I was sent a link to a post on the D&D subreddit (/r/dnd). The contents of the post aren't important, but my eye was drawn to the header. A beholder with the LGBTQIA++ BIPOC Trans flag and multicolored rainbow eyes.
To the mods and members of that subreddit, about Dungeons & Dragons, THAT'S the most important thing?
Also, of course, "No AI" is in the top 5 rules.
I know there are quite a few tabletop players here--is the entire community like this? I haven't played in some 20 years, and the last time I did it was mostly nerdy and edgy white and asian dudes. What happened??
Why would no AI be a bad thing? You want low effort slop posts taking over every corner of the internet? It seems that people on the right are only in favor of AI because some leftists are against it. But AI is actually progressivism and conservatism means going back to the old ways, i.e., genuine human interaction instead of mediated interaction with robots.
So you're taking the same philosophical position that, for instance, the average leftist takes on guns. Guns kill people, guns are bad, therefore, ban guns.
AI hurts people, AI is bad, therefore, ban AI.
I take a different position. Guns are tools. AI is a tool. If someone is using AI to do something cool, why not allow? Sure, ban shlock and low quality posts, just like many forums ban memes and low effort posts.
Your take is the normie take of both the left and right. "Every technology is just a tool bro and can always be used for good." It's wilful ignorance to overlook the enormous downsides far outweighing the benefits of most modern technologies, and it reduces to complete absurdity when you're talking about AIs that will eventually outperform humans in every way and enable just about anyone to make humanity extinct on a small budget. Heck, it's already absurd with nuclear weapons, gain of function technology, gene editing and so on.
The problem with the leftist take on guns is that's it's inconsistent with everything else they believe. But my take is consistent - we should get rid of all technology that significantly takes us away from the natural state of things. Guns included not only because you can't trust schizos with guns but also because they ruin the natural power balance between men and women. This is the truly conservative position.
I'm not remotely a conservative. I'm an anti-leftist.
Possible or probable on a long enough timespan, but I don't see LLM technology leading to human or super human level AGI soon. I will admit there are some very compelling arguments to be made along the lines of Kurzweil's singularity, but that's going to happen whether some shitty D&D sub bans AI or not.
Bans don't work. Drug bans don't work. Morality (sex) bans don't work. Drinking bans don't work. Gun bans don't work. AI bans will not work either.
2500 years ago, Socrates bemoaned the impact of writing on reasoning, memory, and discourse. 2000 years later, the Ottoman Empire found itself getting left behind in part due to their reluctance at adopting the printing press which was again, in large part, exactly along the same lines you mention--"Think of the scribes--jobs will be lost. Humanity will be lost. Art will be lost." Etc. Shall we get rid of writing, and unlock the true potential of the untainted human mind?
What I take is a pragmatic utilitarian position. LLM technology exists. Trillions of dollars are being invested in AI research, AI hardware, utilities, energy, etc. As long as that is the case, I plan to take advantage of the tech.
While we are getting rid of technology that significantly takes us away from the natural state of things, let's start with cars. Cars allow the weak to move freely, competing with the strongest men. Cars (and airplanes) allow people from poor countries to easily move elsewhere. Cars allow us to live physically far apart from each other, destroying communities and relationships that should be much closer and more tightly knit.
I agree LLMs aren't going to be AGI's but they're surprisingly good at pretending to be intelligent. I think AGI could happen within 20 years. Others in the field think it will be under 10 years.
Bans do work if they are socially enforced rather than from the top down. That's why sexual promiscuity and littering used to be less and politeness was more common. I'm not advocating government power but that people think long term and police each other more like in the good old days.
Socrates definitely had a point about writing. I think the positives probably outweigh the downsides but ideally we would be judicious in our use of writing so that it's not substituting for our ability to memorize.
Your pragmatic utilitarian position may be good for you in the short term but the problems we are in are because our ancestors did things the same way instead of thinking ahead and banding together to stop all the things with dystopian potential that are now being used to control us.
I agree cars are bad mainly because they destroy local communities. If I lived in the past I wouldn't have had much need for a car because everything I'd need would be local. The Amish are happier than the rest of us without cars.