this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2023
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Meanwhile, the power grid, traffic controls, and myriad infrastructure & adjacent internet-connected software will be using AI, if not already.
None of which can be used to "kill all humans."
Kill a bunch of humans, sure. After which the AI will be shut down and unable to kill any more, and next time we build systems like that we'll be more cautious.
I find it a very common mistake in these sorts of discussions to blend together "kills a bunch of people" or even "destroys civilization" with "kills literally everyone everywhere, forever." These are two wildly different sorts of things and the latter is just not plausible without assuming all kinds of magical abilities.
While I appreciate the nitpick, I think it's likely the case that "kills a bunch of people" is also something we want to avoid...
Oh, certainly. Humans in general just have a poor sense of scale, and I think it's important to keep aware of these sorts of things. I find it comes up a lot in environmentalism and the lack of nuance between "this could kill a few people" and "this could kill everyone" seriously hampers discussion.