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.

There's a lot of doom mongering on here today

Climate change is the more immediate threat.

Not so much AI. It will be the combination of climate change, overpopulation and mass migration that causes the problems. In 1960 there were three billion humans. Now there are eight billion. It's an unbelievable increase. When Climate change gets worse, and makes large parts of this planet uninhabitable, that population explosion will cause chaos.

After a week in rural England and Wales I can confirm that AI doesn't even know what a decent road is. I think we'll be fine.

Meanwhile I'm travel sick and the car is fucked 😂

Had nobody watched Short Circuit??

There are people on here who won't have children because they can't afford private education. I thought that was bonkers....

We’re doomed because of overpopulation and we’re doomed because the birth rate has dropped.

👍

Sarah Connor, is that you ??
Cue Terminator music…..

If people are so worried about AI and climate change then perhaps using the Internet for random musings isn't the best idea?

And while you're at it - delete some old emails. 😂

e.g The average web page tested produces approximately 0.5 grams CO2 per page view. For a website with 10,000 monthly page views, that's 60 kg CO2 per year

All adds up! 😊 just seems weirdly hypocritical to bang on about it online.

Chat GPT isn't true AI it's just a language model. AGI is about a decade away and from that point all bets are off as to what it can do.

My point is that you don’t know who would choose not to have a child because of external factors even if they wanted one, the option wasn’t there anyway.

I'm talking about the people here on this thread who are saying that they won't have children solely because of fear of the future. So we do know why they aren't having children.

I mean in the past. I don’t think it is a new phenomenon, that people who want children only will have children if not for X if they have that choice. X may not have been AI in past but other things; lack of money, war, famine, love, health. For me circumstances would have to be greater than ideal.

Historically people had children because there was no reliable contraception and because it was very much the social norm to. In the UK or other Christian countries it was part and parcel of normal Christian life. You would have to forgo a relationship in order to choose not to have children.

As PP have said, people have children in all kinds of dire circumstances, sometimes because that's what is expected of them but often because they are hopeful for the future.

You don’t have to have dc for any reason you like

But then think AI might resolve some other big issues we’re facing on population decrease

There's always going to be future what ifs, I don't think humanity would have got this far if humanity didn't chance it.

Yes I think you sounds nuts but I also think the same of the not having kids due to climate change or only having one due to climate as well 🤔

I do.

A friend recently told me about AI porn where you can use any photo of someone and generate porn.

If you thought revenge porn was bad, imagine this.

Also check out 'Fake Dicaprio' and 'Fake Jenny Ortega' on YouTube.

The AI that the public has access to is fairly primitive. But it is very developed behind the scenes.

There's always a reason not to have children, always some existential threat looming.

If you want children and are able to care for them, you should do that. We're only here for a short while, anyway, and not even the wealthiest person born into times of peace and prosperity has ever been guaranteed happiness. Meanwhile, some children who have suffered danger-filled and poverty-stricken beginnings have risen up to live happy and meaningful lives.

If you want children and are able to care for them, you should do that

I would argue there should be far, far more consideration put into having children than that.

Because most people are aware how easily that stability can fall away.

Over the past few years we've seen the UK slowly stripped of a lot of things. The trajectory seems downward/flailing.

I would say that it would be better for you not to have children at the moment, as you would be an overanxious and doom ridden mother.

I’m sure my parents had similar thoughts during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Having children during WW1 probably didn’t seem peachy.

Dread to think what potential parents with anxiety thought during the Black Death,

@JamSandle most people aren't focussed on the idea that stability can fall away quickly. Economies go up and down, sometimes further down than other times. That's not instability. Nothing about the UK is unstable. Western and Northern Europe is stable. It has been for more than 75 years.

Yes but future predictors indicate that will change especially with climate change and mass migration. So people used to stability may be concerned about the future there children may have.