dejawu

I don't think I've felt hopeful a single time since I saw what ChatGPT was capable of. Make no mistake, I find the technology incredible and fascinating - it's a monumental achievement. I grew up dreaming that I'd get to see AGI, and I feel like now we're close, if not already there.

But when I think about the world that this tech is coming out to, whose hands it will end up in, and the rhetoric from those people (e.g. this Paul Graham tweet from a few days ago [0]), I'm filled with nothing but dread. I have essentially zero faith that this will lead to better outcomes for most people. Instead I expect a massive new consolidation of wealth, and a lot of new misery for many people put out of work by AI. Less work for humans should mean good news, but we haven't yet built a world that can safely handle that reduction in work humanely.

Do you feel the same way? I especially want to hear from you if you don't - I would be more than happy to be dissuaded from this frankly quite apocalyptic view.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33879690