None of this is inevitable. It is a direct consequence of the manner in which we have decided to structure our societies. Specifically, because we have been conditioned into thinking that private enterprise takes precedence. Fortunately, we still have governments, whose actions matter.
Here are a few things we can do.
- Massively tax the private and corporate wealth of billionaires. They’re literally begging for it.
- Break up big tech. Anti-monopolistic legislation is manifestly inadequate.
- Regulate AI industries. Governments have been aware of these problems for decades and are now starting to act; see the overview at OECD.ai.
- Develop a capacity for responsive regulation that anticipates developments. One way would be to restore government funding for in-house advanced R&D, so that governments are less dependent on tech companies.
- Ban outright AI that is, or may be, or aims to be, conscious. It should be considered a moral abomination on the same order as attaching a live person’s head to a pig’s body.
- Ban outright the rights of any earth citizen to lay claim to any non-terrestrial body.
- Ban outright the application of AI technology in wartime.
I would encourage all of you to find out what initiatives are underway in your area, and lend them your support if you can.
We should also revise our language around AI, including the word “AI” itself, and stop letting tech evangelists slant the argument by setting its terms. A few thoughts:
- AI → maybe “human simulator”? or “fake mind”?
- AI ethics → AI acceptability
- AI safety → AI harm reduction
- AGI → multi-modal AI
Be aware of how people are talking about things, and actively deconstruct anthropomorphic language. When the CEOs tell you what it is that they are doing, take them seriously. In your personal and professional life, limit use of AI products as best you can.
If you’re working in the field, try to be the one who has a level head and doesn’t buy into the hype. And ask yourself, “is AI the solution to the problem, or a solution looking for a problem?” If you can find a good way to use the tech, great. If you can find a way to do good things that is simpler and less fraught, even better.
I’m sure I am biassed here, but if you believe in AI, please don’t see critics like myself as your enemy. The field is overheated and it needs a bucket of cold water. If you resent the fact that what you do is conflated with the likes of Altman and Musk, blame them. They’re the ones who are pushing hundreds of billions of dollars around and talking about replacing humanity. I’m just making a few posts, clarifying my own thoughts, and hopefully helping a few folks get a bit of perspective.
The winds are changing. There is a progressive multimedia conference in Austin, Texas called SXSW. It’s exactly the kind of young, creative audience who used to get so excited about new tech. But recently, when they tried to sell them on how “AI makes us more human”, they got booed. There’s a huge disconnect between what the AI evangelists assume people want and what they actually want.
Adam Schiff currently has a bill before the US Congress aiming to mandate transparency in AI usage of copyrighted work. When it was criticized by Jess Miers, a lawyer and ex-Googler working in the field of AI law, hundreds of replies almost unanimously supported the bill. If you’ve ever been on Twitter, you know how hard it is to find unanimity on anything.
I feel like the ground has shifted.
If the oligarchs want my advice on how to win, and if I was Māra, I’d be happy to give it. It’s pretty simple. Follow the same playbook as with climate change. Sponsor protests, get people making memes and writing songs and stories and movies about the dangers of AI. And of course, writing long essays like this one! Keep ’em too distracted to do anything that matters. Like, say, voting for governments who will actually do something. That should do the trick.
I’m not saying people shouldn’t do these things. They should. I’m just saying that these things won’t stop it. The only way to stop the inhuman progress of AI corporations is with something more powerful than the corporations. And, like it or not, the only thing more powerful than the corporations is the government. For the time being, at least, what matters is “we the people”.
The Buddha taught the Dhamma “for one who feels”. It is the beginning and ending of who we are, and what our path is. We are not a factor to be kept “in the loop”. We are the loop. Our world has become transfixed by the machines we have created, looking to them for our salvation and our hope. But we have been here all the time. Long before the age of the machines, and if we are lucky, long after. As spiritual practitioners, we should turn our eyes to ourselves, to human potential and human growth. We should be the example of those who are not swayed by the intoxication of the machine, who stand in our truth when the world falls for illusions.
I’m genuinely grateful and thrilled to have all of you as fellow journeyers in this great river of life.
