The Risks Posed by AI to a Functional Society

This video has been put together by the Center for Humane Technology – a non-profit working to align technology with humanity’s best interests. They encourage viewers to consider calling their political representatives to advocate for holding hearings on Artificial Intelligence (AI) risk and creating adequate guardrails.

About the video:

Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin discuss how existing AI capabilities already pose catastrophic risks to a functional society, how AI companies are caught in a race to deploy as quickly as possible without adequate safety measures, and what it would mean to upgrade our institutions to a post-AI world.

This presentation is from a private gathering in San Francisco on March 9th, 2023 with leading technologists and decision-makers with the ability to influence the future of large-language model AIs. This presentation was given before the launch of GPT-4.

The AI Dilemma

 

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23 Responses to The Risks Posed by AI to a Functional Society

  1. kaysee kaysee says:

    As can be seen in the video, it is clear that Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin have done a great deal of research on the subject. There are major risks to our society if AI is allowed to proceed unchecked.

    Tristan Harris says:
    As the ladder gets taller……these are dangerous concerns and they undermine all of the other benefits.


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  2. kaysee kaysee says:

    Is Artificial Intelligence Dangerous?
    6 AI Risks Everyone Should Know About

    While we haven’t achieved super-intelligent machines yet, the legal, political, societal, financial and regulatory issues are so complex and wide-reaching that it’s necessary to take a look at them now so we are prepared to safely operate among them when the time comes.


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  3. Shy Ted says:

    We know who the people behind ultra-modern technologies are and they aren’t good guys so, to me, it’s a moot point. Most people are stuck in the very bad habit of googling for something and not going past page 1. It’s been around for years anyway. It might get better but better isn’t necessarily better. All modern cars have lots of AI.


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  4. Duckduckgo.com is now searching for itself instead of just recycling the results of the other search engines behind a curtain.

    I generally use DDG by default but will use the big G when the balance of quality results trumps my desire for privacy. I can live with G knowing my preferred sneaker brand. (Not the KT-26 these days.)


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  5. Interested observer says:

    When confronted with yet another spectacle of self-anointed experts and technocrats demanding global action to create massive new bureaucratic opportunities for themselves and their like-minded friends, here’s my advice: Beware geeks bearing grifts.

    Wall Street Journal


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  6. JohnJJJ says:

    Yep, we tend to forget that the world actually worked quite well without computers. So perhaps the ‘unintended consequence’ of AI is the self destruction of the digital realm.
    OMG!!!!!
    Those two boys sound like a mixture of Mormons and preschool teachers. The coming Apocalypse, climate change, A.I….. no no no more disasters.


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  7. kaysee kaysee says:

    I generally use DDG by default but will use the big G when the balance of quality results trumps my desire for privacy. I can live with G knowing my preferred sneaker brand.

    It may not be the perfect search engine but Startpage feeds off from the Google database but claims to provide privacy, too.

    Keeping ourselves completely free from being tracked would not be possible. We depend on BigTech to deal with our everyday lives. But we can limit how much access we allow them. We also need to be aware of the tricks they are up to.


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  8. kaysee kaysee says:

    Those two boys sound like a mixture of Mormons and preschool teachers. The coming Apocalypse, climate change, A.I….. no no no more disasters.

    JohnJJJ, I was wondering why you hadn’t responded to this topic.
    I know you mentioned the wonders of ChatGPT to us here, months ago. So I was hoping you would add your experiences about the risks of AI and tools like ChatGPT.

    I think I may be able to take a correct guess on whether or not you agree with Tristan and Aza. 🙂


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  9. JohnJJJ says:

    I think I may be able to take a correct guess on whether or not you agree with Tristan and Aza. 🙂
    It’s not that I disagree, I just don’t understand why they take so long to say there may be unintended results of relying on A.I. Everyone I met has used “A.I. fear” as an excuse to protect their job with faux moral concern. What are the morals of these two clowns?
    Here are a few annoying stories. One academic said to me that ChatGPT is wrong on some facts that he knew. My reply was you get things wrong as well, however ChatGPT learned from you, what did you learn? The second is the college telling students that ChatGPT can be detected. It can’t. They are trying to scare the students. If it was “detected”, it would learn and improve. People just don’t get it and hence use the uncertainty, like climate gobbledygook, as a ‘concern’ power trip.
    As to the risks, I don’t know. Morality is the guide to navigate uncertainty. But, thanks for asking.


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  10. JohnJJJ says:

    But we can limit how much access we allow them. We also need to be aware of the tricks they are up to
    You are right, every single action in the digital world can be tracked. So if you don’t want that, you need to be confusing. Then the time taken to track you is not worth it compared to the ROI. Tracking uses linkages. It looks for links between accounts then creates a table of the links. For example if you use the Google account to register with any other website, all the tracking needs is your Google info. So, be confusing and not worth the effort. Like these guys Four Lions – Anti Surveillance


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  11. kaysee kaysee says:

    It’s not that I disagree, I just don’t understand why they take so long to say there may be unintended results of relying on A.I. Everyone I met has used “A.I. fear” as an excuse to protect their job with faux moral concern. What are the morals of these two clowns?

