AI: the final human-made disaster?

MAGA Republicans seem fixated on Trump’s quest to morph American democracy into an autocracy. They seem possessed of morbid curiosity or fatalism – the dangers a reelected Trump portends be damned.

In a similar vein, the rest of us seem hell-bent on using fossil fuels until we destroy our planet. We seem possessed of morbid indifference or fatalism – the dangers climate change portend be damned. 

Is it any wonder, then, that we’re in a headstrong rush to develop AI? Indeed, this development epitomizes morbid curiosity and fatalism – the dangers developing AI portends be damned. 

‘These things could get more intelligent than us and could decide to take over, and we need to worry now about how we prevent that happening,’ said Geoffrey Hinton, known as the ‘Godfather of AI.’ In 2023, Hinton left his position at Google so that he could ‘talk about the dangers of AI,’ noting a part of him even regrets his life’s work.

(CBS 60 Minutes, October 8, 2023) 

Just this week, reports about a robot assaulting a Tesla engineer only hint of dangers to come. 

Human greed trumps survival

OpenAI is the lead developer. But, given the dysfunctional way it fired and rehired its pied-piper, Sam Altman, we should be afraid. We should be very afraid. 

The “doomers” (the OpenAI board members they fired) were realists sounding alarms about the existential challenge AI portends. So, by rehiring Altman, the tech industry is making clear its intent to develop AI for profit at all costs – the fate of humanity be damned.

Maureen Dowd is right. Altman is sugarcoating the apocalypse. He strikes me as a manipulative egomaniac. Even worse, he has that crazed look of Heaven’s Gate death cult leader Marshall Applewhite. 

The women of OpenAI are right. Altman, aided by his myopic, greedy male accomplices, represents a clear and present danger. They must be stopped.

* AI Safety Summit cartoon courtesy of Kal in The Economist