‹ BackHN Continuity

Thread

AI companies in race to demonstrate their model most threatening to humanity

441 points · 399 comments · ljewalsh

  1. chasd00 · · focus · HN ↗
    I’ve never seen CEOs work so hard to make the public aware of how dangerous and out of control their flagship product is. It makes me automatically assume they’re scheming about something else like regulatory capture to protect their market.
    1. meowface · · focus · HN ↗
      Or perhaps they've been saying this for literally decades because they earnestly believe it.
      1. chinathrow · · focus · HN ↗
        If they believe it, they can stop. All of them. There's no sign though that any pacing/slowdown or whatever is in place, zero.
        1. ForHackernews · · focus · HN ↗
          There was a NYT piece about this recently. They are believers in a millennialist cult in which the arrival of an omnipotent machine-god is thought inevitable, and the only question is whether it will be "aligned" (good) or "misaligned" (evil).

          They are the good heroes racing to make sure they bring forth the Aligned God because if they fail, surely the bad people will raise the Misaligned Devil.

          Ref w&#x2F;gift link <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;x.com&#x2F;sapinker&#x2F;status&#x2F;2096236079477096630" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;x.com&#x2F;sapinker&#x2F;status&#x2F;2096236079477096630

          1. Sharlin · · focus · HN ↗
            This cult stuff was tired in 2010 (hey, at least back then there was One True Leader!) and not any less tired now.
            1. ForHackernews · · focus · HN ↗
              I&#x27;m not sure how else we are to interpret the behavior of the AI doomers &amp; the AI developers (who are frequently the same people)
              1. Sharlin · · focus · HN ↗
                There is a fairly specific definition of what a cult is, and just being publicly worried about an existential risk isn’t that.
                1. ForHackernews · · focus · HN ↗
                  If you all believe in the same prophecy and hang out at the same orgies together, I&#x27;m willing to call that a &quot;cult&quot;, at least in the colloquial sense.
Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.