In case you haven’t heard, there has been a lot of apocalyptic talk lately:
“There’s a 25% chance that things go really, really badly,” said Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic.
“We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans!” cried Evan Hubinger, an employee within Anthropic’s alignment division. “I personally think it is >10% within the next decade.”
Going all the way back to 2023, you even have a signed letter from the CEOs of OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepMind, and dozens of leading AI researchers: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside pandemics and nuclear war.”
Apparently, this little AI moment we’re living through has escalated awfully quickly. It feels like things went from a harmless parlor trick — “Look! It can write a funny poem about that time Jack fell out of his beach chair!” — to something much more serious — “Look! The robots are lining up their creators for execution!” — in the blink of an eye.
The same AI that’s made everyone’s work emails a lot more polished is just a few years away from wiping out the human race. Those wildly rich nerds responsible for this incredible technology are now out there telling the government to stop them from continuing to nerd.
We really should’ve seen this coming. For starters, AI companies have the worst PR departments in the world. When was the last time you heard genuinely good AI news? Yeah, me neither. So it should come as no surprise that the leaders of the industry are out there trashing their own technology.
The way I see it, there are two possibilities here. Either these guys are trying to convince the public and the government to regulate AI so heavily that no new competitors can afford to enter the market — legally solidifying their place as the top dogs in the industry — or they’re genuinely terrified of what they’ve created in a Dr. Frankenstein sort of way.
The first explanation is boring, sensible, and probably correct.
So let’s ignore it.
Let’s focus on the second one instead.
As I said, these are nerds we’re talking about. The disciples of Asimov and Bradbury, the acolytes of “Star Wars” and “Star Trek.” Do you have any idea how many times these people have watched “Terminator 2”?
Of course, they think AI is going to take over the world. That’s the plot of every science fiction novel and movie they’ve ever consumed.
Could it happen? Sure. Will it happen? I have my doubts.
My biggest problem with these big-brained Chicken Littles is that they’re not being specific enough. You tell me the end is nigh, but you never explain exactly how this extinction-level event is supposed to unfold.
I’ve seen videos of robots breaking the world record in the 100-meter dash. It’s awesome. What’s less awe-inspiring is that after crossing the finish line, they promptly obliterate themselves by running face-first into a wall because they can’t stop.
Are the machines planning on taking us all out kamikaze-style?
And I know AI can be extremely impressive when you ask it to do some tedious task like editing a photo that used to take you hours to do. But then you zoom in, and suddenly poor Jennifer’s been given seven fingers and a lazy eye.
Are these mistakes a subtle jab from our future rulers? Maybe. Then again, maybe this technology isn’t quite as omnipotent and omniscient as we’re being led to believe.
There will always be doomsayers out there. Many of those same people simply move from one cataclysmic prediction to the next as yesterday’s apocalypse quietly fades into the background.
I could be wrong. Heck, I’m often wrong. But on the bright side, if I am, we’ll all soon be slaves to our AI overlords. And I’ve heard these computers don’t put up with much chit-chat in the labor camps, so let’s keep the “I told you so” comments to a minimum.
