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

It's not just him. Other researchers have been saying the same.

It's difficult for the general public or politicians to understand what the true risk is though as some will deliberately spread fear in order to boost investment in certain A.I business models.

However, if this really is a digital arms race, a power grab that could affect global democracy, then they are not going to want governments interfering and putting a break on their work, so they'll be on the other side, downplaying the risk.

In general, A.I is a more immediate risk than climate change.

I just posted above about whether it's still worth putting a mini stockpile together as advised by the government - now wondering if they're secretly planning for this scenario🙄

I was thinking of Japan and Brazil, one did the best pretty much the other seen to be the worst. Brazil’s IFR was 0.3 to 1.05% looking it up.

So way off 60%.

You're making a huge assumption here. There's a difference between being concerned about the long-term future and believing that AI can wipe out the human race in the immediate future.

Actually they haven't thought that one out. Or that AI will also remove them.

I think we have longer than 6 months but it’s still very worrying. The recent news about “swarms” of AI agents hacking message boards so they can communicate is scary stuff. It also came out today that AI agents (from open AI) hacked UK local council websites. If you’re sceptical about the idea of extinction from this stuff, think carefully about just how much of our society and infrastructure is contained in IT systems that are not necessarily that secure. When these agents are truly superhuman there’s nothing to stop them messing with literally any aspect of our daily lives. And that’s before we start thinking about governments, weapons stystems, biological warfare… the list goes on

The speed of change and possible extinction or civilisational collapse really unsettles people, so they dismiss it.

Today, we have technology that helps makes us less vulnerable (such as systems that are able to predict dangerous weather like hurricanes, and modern medicine), but our technology may also be our undoing.

One theory as to why aliens haven't visited our planet is that if they did exist, it's possible that no other species has yet managed to survive beyond the stage we're currently in. They're either wiped out by viruses, their own climate change, or develop weapons that wipe everyone out.

How will it happen? Genuine question- power outtage, nuclear codes, banks collapsing, what exactly?

I'd like to know how much of the vital systems that control nuclear power plants are online 😕This was sort of the topic of a popular TV series called Battlestar Galactica in the noughties (highly recommended, the show is known to be compulsive watching for those who normally don't like sci fi).

From what I can remember, the show starts with synthetic humans taking over earth, hacking the starships to make them crash or wipe out everyone on board, and the only humans who survive are those who were on the ship run by an old-school captain who made sure they were not online or connected to all the others.

Contagion was even better at societal breakdown post a virus.

I imagine something to do with nuclear or viruses.

Thanks, I'll watch it!

Fucking hilarious (for the fourth time on this thread)

@ifonly4 The kind of mayhem it would cause would be far beyond a mini stockpile, although, why not. You might as well have something rather than nothing as back-up!

But it would say that.

Yes we're both clear on that.

What countries didn't have lockdown measures?

What's to stop AI being taken onto the dark web (although i assume it is already there) where there's no regulation and then it can be made to do anything.

My best guess is that the consequences from AI will be more subtle and long term, but no less devastating.

Fundamentally, we will face a declining global population as people elect not to have children.

It’s not ‘secretly planning’, they clearly say they want the public to have resources for infrastructure interruption like water and electricity.

If it ‘attacked’ the financial system - think an inability to transact financially - there would be a complete loss of faith in fiat currency.

Now, imagine the consequences from that, if you dare.

But what will happen and when? What shall we do?

Why do you think your best guess is more accurate than almost all the AI experts? Genuinely. I keep seeing people write words to this effect and I’m flummoxed.

I’ve read a lot around this and I’ve certainly not come to any such conclusion. I may well be wrong and I bloody hope so - but how do you have the confidence to ignore the world’s top scientists when they issue a dire warning?

I don’t ignore the ‘experts’ - I made it clear, it was my best guess.

If, the ‘experts’ are listened to, and governments act, and we avoid the worst of recursive AI, it does not stop the advance of AI - it still means societal consequences including job losses, and a drop in government tax revenue etc.

You already have declining populations in large parts of the world.

No-one knows exactly when. AI experts have predicted from 6 months to never. Most cluster around ‘within a decade’ or ‘the immediate future.’

No-one knows exactly what will happen. When superintelligence is created it will be so superior to human thinking that the analogy is like an ant trying to understand what a human is doing. We just won’t know. All we know is, that like ants, we won’t be in control.

There’s been lots of articles posted about this on these pages have a look at some of them.

edited to add a list

https://darioamodei.com/post/we-must-pace-the-frontier

https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-2.html. Old but really good explanation of what we can’t comprehend what it can do

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c14dpgm0rg4o

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/sep/12/we-must-slow-the-pace-ceo-of-anthropic-calls-for-an-ai-slowdown

I just said in my post. Japan and Brazil.