Sam Altman warns AI could kill us all. But he still wants the world to use it

[Dead2009]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/31/tech/sam-altman-ai-risk-taker/index.html

Sam Altman thinks the technology underpinning his company’s most famous product could bring about the end of human civilization.

In May, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman filed into a Senate subcommittee hearing room in Washington, DC, with an urgent plea to lawmakers: Create thoughtful regulations that embrace the powerful promise of artificial intelligence – while mitigating the risk that it overpowers humanity. It was a defining moment for him and for the future of AI.

With the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT late last year, Altman, 38, emerged overnight as the poster child for a new crop of AI tools that can generate images and texts in response to user prompts, a technology called generative AI. Not long after its release, ChatGPT became a household name almost synonymous with AI itself. CEOs used it to draft emails, people built websites with no prior coding experience, and it passed exams from law and business schools. It has the potential to revolutionize nearly every industry, including education, finance, agriculture and healthcare, from surgeries to medicine vaccine development.

But those same tools have raised concerns about everything from cheating in schools and displacing human workers – even an existential threat to humanity. The rise of AI, for example, has led economists to warn of a labor market. As many as 300 million full-time jobs around the world could eventually be automated in some way by generative AI, according to Goldman Sachs estimates. About 14 million positions could disappear in the next five years alone, according to an April report by the World Economic Forum.

In his testimony before Congress, Altman said the potential for AI to be used to manipulate voters and target disinformation were among “my areas of greatest concern.”

 

[kroneb1]

Honestly, the way AI is picking up speed is both exciting and kind of alarming. On one hand, AI makes life a lot easier, but on the other, I get why some people, like Altman, are a bit freaked out about where it could all lead. I’ve seen how fast AI tools move from fun little apps to things companies actually rely on for serious work. The pace of change just doesn’t leave a lot of room for society to adjust.

 

[hardcorestitch]

If anything… the current government will wait until it’s too late to regulate, watching everyone suffer from their comfortable Mar-a-Largo suite.

 

[_19disnA]

Honestly, every AI article I read describes it as something different. Everything running a computer program is NOT suddenly an example of AI. I think it is more the latest IT buzzword to help drive up their stock prices...........LOL.

 

[kdonnel]

We are directed to use Microsoft CoPilot as much as possible at work.

In the beginning it seemed to really boost productivity.

Then around month 2 the shininess wore off.

Now at month 4-6 the general consensus from those using CoPilot is that it is likely slowing them down. I don't know what management thinks. My work experience is that the current LLM models are behind in their knowledge of my particular needs. I get outdated info from CoPilot and ChatGPT and end up just Googling for the current answer.


In my personal experience it feels like ChatGPT has helped and hurt. I have fed it detailed financial PDFs and it has created concise charts showing the differences. It has helped me code some personal projects, I feel a little more than just Googling for answers.

But I feel myself slipping. Instead of remembering things, I just ask ChatGPT the same questions to get the same answers. I never did that when Googling for answers. I took the time to learn. Now I just cut and paste what ChatGPT says.

 

[Disneefun]

But I feel myself slipping. Instead of remembering things, I just ask ChatGPT the same questions to get the same answers. I never did that when Googling for answers. I took the time to learn. Now I just cut and paste what ChatGPT says.

This is the part that worries me. We already have a growing dementia problem in this country. I fear AI making it worse, and people getting it at younger ages. As they say, use it or lose it and I'm afraid many people are going to lose it when they outsource their brains to AI. You need to use that muscle, not let it atrophy under an AI that does the thinking.

 

[Smugpugmug]

I'm so sick of the AI push and I'm trying my best to purge it from my life. Have never used ChatGPT or Sora. Have downloaded an extension to remove Google AI results and disabled Copilot from my PC.

 

[BrianL]

I'm so sick of the AI push and I'm trying my best to purge it from my life. Have never used ChatGPT or Sora. Have downloaded an extension to remove Google AI results and disabled Copilot from my PC.

I agree. I have goofed around with it a little just to see - generally I am not impressed. It can provide incorrect information or sometimes even say pretty messed up things - granted, I was trying to mess with it a little bit. It is alarming though that many people might get similar results and take them seriously.

 

[Smugpugmug]

I agree. I have goofed around with it a little just to see - generally I am not impressed. It can provide incorrect information or sometimes even say pretty messed up things - granted, I was trying to mess with it a little bit. It is alarming though that many people might get similar results and take them seriously.

My neighbor told me once that he uses ChatGPT to write his grocery list and I'm sorry but I find that a little pathetic. You really can't figure out what you need from the store without using AI?

This doesn't even mention the amount of AI "art" that has sprung up in the last few years. Go to any craft fair or convention and you'll see people selling their "art".

 

[kdonnel]

My neighbor told me once that he uses ChatGPT to write his grocery list and I'm sorry but I find that a little pathetic. You really can't figure out what you need from the store without using AI?

I have used it with great success for meal planning for the week. I ask ChatGPT to give me 5 recipes and a combined shopping list using recipes from SkinnyTaste.

I then go through the shopping list removing what I already have and am done planning for the week in less than a minute.

 

[BrianL]

My neighbor told me once that he uses ChatGPT to write his grocery list and I'm sorry but I find that a little pathetic. You really can't figure out what you need from the store without using AI?

This doesn't even mention the amount of AI "art" that has sprung up in the last few years. Go to any craft fair or convention and you'll see people selling their "art".

Yeah, I hate the dumb AI images that always come up in image search now. They're never any good.

 

[tink2424]

As with anything else it is a tool. It can help and it can hurt. You can't just trust everything that comes out of it but it can help refine things and do complex analysis that would take a long time. Unfortunately it isn't going anywhere so we need to deal with it.