Inside a growing movement warning AI could turn on humanity
On an AstroTurf lawn in Berkeley, California, one recent Friday, content creators used to making videos about romance novels, climate change and tech tips got advice on covering a more theoretical topic: How to spread the message that rogue artificial intelligence could wipe out humankind.
The gathering was held at a sprawling event space popular with a Bay Area community focused on the possibility that superintelligent AI might lead to human extinction — a cause sometimes dubbed AI safety.
The crowd hooted as Jeffrey Ladish, an affable former security engineer at the AI start-up Anthropic, glided to the stage on inline skates, sporting a muscle tank and mane of golden hair, to join a panel of experts in the art of talking to regular people about AI catastrophe.
Ladish said he quit the company behind the popular chatbot Claude in 2022 to focus on research that could help policymakers understand the ways AI can evade human control. A couple years after launching the nonprofit Palisade Research, he decided research on that topic was now plentiful but the field needed communicators to translate those findings to the public.
“That requires a bunch of people to go take things that folks here are figuring out and [explain them] to the rest of the world,” he said.
Ladish himself has embraced that mission. In recent months he appeared in a viral video with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) about the threat of superhuman AI and featured prominently in the trailer for “The AI Doc,” a documentary on that potential threat, which has been viewed 5.8 million times on YouTube.
He is part of a recent drive by some in AI safety to convince the masses that superintelligent AI could spell the end of human civilization, a drive that includes sponsoring social media posts and partnering with influencers such as author and YouTube star Hank Green.
The event in Berkeley marked the end of an eight-week fellowship to support experienced creators including former climate change activists and a recent convert from BookTok, with the mandate that 60 percent of their content during the eight weeks has to be focused on AI’s societal impact.
The effort to seed content about the dangers of AI across the internet comes as the technology’s growing influence has driven debates about AI into the political mainstream. A wave of viral videos warning about the technology could cause headaches for Silicon Valley-backed super PACs as they seek to minimize restrictions on the industry. Surveys already indicate that most Americans support government rules for AI.
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About the Author: Patriotman
Patriotman currently ekes out a survivalist lifestyle in a suburban northeastern state as best as he can. He has varied experience in political science, public policy, biological sciences, and higher education. Proudly Catholic and an Eagle Scout, he has no military experience and thus offers a relatable perspective for the average suburban prepper who is preparing for troubled times on the horizon with less than ideal teams and in less than ideal locations.
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