Escaping an Anti-Human Future
I’ve been a cheerleader for new computer-based technology since Apple released the Macintosh, forty-two years ago and I’ve followed along closely ever since. Lately, I’ve enjoyed watching and experiencing the advances in the world of Artificial Intelligence and talking to, and working with, LLMs daily.
Along side my enthusiasm, I’ve always understood that AI technology needs supervision, oversight and serious, securely established, guardrails. In this regard I took some comfort from Kevin Kelly, the founding executive editor of Wired magazine and one of my trusted sources for information and wisdom, who sees AI development as incremental, like electricity or the industrial revolution, allowing us to steer and cognify it safely as we go. We don’t get technologies perfect at the beginning, he says, we release them, see what goes wrong, and then fix them. There’s no single moment where suddenly it all goes out of control. It will be a long, slow co-evolution.
But it’s very quickly becoming clear that the speed of AI advancement no longer bears any correlation to electricity or the Industrial Revolution. A long and slow co-evolution seems, today, far more aspirational than actually possible.
Another of my trusted sources is the neuroscientist, philosopher, author, and podcast host Sam Harris. Back in 2017 I remember pulling over in a Safeway parking lot to listen to a long interview he did with Tristan Harris (no relation) who had recently left Google, where he'd been Design Ethicist, to lead Time Well Spent — his effort to reform tech incentives and design practices. In 2020, Tristan was featured in the two-time Emmy-winning Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma which reached over 100 million people in 190 countries. He's since been named to the TIME 100 "Next Leaders Shaping the Future" and Rolling Stone's "25 People Shaping the World."
Five days ago, Tristan joined Sam Harris again to talk about AI, specifically; “Escaping an Anti-Human Future”. I think this is really important stuff, and while I’m reluctant to recommend setting aside the two hours required to watch it, because it’s not “fun” viewing, I think positive progress in the world can only be made once the people of the world have a clear view of where this is all heading. So I feel it’s my responsibility to share it. Also, these are two seriously intelligent and thoughtful men …