It’s encouraging to see the world wake up to the potential for AI to obliterate the human race,
But it is also somewhat puzzling.
Puzzling because the process of humans taking action to destroy the species has been ongoing for decades and has accelerated in recent years, and not (until very recently) because of AI.
We continue to invent more efficient and cheaper weapons of mass destruction, from dime store drones that can carry warheads long distances to hypersonic missiles to space lasers to biological weapons—and of course the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
We invent social media that can fry kids’ brains, rob them of self-esteem, and spread hatred and violence around the world, and we let it run amok.
We have been destroying forests, fouling the air and water and causing species to disappear for more than a century,
The world’s largest economy has devolved into armed camps between the two parties with a monopolistic stranglehold on power, and they won’t even talk to each other. Each party will do and say pretty much anything (and open their "wide tent" to welcome extremely dangerous views) in their insatiable lust for power.
And we lavish great sums on the elderly while ignoring the young, which is a recipe for long term decline, as the over 80 crowd refuses to loosen its grip on power.
So by all means we should do what we can to prevent AI from destroying us. But let’s not kid ourselves—we have been destroying ourselves for as far back as most people can remember.
Not all countries are using the advanced technology for weapons. China alone is using technology to benefit theur countries infulstructure , their science based developments. Not our country. Until we have the sane oversights and regulations we do not need to let these private parties advance any further.
China harvests and sells organs of those who they seek to persecute. They use tech to prolong the shelf life of organs.
China uses high resolution cameras to scan crowds to apply the Chinese Social Credit System that determines who goes to college and gets an education as well as a plane ticket or a train ticket.
China uses AI to identify every single bit of currency, who has it, and where it's stored and through the CSCS can take it for small infractions.
Well damn, David L Mayer, I wish I could disagree, but alas, you make some very valid points. As far as the party's go, isn't the final decision up to “We The People”? We see who's in power and why they want to keep going without guard rails, and with no oversight. I say, follow the money and by all means, listen to the guy that started it and the rich guy's who have gotten what they could get from it and are now talking of the danger's of it. Please, DON'T listen to anything the president has to say about it. The “it” I am referring to is, AI. Personally, I would like it to stay an it, without a brain. 💙🇱🇷
The one item I have qualms about is "We The People".
I think the system is no longer working to elect the candidate with the widest support.
I say that because I think those of us who are moderate in our views, or in the middle, which I believe is the vast majority of the country, no longer have a voice.
The primary system, where voters by definition are of one party, attract the voters with the most extreme views. So we get extreme candidates with oftentimes what I would call absurd views that a very small percentage of the voting public endorses (for example "defund the police", or "the 2020 election was stolen"). And we often have two candidates that the vast majority dislike-- or at least the vast majority would have liked a different choice.
The primary system is out of control. There have been efforts to address this problem. Alaska for example has instituted ranked choice voting for statewide offices. It has gotten mixed reviews but deserves serious consideration so that candidates have to appeal to the broad swath of voters and not just to a small number.
Best wishes to you and everyone else taking the time to weigh in here.
Thank you David, I am curious about ranked choice voting. First time hearing about it. Take care, keep writing 💙🇱🇷 Today, I'm exhausted by it all, time for some self care 🙏
The "AI is good" narrative is mostly about discriminative AI (or classic machine learning). The "AI is bad" narrative is mostly about generative AI (or LLM-based) which is essentially a word (token) guessing program. There is a world of difference between the two.
This distinction has to be mentioned by article authors otherwise the bad will drown out the good.
Of the 10% risk of A.I. evolving to the point of destroying humanity: that's a far less risk than the 50%, perhaps greater, of humanity destroying humanity.
Yes, A.I. could eventually run amok, but the greater risk, devoid of the thrill of scifi to capture imaginations, is its use by evil humans to do evil things.
Which, of course, brings up the Second Trump Reich and its infusion of immoral sycophants sworn to fealty to IL DUCE TRUMP instead of facts, intelligence, decency who now dwell in Federal agencies. This is NOT a government that can be trusted or relied upon to oversee prevention of the weaponization of A.I.!
We have already watched helplessly and hopelessly as this Reich has deconstructed the U.S. Constitution, turned the U.S. military into the world's most powerful right-wing militia, and created IL DUCE TRUMP's personal paramilitary Nazi Brown Shirts to destroy non-white people.
This Reich WILL weaponize A.I. against us, just as it weaponized Palantir, Musk, Flock, Oracle, I.C.E., etc., against us.
And the stupidest man in the world thinks he is the smartest man in the world so nobody needs to worry, he's got this!
This kind of politically charged hyperbole does not advance the debate. No problem with your holding those views, but they are neither on point nor useful.
Again, I say that "unnecessary politicization" accusations are why we are where we are today. Decent Americans let the other side take over with their unchallenged politicization.
