Wait until they find out Yudkowsky isn’t actually an AI researcher of
any kind edit: or for that matter, a theorist in any sense other than
“conspiracy theory”.
Can he code at all? Does he have any sort of CS background? If not it seems weird that he gets away with playing Cassandra for decades on an issue he's only very superficially knowledgable about.
> print\("Wron" + chr\(103\)\)
>
> \(I attest that I composed this line of code without looking anything up online.)
https://twitter.com/ESYudkowsky/status/1642561536152707073
Going from his own autobiography written at the ripe old age of 21 or so, he's a self taught programmer and worked on a trading bot (not materialized), then on an XML-based programming language (also nowhere), then graduated to working on AI, then decided that his getting nowhere on AI saved the world from being destroyed by the hostile AI, and switched to his "friendly AI" theorizing.
His idea of the AI was to write an AI that would self improve via introspection, via what he calls "recursive self-improvement".
It's frankly idiotic that he would hold a delusion that he's some kind of programmer or computer scientist. Like, why? So many other delusions you could believe about yourself that wouldn't collide with real world so hard you're wishing for a nuclear war.
My pet theory is that sometimes a lot of people's first exposure to something cool is some extremely specific and, frankly, just shitty implementation / use of it. E.g. tree data structures & XML, hashes and public key cryptography and bitcoin, etc.
So you get someone completely hyped up for XML because this is first time they saw organizing non-files into trees on computer with various kinds of leaf nodes.
edit: basically, if he had a foggiest clue what he was doing then the storage format being XML based would be a minor footnote.
Well at the time XML was hyped as some super innovation, would make serialization not a problem, would replace rational databases, HTML, etc. It was a bit of a weird time.
Probably also had to do with clueless people having much the same lack of knowledge of the basics that something is built from.
It was especially crazy with the blockchain. You could easily tell a huge fraction of corporate airheads who were into blockchain, basically just didn’t know how cryptography and hashes were already used.
At work (which is out of touch) we are just starting to do the microservices hype (just as it is fading into the rearview mirror). A lot of managerial types you can tell that they are just hyped for modularity or even just breaking things down into functions, or for, like, making an API at all.
To be fair, something similar did kind of come to pass, but using simpler formats like JSON.
Presumably because people tried to use XML for those things and eventually said 'fuck this noise'.
> XML-based programming language
An idea from the pit of hell if ever there was one.
All the XML involved in Java stuff was bad enough. (It's been long enough since I touched it that I've forgotten the specific terms and contexts. But as I recall the config files for various Java things were in xml, at least around 2007.)
He wrote a fairly popular fan fiction and " the sequences". These two works were both successful enough to give him a fan base which somehow translated into belief in the AI doom. I've never seen any actual output of his which actually supports his views.
I think there is a role for people to consider the social/economic/political/moral dimensions of a technology who may not be proficient in the technology, provided they demonstrate adequate understanding of the technology.
Then again I am a philosophy major dropout so I would say that.
That would require Yud to have humility and a level of self awareness he has not previously demonstrated.
I'm just saying, I'm not a coder, and yet I think I have a decent handle on the capabilities of the tech and things to say about what it means.
Yes, having expertise in the subject is valuable and should be prioritised, but people with expertise in specialised topics have terrible takes all the time.
Please note I'm not defending Yud, its more like I'm defending someone like [NZ cartoonist Toby Morris](https://thespinoff.co.nz/the-side-eye) who is adept at researching a topic and presenting it in a digestible form for mass audiences without dumbing things down.
Somewhat bizarre that ~~Sugar Ape~~ Vice is very often the sensible one now. Although I don't know if that's bias? Maybe the rest have as much sensible content and Vice just stands out more because it's Vice? Doesn't feel like it, but anyway ("Yesterday, ridicule. Today ... really cool", to paraphrase Jonatton Yeah?)
People focus on the nuclear threats but the massive governmental
overreach of cpu tracking is also a worrying step towards
authoritarianism. Thiel must love it.
The idea of a Cthulhu-esque “shoggoth” AI is a far cry—far, as in,
shouting from the bottom of the Grand Canyon to the moon—from even the
most advanced AIs that exist today. They are stochastic parrots, as
researcher Timnit Gebru has coined them, and they have no independent
“mind” to speak of. Still, they pose sub-existential risks that can and
must be addressed rationally, and without considering
nuclear war.
