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Lots here commenting about how this is just an attempt to build a moat through regulatory capture. I think this is true, but it can simultaneously be true that AI poses the grave danger to human society being warned about. I think it would be helpful if many of those mentioned in the article warning against the dangers of AI were a bit more specific on substantive ways that danger may manifest. Many read these warnings and envision Skynet and terminator killbots, but I think the danger is far more mundane, and involved a hyper-acceleration of things we already see today: a decay in the ability to differentiate between real and fabricated information, the obsoletion of large swathes of the workforce with no plans or systems in place to help people retrain or integrate into the economy, at a scale never before seen, the continued bifurcation of the financial haves and have-nots in society, the rampant consumption and commodification of individuals data and privacy invasion, AI tools enabling increased non-militaristic geopolitical antagonism between nations in the form of propaganda and cyberattacks on non-military targets, increased fraud and cybercrime, and so on.

Basically none of these are new, and none will directly be the “extinction” of the human race, but AI very plausibly could intensify them to a scale and pace that human society cannot handle, and their knock on effects lead to what amounts to a car-crash in slow motion.

It is almost certainly the case that Altman and the like are simultaneously entrenching themselves as the only ones who get to play ball, but that doesn’t mean the threats do not exist. And while I’m sure many on HackerNews tend to be more of the libertarian, move fast and break things mindset, I personally would prefer if society would move to a more proactive, fire-prevention method of operation over the current reactive, fire extinguishing one, at least where this is concerned.




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