Essays by Eric Worrall
Soros leads the way from a fake climate crisis to a fake AI crisis.
AI is the root of the world’s ‘multi-crisis’
According to billionaire and philanthropist George Soros, climate change and the war in Ukraine are also threatening democracy.
George Soros
We are living in difficult times. Too much is happening too fast. Everyone is confused. Economic historian Adam Tooze of Columbia University has indeed popularized a word for it. He called it “multi-crisis”.
Polycrisis has many sources. Follow me The main source of multi-crisis affecting the world today is artificial intelligence. Climate change comes Monday, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine qualifies as the third invasion. This list is much longer but I will focus on these three. That will help reduce confusion.
Artificial intelligence
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After that, Geoffrey Hinton, who is often considered the godfather of AI, has resigned from Google so that he can talk openly about the risks posed by the new technology. Reversing his previous position, he has a very dim view of AI. He said it could destroy our civilization.
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What Hinton said made a big impression on me. Indeed, The AI reminds me of Goethe’s poem The Wizard’s Apprentice. The apprentice is learning magic but doesn’t fully understand what his master is teaching him. When the owner ordered him to sweep the floor, he applied magic words to the broom. The broom obeys him, but the apprentice cannot stop the broom from taking buckets of water to sweep the floor and the house floods.
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Read more (with wall fee): https://www.afr.com/technology/ai-is-at-the-root-of-the-world-s-polycrisis-20230612-p5dfui
I predicted this pivot in 2017. The political utility of the pseudo-climate crisis is almost exhausted, and today’s climate crisis rhetoric works almost exclusively on leftists who have planned to vote socialist. But scare stories about AI have bipartisan appeal. And we’re prepared for the pseudo-AI crisis, because of sci-fi/horror stories like “destroyer“.
I’m a software developer with over 30 years of experience who has personally written AI. I’m not the “father of AI,” but I do know a few things. I disagree with the AI apocalypse narrative.
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a powerful metaphor, but in my opinion it’s the wrong metaphor for the rise of AI. A better metaphor is the arms race between the creators of computer viruses and anti-virus companies.
Sometimes a virus writer tries to miss some hits, but our computers are mostly safe. Install anti-virus software, keep your subscriptions and software patches up to date, and you can get on with your day.
In the same way, any ability that AI provides to bad guys, or any unusual ability that AI develops on its own, it will be treated as another type of computer virus, to be attacked by AIs. capable of tracking and reacting to counter threats.
Is it possible that someone could leapfrog and develop unique abilities, or could the AI develop a novel form of attack? Of course it is – see how Microsoft’s ChatGPT integration has caught up with Google, an example that Soros mentioned elsewhere in his post.
But who thought this failure would be the ruin of Google and all other AI companies? By the end of the year, the world will be flooded with apps like ChatGPT, created by tech companies spending $10 billion, at any cost, to keep the race going.
Artificial intelligence will create huge changes to society, some amazing and others that many of us will feel extremely anxious about. On the plus side, there will be glorious advances in medical science. Advances like immortality in medicine and cures for incurable diseases are now almost within reach.
But AI will also bring challenging disruptions. Among other things, I foresee a future AI version of the “transgender” conflict among students today, with progressive politicians demanding that children be allowed to strengthen their minds and bodies. with AI implants without parental consent, to avoid the hurt of feeling inferior to their augmented classmates. .
But we’ll get through all that and more. Many of us alive today may live to witness an age of miracles – an age of fulfillment and joy that today’s world only glimpses.
In the meantime, we need to be steadfast against this pivot to scary stories about AI, just as we’ve stood by scary stories about climate and fear of lockdowns. of Covid. Because the foundation of the campaign against the fear of AI will be the same people who now underpin the climate crisis movement: meddling idiots who believe they know how to run our lives well. than us.
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