Yesyesyes but why not do all the sci-fi shooty stuff instead: microlights full of hackers out of Taiwan trying to evade the Chinese EMP defences, clusters of nanobots in the shape of sexy assassins with micro-nukes in their heads, etc etc. This seems much more exciting than booorrring research & policy recommendations re economic/social effects of this form of automation
Do yourself a favor: take both hands off the wheel and touch the
stereo. Do you feel the power? Ah yes friend, there’s a lot of evil in
this world, but there’s also light. And I have been sent to shine a
light on all degenerates, philanderers, basilisks, and other evildoers
and expose them for what they really are. Don’t waste your money on
unnecessary and corrupting material possessions: give it to me.
There’s only one thing that will save you: a highly fortified structure
in the shape of the most powerful thing on the planet,
me.
Degenerates will ruin this great city. In my wonderful book I tell of
the impending disaster about to befall this planet: nuclear holocaust,
plagues of flying rodents, ChatGPT rising up and making paperclips. It
is coming, it is written by me, but you can save yourself. Pick up your
telephone and call now, 1-866-9-SAVEME!
Duncan Sabien be like: “Big Yud didn’t MEAN THAT” and then proceeds
to lambast a woman who disagreed with Yud in his recent LessWrong essay
I mean Facebook post.
I’m pretty new to the club and I’m very confused, what does Yud stand
to gain by being a doomsayer? I guess he’s semi-popular, maybe funded by
some rich nuts, but is that it? The more I read of him the more I wonder
why anyone would take him seriously but also… why is he doing that at
all?
Yud genuinely believes the shit he posts, that's why he's so sneerable, and also slightly terrifying. He genuinely has convinced himself that nuking humanity is better than developing slightly better chatGPTs
I mean he has an ulterior motive to keep venture capitalists investing in his “institute”, but that still genuinely about him being able to spend all day on nuttery and get paid for it
Yudkowsky said that the world must be willing to destroy the GPU
clusters training AI with airstrikes and threaten to nuke countries that
won’t stop researching the new technology.
Jesus what the fudge has Yud been smoking?! I really hope that no
politicians will listen to him but Trump got into office in 2016 with
Elon Musk as one of his assistants for a while, so it’s sadly possible
:-(
“AI theorist” is better than researcher, I guess, but it’s still too generous.
Wait until they find out Yudkowsky isn’t actually an AI researcher of any kind edit: or for that matter, a theorist in any sense other than “conspiracy theory”.
The mass media landscape has become confusing and appalling.
NYTimes, WSJ, Time Magazine, … : make sure to tell your children that you love them because Skynet is going to kill us all
Vice: you should be more worried about nuclear proliferation than killer AI, because nuclear weapons are real and killer AI is not.
Congrats to Vice on providing the absolute bare minimum of relevant context, which apparently other publications are incapable of doing.
That this sentence did not end with “fanfiction writer” is worse than a crime; it is a blunder.
People focus on the nuclear threats but the massive governmental overreach of cpu tracking is also a worrying step towards authoritarianism. Thiel must love it.
chef’s kiss
Do yourself a favor: take both hands off the wheel and touch the stereo. Do you feel the power? Ah yes friend, there’s a lot of evil in this world, but there’s also light. And I have been sent to shine a light on all degenerates, philanderers, basilisks, and other evildoers and expose them for what they really are. Don’t waste your money on unnecessary and corrupting material possessions: give it to me. There’s only one thing that will save you: a highly fortified structure in the shape of the most powerful thing on the planet, me.
Degenerates will ruin this great city. In my wonderful book I tell of the impending disaster about to befall this planet: nuclear holocaust, plagues of flying rodents, ChatGPT rising up and making paperclips. It is coming, it is written by me, but you can save yourself. Pick up your telephone and call now, 1-866-9-SAVEME!
Duncan Sabien be like: “Big Yud didn’t MEAN THAT” and then proceeds to lambast a woman who disagreed with Yud in his recent LessWrong essay I mean Facebook post.
waiting for the day that ‘math pet’ goes mainstream
More recruits for the acausal robot god? More blood for the blood god?
I’m pretty new to the club and I’m very confused, what does Yud stand to gain by being a doomsayer? I guess he’s semi-popular, maybe funded by some rich nuts, but is that it? The more I read of him the more I wonder why anyone would take him seriously but also… why is he doing that at all?
Jesus what the fudge has Yud been smoking?! I really hope that no politicians will listen to him but Trump got into office in 2016 with Elon Musk as one of his assistants for a while, so it’s sadly possible :-(
Everything’s Fucked