One of the most powerful arguments about climate change is that we should act as though it’s human-induced and not spend time debating whether it’s caused by humans or not. In other words: act to protect. Ditto with AI. We should act as though killer robots will do what it says on the tin and not spend time debating whether they’re American or Chinese killer robots.
Also, one of the few successes of the Sunak government in the UK was the creation of the now world-leading AI Security Institute (AISI). The basis for the IAIA is there!
So what feels like a million years ago I was in New York to see a show. Jet-lagged I watched a daytime TV show in which an analyst was explaining how the next election would see US politics shifting on its axis. The 'smart new voters' weren't interested two party tribalism, they just wanted smart people in government who would deliver the best outcomes for their tax dollars. I was hoping to help transfer a Broadway show to London, but at that moment I just wanted to transfer those 'smart new voters' to the UK. Where dey go, Scott? And why are there so few 'adults in the room?' Should we send over David Attenborough to try and seek them out? P.S. I recall one grumpy old academic saying that there was more chance of winning an Oscar than creating a commercially successful podcast. Your performance on Section the other night would have won Best Picture for 'Sane Man In A Cuckoo Nest A Barely Holding It All In' Bravo!
This is probably really bad advice, but I wouldn't imagine we should try to do anything smart or substantive to regulate AI with the current crop of ass clowns running things. The AI guys only want to maximize their ROI and with the amount of backlash mounting in the masses, they are going to be forced to do some self-regulation, in the near-term due to public sentiment AND because so many companies are blowing their tokens with no ROI.
My guess is that behind scenes the Hugging Face incident has most of them shitting their pants. But to the public, they need to continue to downplay their concerns because it's all about monetizing their models, and making themselves richer. That is their primary motivation - money and the power that comes with it - it's not to change the world for the better. Facebook, on steriods.
I have no faith that the current administration could take an intelligent, balanced, and well-staffed approach to defining the guardrails within which the industry would operate OR put the right people in charge of oversight. Congress simply isn't equipped, so it needs to outsource. With these clowns, it would end up being to some guy like the one who refinished the reflecting pool, except he'd be from Russia!
"It’s time for an international artificial intelligence agency (IAIA)" Ends up as it always does with you globalists, like the WHO, China is in charge. The climate change crew, sameo, you cut carbon dioxide now we'll cut it in 2060, when it is no longer relevant because you are no longer relevant. AI you slow down, we'll slow down later, when it is no longer relevant because you are no longer relevant.
This looks like a perfect example of "The Great Filter", the most dire of the solutions to Fermi's Paradox: "Where is everybody?"
Given the observable universe contains billions of sun-like stars and habitable planets far older than Earth, with plenty of time to develop, and despite decades of astronomical observation and electromagnetic signal searches, humanity has detected zero verifiable evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. This is known as "The Great Silence".
"The Great Filter" solution to this silence is simply that civilizations inevitably self-destruct before interstellar expansion.
Why? Given that memes (i.e., ideas/technology) evolve roughly 10,000-10,000,000 times faster than genes, life-extinguishing technologies capable of wiping out planetary life almost inevitably comes into the hands of creatures with their primitive brains still in charge of the most basic, ancient behaviors driving the propagation of species: territoriality, dominance- submission displays, aggression, mating rituals, and fight-or-flight reactions. ("Birds do it / Bees do it / Even educated fleas do it")
These behavioral imperatives are obviously still around, driving much of our behavior whether or not we are aware of it.
For example, perhaps we are very, very, very, very busy gathering our billions and trillions to show how truly great we are.
Don’t worry Be Happy! Just a bunch of folks jostling for power with some saying they are “humanists” (going the Pope😂) Catholicism is the fastest declining religion there is! By going to the Pope sort of proves a belief in “Omnipotent” which sort gives away “intent”
I produce music & write romantic/sensual/exotic/crime/drama novels and other genres. 😍 I’m fun & satirical. I practice Buddhism & post doctrines on occasion.
I DO NOT PRETEND to be a Self Help Expert, Guru, as many do here but in reality I’m far more spiritual and knowledgeable than most.
Well, I got a little breathless reading this but it helped educate me on an issue I don't understand very well. I enjoyed the sarcastic digs at the assorted perps.
It’s encouraging to see the world wake up to the potential for AI to obliterate the human race,
But it is also somewhat puzzling.
Puzzling because the process of humans taking action to destroy the species has been ongoing for decades and has accelerated in recent years, and not (until very recently) because of AI.
We continue to invent more efficient and cheaper weapons of mass destruction, from dime store drones that can carry warheads long distances to hypersonic missiles to space lasers to biological weapons—and of course the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
We invent social media that can fry kids’ brains, rob them of self-esteem, and spread hatred and violence around the world, and we let it run amok.
