I don’t read a lot of nonfiction, hardcover, current-bestseller-list books. Hey, for an old English major, I don’t read that many book-books at all anymore. First off, the three print newspapers that arrive on my driveway 365…
The OpenAI logo is displayed on a cellphone with an image on a computer monitor generated by ChatGPT’s Wall-E text-to-image model, Dec. 8, 2023, in Boston. Hey, for an old English major, I don’t read that many book-books at all anymore.
First off, the three print newspapers that arrive on my driveway 365 mornings of the year are time bandits of their own when it comes to hours available for reading in a day. Then there are the magazines that fill the mailbox, intellectual or otherwise. But I’ve always got a novel working, often enough an audiobook for my running trail in the morning and for chores in the house and the garden. Book-books are for right before bed, and bed is for falling asleep, and for my reading glasses to fall off my nose when I nod off after barely getting through 10 pages of a tome. But I just couldn’t resist the siren lure of a title like this, which I heard mentioned on the radio: “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All.”Book report: “War and Peace,” or, I don’t know, “Silent Spring,” it is not. Authors Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares are deep-thinking computer scientists and machine intelligence researchers and they know a lot, and some of it, including the title, can scare the pants off of you, but this is a weird and even goofy effort, which, even at a mere 233 pages of real prose, is padded out with forays into oddball skits, dialogues between imaginary characters Soberskeptic and Oldhand. What you read it for, and Lord knows the subject is serious as a heart attack, and certainly worth contemplating, is the insight two guys who have been working for decades with the smarter-than-humans, amorphous … thing … that is artificial intelligence have. Because the singularity — artificial intelligence surpassing human intelligence, and taking over — is rather worth avoiding. And these two guys, who were among the hundreds of scientists who signed the 2023 statement “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” have a footnote about that letter: “we considered it a severe understatement.” Because the authors, who know way more than we do about the risks, say they really mean “everyone dies”: “We do not mean that as hyperbole. We are not exaggerating for effect.” In AI world, there are the boomers — “Robots will do all the work, serving us mai tais poolside!” — and the doomers — “Bang bang, meat puppets.”useful to a superintelligence, even if that AI didn’t want to be nice for the sake of niceness? Not once the AI reached a high technology level. There was a point where humans were dependent on horses … When we developed technological substitutes for horses, we stopped keeping horses.”For AI, “Humanity is an inconvenience to you. For example, if you allow humans to run around unchecked, they could set off their nuclear bombs.” If the authors are doomers rather than boomers about AI, they remain odd optimists. “If everyone woke up one morning believing only a quarter of what we believe,” they write, “and everyone knew everyone else believed it, they’d walk out into the street and shut down the datacenters … Can Earth survive if only some people do their part? Perhaps; perhaps not.”Judge rules to evict iconic Olvera Street donkey stand, opened in 1968What to know about the planned Saturday, March 28 ‘No Kings’ protests in Southern CaliforniaEx-LAUSD employee, tech vendor charged in alleged $22 million contracting schemeLA Metro board chooses K Line northern extension route, connecting South Bay to HollywoodIn the Palisades, a Gelson’s intent to come back from the ashes is reassuring, but locals want to know more In the Palisades, a Gelson’s intent to come back from the ashes is reassuring, but locals want to know more
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Why Is Everyone Losing Their Minds Over This Little Old Mars Pyramid?I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing.
Read more »
Reg Weaver, former Illinois and National Education Association president, dies at 86Reg Weaver, former Illinois and National Education Association president, dies at 86
Read more »
Mandelic Acid Is the Exfoliator for Everyone Who Hates ExfoliatorsSiena Gagliano is the Beauty Editor at Marie Claire, where she writes and edits reported features, trend stories, and expert-backed shopping roundups. Before joining the team full-time, she was an editor at Cosmopolitan, where she specialized in SEO-first beauty content and commerce strategy.
Read more »
Dying Light’s New Expansion Makes It The Walking Dead Game Everyone WantedThe new DLC upgrade for Dying Light: The Beast introduces some engaging elements that quietly make it a great Walking Dead adaptation.
Read more »
Tulane officer shoots, kills gunman after attack leaves 2 critically woundedSuspect dies after attacking pedestrians, exchanging gunfire with police
Read more »
How Everyone Lost the DHS Shutdown ShowdownPerspective: There is little to celebrate for Republicans, Democrats and, most importantly of all, American voters.
Read more »