Should we risk losing control of our civilization?

MayCaesar

Looking at the history of the 20th century, I wonder what "control" these people have in mind... Humans are pretty good at controlling their way into devastating wars, famines and concentration camps. Especially those in power.

Would an AGI do a worse job running, say, the IRS than humans do? Doubtful. And the idea that it would have some sort of nefarious goals seems fantastic to me. It is, ultimately, just a very advanced tool, and it is not going to "rebel" against its creators any more than a hammer can rebel against the blacksmith wielding it. Spreading misinformation? As opposed to what, Pravda and China Daily?

It seems to me that people once again are looking for some threat to oppose in order to feel a sense of purpose. In my personal experience ChatGPT and other similar tools have been nothing short of pure marvel and we are extremely fortunate to live at the time when virtually every week a game-changing breakthrough happens. While people are worrying about who is going to be the next president or how the ice caps will melt in a few thousand years, we are living through a revolution of the scope the world has not known since the invention of writing. Already someone who has mastered the art of prompting can get ChatGPT to write a piece of software it would otherwise require a well organized transnational corporation working hard for years and throwing million dollars at the problem. That one farmer nowadays can feed thousands of people is a miracle? Wait until one person with a laptop drinking latte at Starbucks can design a new cargo ship over lunch.

I am excited for the future, and I hope that enough people will appreciate the magnitude of what is happening to create a powerful counter-force inhibiting these actors' attempts to slow down the progress.

jack

MayCaesar said:

And the idea that it would have some sort of nefarious goals seems fantastic to me. It is, ultimately, just a very advanced tool, and it is not going to "rebel" against its creators

Hello May:

Thanks for your contribution..  I agree with you that they're not gonna organize and decide to rebel.  In fact, they're not gonna decide anything..  They're just going to follow their program assuming their program is to fix the software it comes across.  If it did, it certainly COULD, and probably WOULD find that you and I have defective software that needs fixing.

excon

John_C_87

@MayCaesar
Would an AGI do a worse job running, say, the IRS than humans do? Doubtful. And the idea that it would have some sort of nefarious goals seems fantastic to me. It is, ultimately, just a very advanced tool, and it is not going to "rebel" against its creators any more than a hammer can rebel against the blacksmith wielding it. Spreading misinformation? As opposed to what, Pravda and China Daily?

The problem here is we the people would need to know and understand programming and be able to see and inspect all levels of code the IRS would be using to make any determination. MayCaesar on a personal note had you ever been member by due of a blacksmith guild?