Your arms hangin' limp at your sides
Your legs got nothin' to do
Some machine's doing that for you..."
- Zager & Evans
The first American science fiction story about a future doomsday was written by Edgar Allen Poe in 1839. It was titled, "The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion." The story takes place in the afterlife, where two disembodied souls - Eiros and Charmion - discuss the recent destruction of earth.
Here we are in the 21st century talking about an artificial intelligence-driven apocalypse in our time. Scenarios include AI manufacturing deadly viruses, attacking infrastructure, or accelerating global wars.
Last week the tech world brought up one big question: "Could AI kill us all?" According to Jacob Coxon a former AI researcher, who previously worked at Open AI, "people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade."
Coxon warned lawmakers that the rapidly developing technology could pose catastrophic risks to humanity in the coming years. His post on Twitter got over 170 million views. People are worried.
Evan Hubinger, who leads Anthropic's alignment stress-testing team, backed Coxon, saying he personally believes there is greater than-10% chance AI could kill humans in that timeframe.
There's a sharp divide among AI experts on what to expect with the expanding use of AI. Some people fear a loss of control with systems more capable than humans.
Others say AI could cause grave harm through cyberattacks, biological weapons, and disinformation - but that extinction is not a credible near-term outcome.
If frontier labs truly believe there is a substantial extinction risk, they should stop until Congress can enforce a broader halt until it can be shown to be controllable. There's one problem however; Trump believes there will be "more good than bad" from the technology. Bottom line, Trump believes AI is another money-making venture, and he wants to cash in on it.
"There's a sick conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers and the only one that is happy about it is China," Trump claimed in an interview yesterday.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said Sunday that lawmakers need to take urgent action on the growing threat of AI. Lawmakers from both chambers have returned to Washington this week for the final legislative push before the November midterm elections.
In normal times I think that lawmakers on both sides would agree to slow AI progress down until everyone agrees it's safe. But these are not normal times. We have a convicted felon and sexual abuser who has turned the presidency into a money-making machine.
As it Stands, it's important to know we face a real threat without legislation to control AI and the massive Data Centers that feeds it information 24-hours a day. Time is running out.
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