A.I. Is Being Built by People Who Think It Might Destroy Us

The profile piece mentioned in the op-ed:

Sam Altman's Manifest Destiny, 2016

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/10/sam-altmans-ma...

-- the quote [in full] --

“Well, I like racing cars,” Altman said. “I have five, including two McLarens and an old Tesla. I like flying rented planes all over California. Oh, and one odd one—I prep for survival.” Seeing their bewilderment, he explained, “My problem is that when my friends get drunk they talk about the ways the world will end. After a Dutch lab modified the H5N1 bird-flu virus, five years ago, making it super contagious, the chance of a lethal synthetic virus being released in the next twenty years became, well, nonzero. The other most popular scenarios would be A.I. that attacks us and nations fighting with nukes over scarce resources.” The Shypmates looked grave. “I try not to think about it too much,” Altman said. “But I have guns, gold, potassium iodide, antibiotics, batteries, water, gas masks from the Israeli Defense Force, and a big patch of land in Big Sur I can fly to.”

"It may be that one of humanities assets becomes one of our greatest detriments in this context. There are a lot of very intelligent individuals involved in the creation of AGI. This might seem contradictory, in that they should be more aware of the dangers than the rest of us. However, they are also among the group of individuals that would likely see themselves as the top performers in their field. Individuals who have spent their lives achieving the impossible and that has become their identity of their value and mission."

https://dakara.substack.com/p/ai-singularity-the-hubris-trap

Echos of the famous cartoon: https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a16995

we need to figure out where this property in Big Sur is at! might come in handy in a pinch LOL