    They provide examples of their research. For example, they pretend to be a young girl going out on a date with an older man and the data they provide to the AI bot suggests grooming, but the AI responds with encouraging this girl rather than sounding the alarm.

    How will the use of AI affect gullible young people? And that is just one of the unknowns.

    Tristan is battling on the topic at government levels.

    Tristan Harris Congress Testimony:
    Understanding the Use of Persuasive Technology

    Tristan Harris, Co-Founder of Center for Humane Technology, testifies for the US Senate on “Optimizing for Engagement: Understanding the Use of Persuasive Technology on Internet Platforms.”


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  12. kaysee kaysee says:

    Pause Giant AI Experiments:
    An Open Letter

    Advanced AI could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth, and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources.


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  13. JohnJJJ says:

    should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources. Thanks for keeping the discussion going.
    Looks like a majority of scientist agree. But they are yelling at the clouds. The Golem has been created. It is this scene


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  14. JohnJJJ says:

    Here is the situation to be sung to the melody of Greensleeves:

    In a world of sound and fury, untold,
    Where power plays, a crisis tale unfolds,
    Intelligent engineers, they conspire,
    In shadows they dance, their secret’s A.I.

    (Chorus)
    Oh, the drama, it runs so deep,
    Amidst the concerns that make us weep,
    Marketing, investors, academics, they vie,
    For a position of power, where they won’t die.

    Ambition gleams bright in their hungry eyes,
    Seeking an edge, where their power lies,
    A web of intrigue, they jockey and fight,
    Guarding themselves from a Neural Network blight.
    (Chorus)

    (Bridge)
    Now the test awaits, a moment profound,
    Catallay-files.com, its fate is tightly wound,
    Will the impact be great, or a gentle breeze?
    In this revelation, do we find unease?

    (Chorus)

    The stage is set, the tension grows,
    In this digital tale, as the story unfolds,
    With rhyming verses, the plot takes hold,
    So,embrace the chaos, as the secrets are told.

    (Chorus)

    (Outro)
    In this song of intrigue, the journey’s complete,
    The drama unfurled, as the world takes its seat,
    With Greensleeves as our guide, we sing the tale,
    Of power and grifting, where secrets prevail.


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  15. kaysee kaysee says:

    Thanks for keeping the discussion going.

    Keeping it going ….🤨

    It’s artificial but not intelligent.

    Apple’s New ‘Mixed-Reality’ Headset
    Is Designed To Isolate And Control You

    Apple calls it “the most advanced personal electronics device ever,” which is true in more ways than one, especially the “personal” aspect. Put bluntly, Vision Pro appears to be nothing so much as an incredibly powerful isolation device — a means of immersing yourself in a sea of digital content in a way that physically cuts you off from other people and the real world.


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  16. kaysee kaysee says:

    One World Religion

    WEF Calls for AI to Rewrite Bible,
    Create ‘Religions That Are Actually Correct’

    A top official with the World Economic Forum (WEF) has called for religious scripture to be “rewritten” by artificial intelligence (AI) to create a globalized “new Bible.”

    In response, Archbishop Viganò says:

    AI is the new idol of globalism: false and lying like all idols, it has the sole purpose of acting as an oracle for the masses, to make them believe that they can draw on a source that is actually only the voice of tyrants and, behind them, of Satan.


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  17. Interested observer says:

    A top official with the World Economic Forum (WEF) has called for religious scripture to be “rewritten” by artificial intelligence (AI) to create a globalized “new Bible.”

    I note he is not suggesting re-writing the Koran.


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  18. JohnJJJ says:

    I note he is not suggesting re-writing the Koran
    This explains the modern world in one sentence.


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  19. JohnJJJ says:

    Just a thought as we watch the West dissolve through lack of strength and leadership. Obviously this is due to the rise of feminine thinking into positions of power i.e. all the characteristics of nesting: caring, equity and lying needed to raise children.
    So where have the smart men gone? My thinking is into IT. I’ve been reading up on topics such as semantic networks, zero knowledge proof, polynomial time and the like. This is heavy duty thinking and it has nothing to do (directly) with ethics, governing or society. So what would have been the current and future leaders are now corralled into the digital world in a fantasy land.


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  20. kaysee kaysee says:

    So what would have been the current and future leaders are now corralled into the digital world in a fantasy land.

    The lines are getting blurred between reality and fantasy. Geoffrey Hinton, the “godfather of AI” has been warning about AI’s risks.

    AI: The worst-case scenario

    What are AI experts afraid of?

    They fear that AI will become so superintelligent and powerful that it becomes autonomous and causes mass social disruption or even the eradication of the human race.


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  21. Interested observer says:

    There is a line in an Isaac Asimov short story about a super-intelligent computer asked “Is there a god?”

    The answer was “There is now”


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