Technology

Artificial intelligence isn’t designed to maximize human fulfillment. It’s built to minimize human suffering.

What it cannot do is answer the fundamental questions that have always defined human existence: Who am I? Why am I here? What should I do with my finite time on Earth?

Expecting machines to resolve existential questions is like expecting a calculator to write poetry. We’re demanding the wrong function from the right tool.

Pretty weird statements. There’s no such thing as just “AI” - they should be more specific. LLMs aren’t designed to maximize human fulfillment or minimize suffering. They’re designed to generate natural-sounding language. If they’re talking about AGI, then that’s not designed for any one thing - it’s designed for everything.

Comparing AGI to a calculator makes no sense. A calculator is built for a single, narrow task. AGI, by definition, can adapt to any task. If a question has an answer, an AGI has a far better chance of figuring it out than a human - and I’d argue that’s true even if the AGI itself isn’t conscious.

It won't solve anything except "How do we slowly kill off most life on this planet by using too much energy from power plants that spew awful chemicals into the air, and make deserts by using all the water up too?"

in a world of abundance

uuh I guess this is a hypothetical of a possible utopian future rather than about current AI or based on current trends and implementations.

People need to understand the difference between LLMs and Neural Networks.

LLM training is a massive energy hog that gives us nothing but the illusion of coherent human-made text.

Non-LLM Neural Networks are much broader in use, almost always massively less energy-intensive to train, and often incredibly accurate when finely-tuned for specific purposes.

LLMs can die in a fire, and nothing would be lost. NNs in general are incredibly useful and honestly a massive source of potential for bettering healthcare (and science research in general) globally.