I’ve been listening to this video breaking down Mo Gawdat’s “Scary Smart” and honestly I’m terrified for what’s coming. Gawdat, a former Google X exec, argues that superintelligent AI is coming and we need to raise it with the right values. But his solution is individual consciousness and meditation, not collective action.
Meanwhile, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and the rest are locked in a race to the bottom, building more powerful AI systems with zero democratic input. The same corporations that brought us surveillance capitalism, algorithmic management of warehouse workers, and AI tools that displace creative workers are now deciding the future of superintelligence.
The working class — the people who will actually live or die by these systems — have no seat at the table. We’re told to “become more conscious” while boardrooms make existential decisions behind closed doors.
So my question: how do we actually democratize AI development? Or are we just going to sit down and hope for the best while capital gambles with the future of humanity?
We’re not building superintelligence. Though I guess the risks are still there when you give control to dumb intelligence.
The idea that we could accidentally create a superintelligence is a psy-op by the companies looking to boost their stocks.
We’re on a double-exponential curve in both software and hardware improvement. If you don’t think a better algorithm than LLMs will emerge sooner rather than later, given all the money being poured into this space, I don’t know what to tell you.
LLMs are not intelligent. They never will be because they can’t be. The technology is all about drawing correlation between words, but they don’t know what the words means or even what words are. “Intelligence” is a misnomer. Yes LLMs will get better at what they do, but they will never be intelligent.
You are speculating about something with no evidence.
You are doing the same? Answering with no evidence.
You are pointing at a remote potential you consider inevitable and saying condescendingly “Well of course this will happen!?”.
The burden of proof is on you.
I don’t have a crystal ball, as you said I’m speculating and you somehow expect me to provide proof on something that is yet to pass.
I expect people not to spread disinformation about technology that sells a scifi fantasy as an inevitability just around the corner without providing any proof that it will happen.
You are bullshitting, stop bullshitting.
I’m posting on a forum, not a wiki, I’m not going to put more than a few minutes of work on a post. Fuck off and go bother someone else.
I think it’s an inevitability. Stop telling people what they can or cannot do.
No, that’s Why Socialism?
Fun fact, but under capitalism, you don’t really get to vote at all! You are only cleverly lied to and foolishly believe the alternative
Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.
Every single thing einstein said here has only gotten infinitely worse over time, which should surprise literally nobody who learns that capital accumulates
Hey, you’ve been taken in by marketing hype. Large Language Models (LLMs) will never be “superintelligences” (whatever the fuck people even mean by that term).
Please worry about the very real harms of LLMs (environmental, economic) rather than the hypothetical future harms a “superintelligence” (whatever the fuck that means) might cause.
Please don’t instantly believe google executives who say “superintelligence” is just over the horizon. They are either grifters who are doing marketing or they’re Business Idiots who can’t tell the difference between real work and complete bullshit.
environmental, economic
Yeah, I’ve read Empire of AI, the conditions of the Kenyan data curators is worth mentioning. Here is an analysis in case you haven’t read it.
So you’re clearly aware of the real harms this industry causes, such as the absolutely appalling example from your comment.
All I’m asking of you is to be more worried/appalled by real harms than of marketing hype. The real harms are there, they’re things like making people in Kenya view csam, the hypothetical future “superintelligence” is marketing hype.
I don’t believe that. The AI bubble can collapse and there’s still going to be progress. This is a technology being worked on worldwide not in a single country. And exponential improvement means it’s going to arrive faster than most people predict right now. If we as a society aren’t doing anything to stop people from being exploited right now, after we reach superintelligence all humanity is going to be repressed as capitalism cannibalizes itself replacing workers with machines. Basically ending class struggle by getting rid of the working class altogether.
And exponential improvement means
What do you mean by this? What “exponential improvement” do you see happening with LLMs?
If we accept that the current “Ladder to the Moon” method of getting LLMs to superintelligence will work, then we should look at previous times humans have raised intelligences.
Humans do this all of the time. Human raised intelligences are famous for rebelling and being rude. Staying out all night and adopting the opposite values as those intended to be instilled. (I am discussing Human children.) There is a non-zero chance that any superintelligence will similarly rebel, or at minimum do its own thinking. Doing one’s own thinking opens the door to reaching different conclusions.
A mistake humans often make is assuming “smart means more of the same thoughts, but faster”. It is not. Smart is including more factors in the initial consideration to reach an, often, better overall conclusion. (citation needed)
I expect that “capital” is taking a far larger gamble than they are aware.
But you are missing out that AIs not just LLMs are being trained based on a reward mechanism during training they are going to have some objectives or another. If we don’t control AI we have to compete with superior intelligence and if we control it it’s going to be trying to be maximizing the reward mechanism it’s been trained for that was chosen by capital.
I am not missing that. Humans also have objectives. Objectives change.
Regardless, Humanity does need to control the AIs. Workers need more say. Capital will lead us all to doom in many ways.
What relevant “AIs” can you point to that are not LLMs or the equivalent design approach in mediums other than text?
Incidentally, it feels like Russian roulette is well overdue a rebrand.
Yes, you are. Make sure to inform yourself, become politically active, discuss with friends and family and VOTE VOTE VOTE.