We have been destroying forests, fouling the air and water and causing species to disappear for more than a century,
The world’s largest economy has devolved into armed camps between the two parties with a monopolistic stranglehold on power, and they won’t even talk to each other. Each party will do and say pretty much anything (and open their "wide tent" to welcome extremely dangerous views) in their insatiable lust for power.
And we lavish great sums on the elderly while ignoring the young, which is a recipe for long term decline, as the over 80 crowd refuses to loosen its grip on power.
So by all means we should do what we can to prevent AI from destroying us. But let’s not kid ourselves—we have been destroying ourselves for as far back as most people can remember.
Not all countries are using the advanced technology for weapons. China alone is using technology to benefit theur countries infulstructure , their science based developments. Not our country. Until we have the sane oversights and regulations we do not need to let these private parties advance any further.
China harvests and sells organs of those who they seek to persecute. They use tech to prolong the shelf life of organs.
China uses high resolution cameras to scan crowds to apply the Chinese Social Credit System that determines who goes to college and gets an education as well as a plane ticket or a train ticket.
China uses AI to identify every single bit of currency, who has it, and where it's stored and through the CSCS can take it for small infractions.
Well damn, David L Mayer, I wish I could disagree, but alas, you make some very valid points. As far as the party's go, isn't the final decision up to “We The People”? We see who's in power and why they want to keep going without guard rails, and with no oversight. I say, follow the money and by all means, listen to the guy that started it and the rich guy's who have gotten what they could get from it and are now talking of the danger's of it. Please, DON'T listen to anything the president has to say about it. The “it” I am referring to is, AI. Personally, I would like it to stay an it, without a brain. 💙🇱🇷
Sue-- all good points and good advice.
The one item I have qualms about is "We The People".
I think the system is no longer working to elect the candidate with the widest support.
I say that because I think those of us who are moderate in our views, or in the middle, which I believe is the vast majority of the country, no longer have a voice.
The primary system, where voters by definition are of one party, attract the voters with the most extreme views. So we get extreme candidates with oftentimes what I would call absurd views that a very small percentage of the voting public endorses (for example "defund the police", or "the 2020 election was stolen"). And we often have two candidates that the vast majority dislike-- or at least the vast majority would have liked a different choice.
The primary system is out of control. There have been efforts to address this problem. Alaska for example has instituted ranked choice voting for statewide offices. It has gotten mixed reviews but deserves serious consideration so that candidates have to appeal to the broad swath of voters and not just to a small number.
Best wishes to you and everyone else taking the time to weigh in here.
Thank you David, I am curious about ranked choice voting. First time hearing about it. Take care, keep writing 💙🇱🇷 Today, I'm exhausted by it all, time for some self care 🙏
The "AI is good" narrative is mostly about discriminative AI (or classic machine learning). The "AI is bad" narrative is mostly about generative AI (or LLM-based) which is essentially a word (token) guessing program. There is a world of difference between the two.
This distinction has to be mentioned by article authors otherwise the bad will drown out the good.
Of the 10% risk of A.I. evolving to the point of destroying humanity: that's a far less risk than the 50%, perhaps greater, of humanity destroying humanity.
Yes, A.I. could eventually run amok, but the greater risk, devoid of the thrill of scifi to capture imaginations, is its use by evil humans to do evil things.
Which, of course, brings up the Second Trump Reich and its infusion of immoral sycophants sworn to fealty to IL DUCE TRUMP instead of facts, intelligence, decency who now dwell in Federal agencies. This is NOT a government that can be trusted or relied upon to oversee prevention of the weaponization of A.I.!
We have already watched helplessly and hopelessly as this Reich has deconstructed the U.S. Constitution, turned the U.S. military into the world's most powerful right-wing militia, and created IL DUCE TRUMP's personal paramilitary Nazi Brown Shirts to destroy non-white people.
This Reich WILL weaponize A.I. against us, just as it weaponized Palantir, Musk, Flock, Oracle, I.C.E., etc., against us.
And the stupidest man in the world thinks he is the smartest man in the world so nobody needs to worry, he's got this!
WORRY!
This kind of politically charged hyperbole does not advance the debate. No problem with your holding those views, but they are neither on point nor useful.
America is where it is because of that kind of dismissal, in my opinion.
I am not dismissing your argument, Michael, I am decrying your unnecessary politicization.
Again, I say that "unnecessary politicization" accusations are why we are where we are today. Decent Americans let the other side take over with their unchallenged politicization.
comfort ➡️ complacency ➡️ complicity
One of the most powerful arguments about climate change is that we should act as though it’s human-induced and not spend time debating whether it’s caused by humans or not. In other words: act to protect. Ditto with AI. We should act as though killer robots will do what it says on the tin and not spend time debating whether they’re American or Chinese killer robots.
