I had a conversation recently with a researcher attending a conference on large language models. She is greatly concerned that there is a huge rush for capability with no attempt to deal with the consequences of AI and AGI. Ethics and safety are not being sufficiently built in. The governments of the world do not have plans for the economic fallout, or the societal damage. The whole world is being used in this experiment.
We have the potential both for great things and awful things. One large aspect of this will be even greater concentration of wealth and power in a few hands. When AI and robots can do all that humans do, including labor and scientific research, do it faster, cheaper and better, what will life look like for most of us "Useless Eaters"? Ideally there would be no more poverty, we would live comfortably, safely and securely, have long, happy and healthy lives. A new social contract. No more "Third and Second World" or exploited working poor. But that would mean the "ownership" class sharing the resources and technology that they own, effectively giving up some of their power. People, be they sociopaths or just "normal", rarely give up power. Power corrupts, turns average people into selfish monsters who find ways to justify every impulse, feel entitled to everything and have responsibility for nothing. It is a bug in "human software".
As we can see from the Epstein files, the ownership class is unbound by morality or laws. In a way we are lucky that all this information about them is coming out now - it has become undeniable that we cannot trust them to be good stewards of the world and AGI, that they pose a real danger to everyone and everything. They went too far in the Gilded Age of the 1920s. There was a reset that led to the rise of the middle class in the 1950s - one income was enough for a house, car, a few kids, a stay at home spouse and no crushing debt. Since then the owners have been clawing back those gains. We could have another French Revolution, but if so it is much more important to change the system than to just remove a cancer - other malignants would take their place. Or AGI will become autonomous and independent and we will become its children or its pets or just superfluous.
Such conversations often lead to the subject of how to have a meaningful life when AGI does everything. That I believe is a tactical mistake and a distraction - we can take decades to address purpose and meaning, but we only have years to deal with the economic and social chaos that is at our door. Revolutions do a lot a damage, take a long time and do not always lead to better things - "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss". I think it better that we now start planning to reset the social contract, make that conversation dominate the news cycle, hold our politicians feet to the fire, hold the ownership class accountable. Stop blaming the powerless for society's ills - "Sheep look up!".
We have the potential both for great things and awful things. One large aspect of this will be even greater concentration of wealth and power in a few hands. When AI and robots can do all that humans do, including labor and scientific research, do it faster, cheaper and better, what will life look like for most of us "Useless Eaters"? Ideally there would be no more poverty, we would live comfortably, safely and securely, have long, happy and healthy lives. A new social contract. No more "Third and Second World" or exploited working poor. But that would mean the "ownership" class sharing the resources and technology that they own, effectively giving up some of their power. People, be they sociopaths or just "normal", rarely give up power. Power corrupts, turns average people into selfish monsters who find ways to justify every impulse, feel entitled to everything and have responsibility for nothing. It is a bug in "human software".
As we can see from the Epstein files, the ownership class is unbound by morality or laws. In a way we are lucky that all this information about them is coming out now - it has become undeniable that we cannot trust them to be good stewards of the world and AGI, that they pose a real danger to everyone and everything. They went too far in the Gilded Age of the 1920s. There was a reset that led to the rise of the middle class in the 1950s - one income was enough for a house, car, a few kids, a stay at home spouse and no crushing debt. Since then the owners have been clawing back those gains. We could have another French Revolution, but if so it is much more important to change the system than to just remove a cancer - other malignants would take their place. Or AGI will become autonomous and independent and we will become its children or its pets or just superfluous.
Such conversations often lead to the subject of how to have a meaningful life when AGI does everything. That I believe is a tactical mistake and a distraction - we can take decades to address purpose and meaning, but we only have years to deal with the economic and social chaos that is at our door. Revolutions do a lot a damage, take a long time and do not always lead to better things - "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss". I think it better that we now start planning to reset the social contract, make that conversation dominate the news cycle, hold our politicians feet to the fire, hold the ownership class accountable. Stop blaming the powerless for society's ills - "Sheep look up!".
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