Why We Fear AI: On the Interpretation of Nightmares — Common Notions Press

AI Safety Is a Narrative Problem · Special Issue 5: Grappling With the Generative AI Revolution

This op-ed explores power and narrative dynamics around AI. Drawing on pop-culture references, the professional experiences of the author and examples from 2023’s “Great AI Safety Hype Roadshow,” this piece draws on the literary criticism technique of practical criticism to consider how speeches and announcements from both Silicon Valley executives and research scientists to interrogate the media-friendly nature of p(doom) discourse—which focuses on the existential risks of AI (PauseAI, 2023)—and its likely consequences. The complexities of AI and its numerous social impacts can be difficult for even the most expert analyst to unpack. In spite of this, the potential of “existential threats” has successfully cut through to become a mainstay of mainstream media coverage over the last year. This piece will make the case that this is an effective narrative conceit that has achieved a number of ends that traditional science communication tends to find difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. Firstly, it is easy to understand. Simplification of this nature—that removes jargon and complexity and focuses on a single outcome—is much easier to fit on a TV rolling news ticker or on the cover of a tabloid newspaper than more well-balanced, representative opinions. Secondly, it inherits prior assumptions from well-known dramatic forms. P(doom) plays to stories familiar from Greek tragedy through to Marvel movies, in which lone male heroes battle ineluctable forces. Thirdly, it is imbued with urgency and so becomes difficult to ignore.

AI Billionaires Are Starting to Get Scared

The world's tech billionaires are starting to moderate their rhetoric on AI automation, but that doesn't mean it's all in good faith.

AI FOR EPISTEMICS & COORDINATION

Civilization and technology have radically improved the human condition. Nonetheless, the world sometimes goes in directions which essentially nobody would prefer — e.g., nuclear arms races, unexpected financial crashes, predatory marketing, or ubiquitous political misinformation.

How the AI Writing Panic Is Making Us All Worse Writers

This applies to those who use AI to write and those who don’t

AI Researchers On AI Risk

I first became interested in AI risk back around 2007. At the time, most people’s response to the topic was “Haha, come back when anyone believes this besides random Internet crackpots.…

My Thoughts on AI, Part 1: Fears, Opinions, and Mental Journey

My own personal thoughts and opinions on AI effects and usage, and how those have evolved over time

Why are workers so worried about AI? Listen to how business leaders talk about it

Concerns about AI pushing humans out of jobs may be a bit overstated, but the anxiety being felt by workers related to technology is real and nuanced.

AI security issues dominate corporate worries, spending

Two reports illustrate how business leaders are thinking about and budgeting for generative AI.

Companies That Replaced Humans With AI Are Realizing Their Mistake

As AI agents have yet to pay for themselves, more and more executives are waking up to the sloppy reality of AI hype.

Don’t Believe the Hype — or Doom — About AI

For America’s VC-dominated tech industry, AI hype isn’t just a crazy by-product — it’s a structural part of the US economy in which capital tries to write our destinies. We shouldn’t let it.

Mathematicians warn of AI threats to profession as industry encroaches

International Mathematical Union endorses warning about tech industry influence.

Experts warn AI is making your brain work less

Generative AI tools have become hugely popular but some experts worry about the effect they have on the brain.