Potential 6 month warning until the end

[Frombeyond]

So, we potentially only have 6 months until the end of civilised society and mass deaths. I’m terrified and sad

AI staff 'genuinely frightened' for humanity's future, ex-Anthropic researcher tells BBC www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1kx0gyje9wo

Yes! Lived through most of those I remember the nuclear war threat back in the 1980s and that was a credible threat too, the government put regular warnings out on tv on what to do in case a nuclear bomb hit us, I remember my Dad talking us through what he'd do,(not much really) they were genuinly scary times, also remember the millenium bug? So called experts said computers wouldn't cope with the date change and everyone predicted armageddon then...in other words there's always something.

Things are unfolding inevitably. Intelligence is taking over. We just have to wait and see whether that's a bad thing or a good thing.

In NZ, living in Christchurch after Feb 22, an arsehole called Ken Ring took it upon himself to become the Chicken Licken of 'forecasting' 'the big one'. People lost their jobs because they decided that they weren't hanging around for a literally earthshattering earthquake, bigger than the shit we'd gone through, and still were going through. On the date declared, we had a 4.9. Hardly fucking earth shattering.

I guess, for me, the question is, so what if it is? What can I do about it, what would I change about how I'm living my life if that is the case? Generally the answer for me is - absolutely nothing. I ain't no Sarah O' Connor. All I can do is continue to live my life the best I can both for the now, and for the future.

I genuinely can't see humanity being wiped out, per se. The only thing as tenacious and prolific as us seemed to be cockroaches. Okay, I might be wiped out, but I'm not humanity.

2778 AI researchers were polled and 48% said there is at least a 5% risk that AI will make the human race extinct or cause extremely bad outcomes. 38% believe the risk is 10% or higher. For those who understand risk, in these cases even a 1% risk (in terms of impact and likelihood) would be entirely unacceptable.

The same people say there's a 50% chance AI will outperform humans in every task possible by 2047.

That's a decent size sample, not the one 27 year old that people are focussing on.

Apparently the last time a huge community of scientists warned about something of this potential, it was the atomic bomb.

Anyone else reminded of that film look up with Jennifer Lawrence here?

I think there's a low chance of a very high risk situation developing. There're too many variables to know at this stage.

The only thing realistically within our control is reducing our reliance on technology and increasing our resilience to emergency events. Worth doing a bit of 'prepping' just in case.

How long could you cope for if we lost access to utilities, banking and shops? What would you need for the first few days or weeks?

If you've got a spare cupboard then why not have some backup supplies of long-life food, water purifying tablets and medicine?

I’m not sure whether I should buy heating oil then, I’ve got about 6 months left.

How do they create deadly pathogens with no hands, out of interest?

I’m a bit confused. How is it gonna kill us?

The problem is that only a very few people know wht AI is capable of right now. Most of us know about ChatGPT and use it for all manner of things, driverless cars, being able to do tricky operations more reliably than human surgeons, bots invading MN... But we don't know just how far it goes.

Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics were

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Too many people believed that AI would be developed with the same conditions. It's becoming clear that it isn't. And the indications are that its tendency will be to be malevolent to humanity, just like any other species which seeks to maximise its own benefit.

The potential of AI has worried me for a long time. But it's growing exponentially - using existing AI to develop even more sophisticated AI. And humans are losing control. While I don't know what the timescale is going to be, I think we should be afraid.

Get a grip

“Hal, open the door Hal”
“i can’t do that Dave”
Space oddity 2001

Some of these threats are coming to pass, notably climate change. People are dying, in places such as Nepal when the glacier collapsed. And there were excess deaths in the UK because of the heat. 7 million people died from Covid, many more left with long term health issues.

We may not be experiencing it as apocalyptic, but it will impact us more over time and for more people those impacts will be catastrophic.

Cory Doctorow thinks this is ridiculous and he tends to be right.
What's far more likely is a big economic crash when the AI bubble bursts.

LOL. Epic 'gotcha' there!

Oh dear......

I’ll get my sandwich board and take to the streets 🤣

Quoting from a forty year old science fiction series 😆

100% this. And worryingly, some people are believing it too.

Is that a deliberate typo? Or is your reply an oddity? 🙈😳

I know. I'm speechless. (Almost!) 😆

Yeah, it won't.....

Oh blast! I’ve just renewed my Sainsbury’s delivery pass for a year as well!

Agree with the others who say find joy in daily life. It is likely that something will come close to wiping us out within the next 20 or so years (global warming, AI development etc), so enjoy the peaceful times as much as you can. You would regret it otherwise.

get a grip