I was offered money to scare you of AI [video]

> the Center for AI Safety... is handing out grants to creators to make videos that warn of the coming apocalypse. And would you know it, the apocalypse comes with a marketing budget. Thereʼs also the nonprofit Control AI, which has been sponsoring videos about how AI is an existential threat. And the Future of Life Institute launched a campaign to regulate AI called Protect Whatʼs Human, which invites people to take paid social media work. Follow the campaign directions, submit a draft, receive feedback, publish, and then get paid. According to an article in the Washington Post last year, this institute has funded 30 projects to develop AI safety content. Totally unbiased reporting, Iʼm sure

> [What] bothers me is that this is a case where political lobbying is spilling over into science and tech reporting, where it encounters an audience that isnʼt quite used to this. I donʼt see myself as an influencer. I see myself as an info-encer. I give you information and I want you to think for yourself

This age will be remembered for the scarcity of intellectual authorities: voices to turn to to get judgement from a stand of prestige. Some exist, but they are not on an "ideal throne" - on the contrary, not only they may not be household reach names, many are actively fought.

> I was contacted by an organization that wants to warn you that AI is an existential threat. Now, I've myself warned of the dangers of AI, so I'm sympathetic to that message. But they wanted to tell me what I was to say, down to the sentences I should read and references I should quote.

> I said, "No.". But if the price is right, someone else will do it.