When I think about the current state of affairs in the field of artificial intelligence, and especially the rush by companies like OpenAI to create a kind of digital god, so to speak, I am always reminded of the litany of sermons we all heard about the concept of gain-of-function research during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The term, of course, refers to the controversial process of artificially accelerating the evolution of potential pathogens or viruses in a lab. The idea is that rather than waiting around to see what nasty surprises nature ultimately has in store for us, scientists can jump to the end, so to speak, and figure out in the controlled environment of the lab how to contain this or that threat before it becomes a reality.
Needless to say, there are many incredibly stupid and dangerous aspects of that process, starting with the possibility that tunnel-visioned academic fools may not actually have any control over what’s inside Pandora’s box once it’s been opened.
I say this because I believe something similar is happening with AI, especially given the cult-like manner in which OpenAI always talks about its reason for being: “We must actively develop artificial superintelligence for our benefit, or it will become some sort of perfectly conceived digital intelligence that will suddenly emerge fully formed from the depths of the web and take over us instantly.”
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So asserts OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, a Silicon Valley veteran who built his career on failure and believes there is such a thing as an “average human,” and has yet to speak candidly about why OpenAI fired him and then rehired him. To be clear, this is the same company whose CTO publicly said a few months ago that some jobs eliminated by AI may never have existed in the first place. This team is great people.
And I’m not alone in saying this about Altman and co.; people who have worked closely with Sam also portray him as an essentially harmful bullshit artist. And yet every time he opens his mouth to make some new proclamation — as he did with his blog post titled “The Intelligence Age” — the headlines pile up. The Internet goes wild. And very serious people continue to take him very seriously.
“Superintelligence is possible within a few thousand days(!),” Sam writes in a new essay. “It may take longer, but I’m confident we can get there.”
He continues, “It won’t all happen at once, but we’ll soon be able to harness AI. AI will help us achieve so much more that we couldn’t do without it. Eventually, each of us will have our own personal AI team of virtual experts in different fields, working together to create almost anything we can imagine.”
Please, everyone, don’t do anything stupid and believe such nonsense. Computer scientist Grady Booch wrote in response to Altman’s latest rant on X/Twitter: “I’m really tired of all the fuss about AI. AI has no basis in reality and serves only to inflate valuations, hype the public, garner headlines, and distract from the real work being done in the computing industry.”
Similarly, on X/Twitter, Bloomberg columnist Matthew Yglesias wrote: “It’s notable that @sama has stopped paying lip service to existential risk concerns. The only downside he sees is labor market adjustment issues.”
We’re not talking about a pitched battle between true believers who believe the light of consciousness will ultimately be found in computer code and everyone else. We’re talking about a disagreement between people who think Sam’s artificial intelligence myth portends a bright future for humanity and people like me who see their actions as the Silicon Valley version of HR firing Bob from accounting (“Look at it this way, Bob, now you have time to take that vacation you and Shirley have been talking about”).
OpenAI promises that we’ll be happier. We’ll be happier if their digital assistants give us ten times more free time, happiness, and prosperity. In reality, OpenAI and its fellow AI believers aren’t trying to save us from Big Tech’s hypothetical future impacts. If they get their way, our lives will be entirely dependent on Big Tech. Sam speaks candidly about that in his new essay (“Humans have an innate desire to create and serve one another, and AI will enable us to amplify our capabilities like never before”).
It’s as if you and I have been forced into seats on a crowded train bound for a dystopian alternate dimension, our destination still under construction, but the mute, faceless conductor assures us we’ll love it.
