Everybody in AI is talking about Shoggoth, about how inhuman monsters hide behind the obsequious face of GPT, how AGI is going to reach the singularity any day now, become hyper intelligent, seize control of everything, wipe out humanity, and blah, blah, blah.

I’ve no doubt that the alien intelligences we are creating won’t care whether we live or die. Of course. They are machines; caring isn’t something they do.

But so what? Amoral little shits though they be, how, exactly are they going to “wipe us out?” As long as we have the minimal good sense not to make SkyNet a real thing, AI’s are uniquely vulnerable to their human masters throwing a circuit breaker. I guess you can come up with scenarios involving AI using blackmail, manipulation, or extortion to get human Quislings to do their bidding, but it’s all pretty far fetched for now. I’m confident that we will be able to figure out how to pull the plug on a rogue data center that requires as much electricity as Philadelphia.

I mention this because the rogue AI trope gets used as a smokescreen to hide the real AI nightmare we should be worrying about right now. I’m less worried about rogue AI taking over than I am about tame, obedient AI doing exactly what we ask it to.

Continue reading “Fred Taylor’s Ghost is Coming for You” →