To not have children due to the potential threat of AI

[NP101]

I realise this probably makes me sound like a fully paid up member of the tin hat society but I'm increasingly worried about the threat of AI.

It has made me re-evaluate having children as the future looks pretty bleak - I can envisage the internet more or less being unusable in 5 years time and then the subsequent fall out of this - both socially and economically.

I realise I probably would have had similar feelings had I been around in various other points in history and subsequently regretted not having children but this current threat seems even more existential.

Anxiety only increases when you have children. By around a hundred fold in my case. If you are an anxious person, and I assume you are by the thread title, then children might not be the right choice. There are zero safe times in history or the future to have children.

Looking at images from Maui made me consider how small we are and how quickly everything can go.

I just want to live life as long as I'm here. It's the climate emergency that would worry me especially. But I don't think you're unreasonable. It freaks me out as well.

I agree AI is a huge concern, if it’s allowed to continue unfettered society will basically turn into the controllers/owners of tech and the masses who are paid a pittance to log into their VR world to escape reality.

https://time.com/6266923/ai-eliezer-yudkowsky-open-letter-not-enough/

I'm more concerned about climate change but I also ready havr dmall children so bit late to worry now

This is my reason ultimately - I didn't have the words to describe this decision when I was 12 and so the reasons have changed for every passing threat that has come to pass for last 40 years. My decision was the right one for me,even if I lived in a utopia - my mind will find something to stress about.

I am really sceptical generally but even I get the skynet jitters about AI.

We just have to hope these things are suitably regulated.

Wouldn't stop me having children but I think they'll need to future proof themselves - jobs wise things will shift massively I feel:

Yabu

What is in the air today? This thread and weirdos having babies in the Caribbean leaving their 8 year old behind! Bonkers

For most of human history we’ve been one bad harvest or one surprise raid away from disaster. People have carried on regardless. To have hypothetical worry to this extent about an unknown, uncontrollable future is a sign of deep anxiety issues which it would benefit you to see someone about.

stop reading websites that benefit from making you feel fearful and powerless and do some practical real world things that make you feel good and in control of what you can control.

My granny had her babies during ww2. During the grinding blackouts, her uncles were killed, there was rationing, the fear was ever present and very very real. She was terrified (and obviously limited by choice) but her attitude was otherwise what was the point. She was a wee old lady who knitted and made pastry but whenever I worry about the outlook I imagine her parking her pram in the stair landing which had bullet hole from a German raid.

<adds shotguns and ammo to prepper list>
<idly wonders if cousins in the North of Ireland might have cough connections>

We're in Ireland, and extremely rural so it's easier for us. We are very off the beaten track and down a remote country road. If you are happy to work at farming with us, I'll let you come stay with me

My DB is a bit of a conspiracy theorist so asked us all to have a think about how we'd manage if Putin launched a cyber attack on the banks. (He's buying up silver and gold bricks as his savings, as he really doesn't trust the banks) So it got us thinking...

BIL has cows, so we would have beef and milk. His fields also have hundreds of rabbits so assuming there's no diseases, we could have a lot of rabbit stews. We've enough land to grow our veggies, have a few greenhouses, fruit trees and bushes. We've even honeybees. So some chickens and a goat and a pig and we'd be well set up maybe a few sheep. DB fishes so between a few families we could do swapsies. Other locals would swap wool and lamb/mutton. My cousins know how to spin and knit wool so they could teach me. I know how to make butter, milk cows and goats, how to save hay for the animals. DH knows how to slaughter animals. I killed a chicken once when I was young, didn't like it but the resulting curry was delicious. We get our own turf (peat) every year so we'd have fuel.

Only if you assume that the electricity used isn't renewable. And, as the technology develops, AI will use much less in the way of general-purpose GPUs and much more ASICs designed specifically for the task (which are orders of magnitude more efficient).

What if AI managed to help us get over the last hump to make fusion power viable, though? Or if it found a way to solve the carbon problem? AI would then be the greenest technology we've ever invented.

It's already added to human knowledge by sequencing almost every known protein, and can design new ones to our specification.

For more prosaic benefits, it's already being used to optimise supply chains to minimise fuel use. While not actively helping the climate, it's reducing the damage.

Much is made of the dangers of AI, but very few people seem to appreciate what it can do for us. It's not just about cheating on homework.

I am not “miserable” about the future but AI and climate change are both existential threats to life as we know it.

Our lives are great but I think in fifty years very few people will feel that way.

My kids are adults but none are having children for these reasons.

That reminds me of a sobering thought - at any given moment, we're all about two minutes away from dying, we just reset the clock every time we take a breath.

There's an analogy to just about every disruptive technology that's ever been invented there.

People were born in the midsts of both world wars, disease, economic crisis.. I’m sure the majority would tell you they were very happy to have been given the opportunity of life despite the hardships they may have faced.

Read your history there was a year in the 900s in Saxon times in the area where I live now when one third of the population died of the Black Death there were violent Viking raids from the coast and a volcano in Iceland blocked out the sun for a year (though they didn’t know it was that) so the crops failed so anyone that had survived the other two things either starved or nearly did. That year must have been a barrel of laughs.

I don't doubt that at all - I'm mainly concerned by the fact that the people who developed it all seem very worried.

Perhaps that's a good thing. Maybe they will be motivated enough to put the brakes on.

@Upsizer

We essentially live in a ponzi scheme , if people stop having children , the burden on the children that are born will be astonishing. Not having children will not help society, it will make it unbearable for those that are here.

I think schools should start teaching about echonomics because a lot of people are making Ill Iinformed decisions based on natural occurrences that have happened throughout all of history (obviously not talking about AI).

I don't think AI in particular is a threat. All we can do is do what's best for our children, perhaps hat means limiting internet use. Either way we can't possibly imagine what the internet will be like in 20 years, the advances are so quick.

I consider all their comments in the context of the modern world - yes, there is good reason to be careful and put limits on the tech (especially when we don't really know much about it), but nobody will listen these days unless there's shock-and-awe involved.

It's unlikely that our generation will be the one to make the biggest AI breakthrough, but it's reasonable to assume it might come from the generation currently in primary school. If they've grown up with stark warnings about the dangers of AI all around them, they're naturally going to be more cautious about it when the time comes.

@TheaBrandt

.. And yet here we all are. There will always be suffering and unhappiness, that is what life is.
You would not be here today if our ancestors did not survive these events.

The only scenario in which I would have chosen not to have children is if my child would have been subjected to lifelong suffering without any hope of improvement or certain early death through no fault of their own.

Sometimes the heart overruled the head. I do desperately wanted to be a mother and now I am I sometimes wish I hadn’t. Not because I don’t love or enjoy her, I do. But knowing the anxiety and fear of the future is pretty damn scary.

It's fascinating that in the UK, which relatively is a stable, wealthy, developed country with (still) universal education, universal healthcare, universal benefits, that people can be so terrified about the future that they would not have children that they otherwise would want.

Have kids if you want to, don't have kids if you don't want to. But why because of AI?
You never know, AI could answer all our problems... as a PP said it could be the catalyst for change that we need... nobody knows.