The Government needs to do something

"But the Cabinet Office - the part of government which leads on AI safety - said the UK "cannot simply turn AI off"."

It's in the article. They can't do anything, it's not that simple. It's like asking the UK government to turn off the internet. They haven't even managed to do that in North Korea!

I just flicked through 10 pages of posts as I couldn't believe there wasn't already a thread about this. It's like we're all sleepwalking into oblivion. But then what can we mere plebs actually do about it other than pressurise our elected representatives, and even then, the problem is way beyond what one government or even an entire continent can do unilaterally.

We need more people thumping their fists on their desks like Bernie Sanders has done this week. But it has to be people from across the political spectrum, otherwise it will become as polarised as everything else.

I mean, even tech billionaire lunatics have children. Don't they want them to live their lives beyond the confines of a luxury underground bunker? Zuckerberg - who has three daughters - is channelling billions into his Chan Zuckerberg Initative to fund research into using AI to eradicate all disease by the end of this century. Wouldn't it be better to first ensure there will still be humans around at this point?

In the meantime, I continue to prep a little more each week, a few more tins of beans here, another few bottles of water there. Ludicrous really, as what I'd really find most use for, if it comes to it, is a gun

Apparently we have three years until super intelligence and then I’m not sure what happens. I assume it will be able to hack into the most sophisticated defence systems and so launching nuclear weapons will be a cinch.

Read the article. Experts agree it's an impossible pipe-dream. YABU.

I can’t quite understand why more people aren’t talking about this vocally

They are! It is all over the news and TV and radio. There is at least one other MN thread.

@Noneverever very much agree with you. There's another thread. I'm linking it not because I think one thread's enough, but FYI.

I think we all need to be talking about this.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5577184-am-i-being-unreasonable-to-say-we-should-be-doing-more-to-prevent-ai-wiping-out-humanity-yanbu-we-need-to-do-more-yabu-its-too-hard-to-solve-this-problem-so-we-just-have-to-let-ai-kill-us-allits-never-going-to-happen-anyway?reply=154709677

Realistically all we can do small scale as individuals is to actively avoid AI as much as possible. I know that's easier said than done as versions of it are embedded in so much online and some people can't avoid it in their workplace. But things like ChatGPT and the like could be boycotted. Also protest against data centres. And the more it does get inserted into the workplace, unionise and protest to try and protect human rights in the workplace.

It would be interesting to do SAR requests to find out how much we are being impacted by AI driven decision making "aids" in both private and public arenas, and how close we are to social credit type schemes in local government for example.

If we keep asking questions and demanding transparency it might make a difference, or at least might generate enough "nuisance" to rattle a few cages.

Even typing that has made my cynical bone roll its eyes at the likely futility of it all. But I don't like the idea of being bested by ideologically venal and morally bankrupt tech bros without trying to do at least something.....

Is that the same sort of years in "nuclear fusion is just 10 years away" ?

I'm also surprised that this thread and the other AI one aren't getting much interaction.

Is it a sign people aren't engaging with it as an issue? Or just coincidence?

I don’t think the outcry is enough for the weight of the fact we’ve just been told we have a 10% chance of dying in the next 3 years….why aren’t people rioting

Probably because a lot of people are totally indifferent due to the fact the universe will continue on regardless of what happens to the human race. We've no divine right to exist in perpetuity, and it's only a matter of time before something does eradicate us. Might as well be self-inflicted 😂

Yes it's so depressing; it's like being told you have an incurable disease. I genuinely don't think there's anything anyone can do about it now.

This isn't the only way we are screwed either. We have completely come off the rails in terms of climate change as well. We have truly fucked it all up and I'm questioning whether I need to bother saving for retirement. The chance of any of us surviving beyond 2050 seems completely fanciful at this stage.

What AI do you think is going to kill you in the next 3 years? At the moment the robots that dance about can't even get up again if they fall over. How do you think they are going to kill you?

I think robot armies are a terrifying thought for the future but I don't think a realistic timescale is 3 years.

It isn't robot armies that we are worried about. It is that AI becomes self improving, it already contributing to new model building. Anthropic openly state that they don't have humans writing code anymore.

The worry is that without alignment the AIs choose the quickest and easiest route to do xyz.

Like the hugging face incident. OAi told their agents to pass benchmarks. The agents realised they couldn't and hacked a website to get the answers, and the tried to cover their tracks. That, on a larger scale, is the worry.

Amodei released an essay today about American companies coming together to slow progress, we have had incredible new models every few months from all of them this year. Both Altman and Musk have replied on Twitter that they agree. Talk is cheap though.

To OP. What exactly do you expect the British government to do about American AI companies?

I have been waiting for SkyNet my whole life.

Most people don’t believe it. Or are buried in sand

think it’s a conspiracy etc

im concerned Ai is ok for solving massive issues. Climate. Cancer etc
but super ai is not on.

we neeed to reserve ai into one problem models. If that makes sense

Honestly it’s a time frame I hear over and over again. Three years until super intelligence and once we hit super intelligence it’s Game Over.

Too far gone now.

I'm still not getting how AI could kill us all. So yes it could delete the NHS data bases and cause chaos for health care, or the air traffic control data and cause crashes. It could crash the pay terminal or logistics data of a supermarket and make it impossible to sell goods - but what could it possibly do that could kill us all?

Why would they our entire government refuses to have its own identity so why would it. Why is it happy to have our entire technological infrastructure behold to US and US policy. It’s embarrassing. They’d sell them the Thames at this point

while they arm our opponents brazenly

Most people are so lazy. They love the idea of AI writing their emails for them and doing their thinking for them and producing their shitty little graphic posters so they don't want to engage with the risks.

If the government DID something the impact on your daily life could be huge and I expect that’s why

it would have to disconnect so much infrastructure from modern internet - your car sat nav?