Also, one of the few successes of the Sunak government in the UK was the creation of the now world-leading AI Security Institute (AISI). The basis for the IAIA is there!
So what feels like a million years ago I was in New York to see a show. Jet-lagged I watched a daytime TV show in which an analyst was explaining how the next election would see US politics shifting on its axis. The 'smart new voters' weren't interested two party tribalism, they just wanted smart people in government who would deliver the best outcomes for their tax dollars. I was hoping to help transfer a Broadway show to London, but at that moment I just wanted to transfer those 'smart new voters' to the UK. Where dey go, Scott? And why are there so few 'adults in the room?' Should we send over David Attenborough to try and seek them out? P.S. I recall one grumpy old academic saying that there was more chance of winning an Oscar than creating a commercially successful podcast. Your performance on Section the other night would have won Best Picture for 'Sane Man In A Cuckoo Nest A Barely Holding It All In' Bravo!
This is probably really bad advice, but I wouldn't imagine we should try to do anything smart or substantive to regulate AI with the current crop of ass clowns running things. The AI guys only want to maximize their ROI and with the amount of backlash mounting in the masses, they are going to be forced to do some self-regulation, in the near-term due to public sentiment AND because so many companies are blowing their tokens with no ROI.
My guess is that behind scenes the Hugging Face incident has most of them shitting their pants. But to the public, they need to continue to downplay their concerns because it's all about monetizing their models, and making themselves richer. That is their primary motivation - money and the power that comes with it - it's not to change the world for the better. Facebook, on steriods.
I have no faith that the current administration could take an intelligent, balanced, and well-staffed approach to defining the guardrails within which the industry would operate OR put the right people in charge of oversight. Congress simply isn't equipped, so it needs to outsource. With these clowns, it would end up being to some guy like the one who refinished the reflecting pool, except he'd be from Russia!
Thanks for covering the edges, Scott. For not letting them run the end-around, doing backflips and high-fiving as we suffer the afterburn.
I tell my son to pay close attention to you and Ed and Jessica. Clearing the weeds of bullshit is a demanding job. Thanks to all of you.
China carefully regulating their AI? Hopefully not the same regulators overseeing gain of function research in Wuhan.
"It’s time for an international artificial intelligence agency (IAIA)" Ends up as it always does with you globalists, like the WHO, China is in charge. The climate change crew, sameo, you cut carbon dioxide now we'll cut it in 2060, when it is no longer relevant because you are no longer relevant. AI you slow down, we'll slow down later, when it is no longer relevant because you are no longer relevant.
This looks like a perfect example of "The Great Filter", the most dire of the solutions to Fermi's Paradox: "Where is everybody?"
Given the observable universe contains billions of sun-like stars and habitable planets far older than Earth, with plenty of time to develop, and despite decades of astronomical observation and electromagnetic signal searches, humanity has detected zero verifiable evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. This is known as "The Great Silence".
"The Great Filter" solution to this silence is simply that civilizations inevitably self-destruct before interstellar expansion.
Why? Given that memes (i.e., ideas/technology) evolve roughly 10,000-10,000,000 times faster than genes, life-extinguishing technologies capable of wiping out planetary life almost inevitably comes into the hands of creatures with their primitive brains still in charge of the most basic, ancient behaviors driving the propagation of species: territoriality, dominance- submission displays, aggression, mating rituals, and fight-or-flight reactions. ("Birds do it / Bees do it / Even educated fleas do it")
These behavioral imperatives are obviously still around, driving much of our behavior whether or not we are aware of it.
For example, perhaps we are very, very, very, very busy gathering our billions and trillions to show how truly great we are.
We might just not notice.
Don’t worry Be Happy! Just a bunch of folks jostling for power with some saying they are “humanists” (going the Pope😂) Catholicism is the fastest declining religion there is! By going to the Pope sort of proves a belief in “Omnipotent” which sort gives away “intent”
I produce music & write romantic/sensual/exotic/crime/drama novels and other genres. 😍 I’m fun & satirical. I practice Buddhism & post doctrines on occasion.
I DO NOT PRETEND to be a Self Help Expert, Guru, as many do here but in reality I’m far more spiritual and knowledgeable than most.
B.S. Kinesiology UCLA
I wonder how many CEOs, high level executives, ect are being blackmailed by AI in 2026.
WTF is going on? Maybe something like thecon.ai ...
There is nothing inherently dangerous about AI; it is the bloody people who potentially can misuse it.
These people have been committing crimes long before AI ever came along and they will use AI to create more elaborate and complex crimes.
This is Silk Road redux.
There is plenty of inherent danger in AI that has the ability to improve upon itself.
Well, I got a little breathless reading this but it helped educate me on an issue I don't understand very well. I enjoyed the sarcastic digs at the assorted perps.
Hide my reply but you are pretending its message won't affect your audience.