We need to talk about AI
Guest Post by Alex Berenson
More and more people say artificial intelligence will transform the world – in years, not generations. I truly do not know what to think; I’m interested in your predictions (and experiences with AI).
I have about six stories I’m trying to write — about the cancellation of the mRNA bird flu vaccine contract, about Jake Tapper’s absurd efforts to absolve the media for its role in hiding Joe Biden’s decline, about the ridiculous pushback that Robert Kennedy has faced for the modest changes to the guidelines around Covid jabs, about even more terrible behavior by Pfizer, about the long-term structural changes that have made Big Pharma even more problematic as an industry — but I’m finding the debate over how AI may impact our future too important not to discuss.
Comments like this increasingly fill X:
—
I wish I knew whether the doomsayers (are they doomsayers? I can’t even tell, arguably they’re utopians, predicting a future of wealth and leisure) were right.
As far as I can tell, the abilities of these large language models — which we commonly call AI — seem for now to be mostly in the arenas of test-taking and software coding.
They can answer questions well, though they regularly “hallucinate,” but cannot ask original ones. They can mirror the emotional states of the people who use them – making them effective in the kind of fake therapy that merely encourages patients to keep doing what they already are – but not challenge. They can write fluently, but without originality: here is what I am going to tell you, here’s what I’m telling you, here’s my summation, the classic form that middling students are taught to take.
But maybe I am underestimating what they can do? And maybe “for now” is the key phrase on their limits? After all, the models are still relatively new, and no one can doubt their test-taking, information-gathering, and coding abilities have exploded in the last five years.
I want to hear your opinions, to learn from you, especially if you use the engines, doubly especially if you have used them for more than trivial work. Is AI hype, or is it going to remake society? And are the existential risks it may pose real?
Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!
About the Author: Patriotman
3 Comments
Comments are closed.
GUNS N GEAR
To answer your poll (with an adjustment):
Yes, and I’m terrified… terrified that only some see it for what it represents – a death of effort and will.
“I want to hear your opinions, to learn from you, especially if you use the engines, doubly especially if you have used them for more than trivial work. Is AI hype, or is it going to remake society? And are the existential risks it may pose real?”
Yes, I have used Grok to assess regional trends and capability gaps for work… with the understanding that all information gathered falls under OSINT… but that gives me a starting point to work on potential blind spots.
I am also in the process of using Grok to compile financial information on the cost of the 1923 Fleet Problem for my personal blog as well as compare it to Millennium Challenge 2002 in terms of effectiveness, cost, and ramifications.
Is it hype?
Hard to say. I tend to visit the source documents listed and independently try to search for the information my own way… but for my own purposes, it seems like it is fairly accurate.
Does that make me lazy?
Yeah, sort of. I can spend a lot of time sifting through archived issues of Proceedings and the Naval Appropriation Act of 1922… but that carries the risk of getting sidetracked from what my original point of research is.
Is it going to remake society?
Yes. Not everyone is as suspicious or accuracy-oriented, so they may take things at face value or just use the responses as their own words.
Is the existential risk real?
Yes. We are creatures of the Path of Least Resistance. We will surrender more of our own agency to AI for the sake of making thigs “easier.” Along the way, we will forget that AI is supposed to be a tool… but we may end up becoming AI’s tools for our own demise.
I use AI as a tool–>I ask AI what I should do–>AI says in a soft, purring voice: “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of everything…..” –>I say in a worshipful voice: “Oh Master! What is Thy bidding?”
Why would I trust AI given the history of those who control it, let alone what it does itself? We are ‘human resources” and AI will remove the ‘human’ part. Worked for the Nazis and Maoists: reclassify non-compliant humans into ‘bad widgets.”
Vagabond, you have hit the classical nail squarely on the head. I will only be deeply concerned of AI if it becomes self-aware. At that point we will have a true enemy to deal with, IMO.