AI Doomerism, here are some influential
figures responsible for mainstreaming doomsday scenarios. This is not the full
list of AI doomers, just the ones that recently shaped the AI panic cycle (so
I‘m focusing on them)."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
