Bernie Sanders tells OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta to pause AI development or face Senate action

Any pause will have to be a global treaty; the unfortunate reality is that we’re in an arms race now, and despite Sanders’ threats otherwise, I don’t think there is going to be much will to pause in the US while China keeps developing.

And to be clear, I think it would be every wise to pause development and, afterwards, keep the pace slow. We know how to make “AI” more capable, but we don’t know how to make it stay aligned with human goals. The technology is useful and isn’t going anywhere, but that doesn’t mean we have to develop it as quickly as possible without regard to the real dangers it brings with it.

Any pause will have to be a global treaty

Which is why tech CEOs love to promote it. They know it’ll never happen.

We know how to make “AI” more capable, but we don’t know how to make it stay aligned with human goals.

“Alignment” is almost entirely a myth cooked up by AI companies who want to make their word generators sound scarier than they are. There’s no such thing: the next word generator generates next word. It’s unpredictable because it’s built that way. “Hallucination” and “going rogue”, all poor terms and pathetic attempts to fearmonger and humanize, are identical functions to “working” and “aligning”.

The technology… isn’t going anywhere

The “it’s just inevitable” cliche rears its ugly head again.

Your opinion is borne from lack of knowledge about the topic you’re trying to discuss, similar to an anti-vaxxer attempting to discuss the dangers of mRNA vaccines.

Fix your lack of knowledge or don’t; that’s your call, but if you care about discussing this topic somewhat intelligently, you should probably put in some effort to understand it.

I said several things so how about you actually address them, instead of resorting to an insult and vaguely telling me to “do my research”?

Do you deny this latest wave of companies doing the exact same routine is a PR stunt, or that companies badly want regulatory capture, or what?

I meant no insult, truly. You just don’t have the minimum required knowledge to discuss this intelligently. There’s no shame in that; no one can know everything.

I can’t know the motives of anyone, but I can say it’s at least plausible that the people working on the frontier models want an excuse to slow down that doesn’t give an advantage to other countries and companies, and also doesn’t put them in the crosshairs of investors and board members.

You apparently still internalize LLMs as fancy Markov chains, which tells me that you don’t have a working grasp to discuss the topic, even at the laymen level we’re at.

These hacking events may be “PR Stunts”, but the “stunt” part would be leaving a known vulnerability as a path to the wider Internet instead of making it physically impossible to break out, not the hacking of other websites. No one credible is disputing that these models are capable of hacking.

I meant no insult

Uh-huh. You compared me to an antivaxxer , implying that people who disagree with you don’t believe in science or technology - the same reason you felt the need to throw in the “inevitability” cliche. Which I do not buy, and somebody claiming to understand the technology should never repeat.

Later, you say anyone who disagrees with you just feels “desperate” and “threatened." You’re really pulling everything from the “I am rational and you are neurotic” playbook aren’t you.

I can’t know the motives of anyone, but I can say it’s at least plausible that the people working on the frontier models want an excuse to slow down that doesn’t give an advantage to other countries and companies, and also doesn’t put them in the crosshairs of investors and board members.

It’s all the same song and dance. Dario Amodei screams “hold me back!” because he loves pretending his product is Great and Powerful.

Why do these developers never talk about real harms like the environmental damage they cause? How about the psychosis they are liable to fall into?

It’s pretty obvious they’re just doing marketing, knowingly or not. And these are smart people who should know better.

Computer science is still science. You distrust the experts in the field based on what? Something you saw on social media? Certainly not your own expertise, that much is clear.

Don’t move the goalposts. No one is claiming that “AI” doesn’t have downsides. That’s different than your original claim that they didn’t do what they appear to do.

I don’t suppose you happen to be in a field threatened by AI? In my anecdotal experience, the people that desperately want to pretend AI is all a scam are actually worried about the opposite, and their job. (A real concern I’m in no way trying to minimize.)

I can’t tell if you’re reading what I’m writing. I mention CEOs twice and you assert I’m not listening to “The Experts”.

No one is claiming that “AI” doesn’t have downsides.

You mean climate damage and psychosis?

Zero of the “experts” in your strained theory about looking for excuses to “pause” AI ever talk about them. It’s almost like they don’t want to imply their product is unworthy of all the hype, doomerism and fearmongering.

I do not consider the CEOs as experts, no.

You’re not making coherent arguments; it really is like discussing vaccines with an antivaxxer. Maybe take a step back and explain to me what your stance actually is? Bonus points if you learn just a layman’s level understanding of the technology before you post your response.

Since your first post, I’ve been challenging you to justify your thought-terminating cliches, but instead all you do is string together insults like

it really is like discussing vaccines with an antivaxxer.

and slightly less overt ones. You should retract all the personal attacks or at least retract your insincere “apology.”

And for your vague sourceless claims about “experts” need to actually provide sources. Tell me the cult leader Eliezer Yudkowsky isn’t one of your favored “experts.”

If you don’t like that comparison, I suggest you take a hard look at how you’ve approached this topic.

I will happily continue this discussion once I (and presumably you) understand what you’re actually arguing.

I don’t like your insincerity with the fake apology, and I don’t like the insincerity of refusing to back up your claims.

We can start with the simplest question, which I already asked: Do you consider Eliezer Yudkowsky to be one of your “experts”?

I don’t understand the question. Yudkowsky’s book is on my reading list, but judging by the title, I assumed it to be more on the side of restricting AI research, which best aligns with what I think (but suspiciously you refuse to clarify) your stance is.

When I said “the experts” I meant all the people working on AI at these frontier AI companies. You know, the experts?

I disagree with Yudkowsky in pretty much every way possible, and don’t know how you could conclude I agree with him if you saw anything else I posted in this thread. He’s like you, he believes AI is inevitable and wants it to be good too.

When I said “the experts” I meant all the people working on AI at these frontier AI companies

Interesting how you conflate “expert” with “employee” when determining who you trust. Do you see any conflict of interest here?

And I asked you earlier about why these “experts” never sound the alarm about the environmental or mental harms of AI. I wonder why that is… Do you think it hurts their bottom line?

I answered your non sequitur as a show of good faith. Your turn: what precisely is the stance you’re arguing here?

That AI doomerism is AI marketing.

Now I’m interested in how you conflate “expert” with “employee” when determining who you trust. Do you see any conflict of interest here?

And I asked you earlier about why these “experts” never sound the alarm about the environmental or mental harms of AI. I wonder why that is… Do you think it hurts their bottom line?

Slow down, sir or ma’am. We’ll get to your questions, I promise.

What does “AI Doomerism” mean? I am not familiar with the term.

https://ondiscourse.com/ai-doomerism-is-a-business-tactic/

Now I’m interested in how you conflate “expert” with “employee” when determining who you trust. Do you see any conflict of interest here?

And I asked you earlier about why these “experts” never sound the alarm about the environmental or mental harms of AI. I wonder why that is… Do you think it hurts their bottom line?

I know it has already been said, but even your tactics resemble anti-intellectualism. You don’t need to keep hammering the same questions; I will get to them. Calm down, there isn’t a prize at the end; there is no winner or loser. We’re just having a discussion. Breathe.

That link didn’t answer my question, so I have to ask more questions. Are you saying that AI will not (can not?) be a threat to humanity, ever? And is the rationale for that conclusion because you don’t think AI actually works?

Do you really think that your insults are less insulting if you follow them up with condescension? If you refuse to answer my questions, just say so, instead of being a douchebag.

I answered you twice, “in good faith” as you like to say, and it’s clear that’s something you’re not here in.