The Real Implications of Generative AI

“Then there is the human analogy error,” said Paul. “In other words, because these things seem like us, they chat like us, they interact with us, we can make the mistake that they are like us, that they evolve, that they have agency.”

“They don't have agency, they do not evolve," he said. “They are agents of us. They are part of something that we are creating.””

The Real Implications of Generative AI
https://peterleyden.substack.com/p/the-real-implications-of-generative?utm_campaign=post
via Instapaper

Europeans Take a Major Step Toward Regulating A.I.

“The E.U.’s bill takes a “risk-based” approach to regulating A.I., focusing on applications with the greatest potential for human harm. This would include where A.I. systems are used to operate critical infrastructure like water or energy, in the legal system, and when determining access to public services and government benefits. Makers of the technology will have to conduct risk assessments before putting the tech into everyday use, akin to the drug approval process”

Europeans Take a Major Step Toward Regulating A.I.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/14/technology/europe-ai-regulation.html
via Instapaper

Why AI Will Save the World | Andreessen Horowitz

“The Lump Of Labor Fallacy flows naturally from naive intuition, but naive intuition here is wrong. When technology is applied to production, we get productivity growth – an increase in output generated by a reduction in inputs. The result is lower prices for goods and services. As prices for goods and services fall, we pay less for them, meaning that we now have extra spending power with which to buy other things. This increases demand in the economy, which drives the creation of new production – including new products and new industries – which then creates new jobs for the people who were replaced by machines in prior jobs. The result is a larger economy with higher material prosperity, more industries, more products, and more jobs.”

Why AI Will Save the World | Andreessen Horowitz
https://a16z.com/2023/06/06/ai-will-save-the-world/
via Instapaper

Robot takeover? Not quite. Here’s what AI doomsday would look like

“Misinformation is the individual [AI] harm that has the most potential and highest risk in terms of larger-scale potential harms,” said Rebecca Finlay, of the Partnership on AI. “The question emerging is: how do we create an ecosystem where we are able to understand what is true? How do we authenticate what we see online?”

Robot takeover? Not quite. Here’s what AI doomsday would look like
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jun/03/ai-danger-doomsday-chatgpt-robots-fears
via Instapaper

‘There was all sorts of toxic behaviour’: Timnit Gebru on her sacking by Google, AI’s dangers and big tech’s biases

“What all this told her, she says, is that big tech is consumed by a drive to develop AI and “you don’t want someone like me who’s going to get in your way. I think it made it really clear that unless there is external pressure to do something different, companies are not just going to self-regulate. We need regulation and we need something better than just a profit motive.””

‘There was all sorts of toxic behaviour’: Timnit Gebru on her sacking by Google, AI’s dangers and big tech’s biases
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/may/22/there-was-all-sorts-of-toxic-behaviour-timnit-gebru-on-her-sacking-by-google-ais-dangers-and-big-techs-biases
via Instapaper

Column: Afraid of AI? The startups selling it want you to be

“The great promise of OpenAI’s suite of AI services is, at root, that companies and individuals will save on labor costs — they can generate the ad copy, art, slide deck presentations, email marketing and data entry processes fast and cheap.”

Column: Afraid of AI? The startups selling it want you to be
https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2023-03-31/column-afraid-of-ai-the-startups-selling-it-want-you-to-be
via Instapaper

You Trained the Chatbot to Do You Job. Why Didn’t You Get Paid?

“Let’s imagine you called me with a problem, and I solved it,” says Danielle Li, an economist at MIT’s Sloan School of Management who coauthored the study with MIT PhD candidate Lindsey Raymond and Erik Brynjolfsson, director Stanford’s Digital Economy Lab. In a world without AI chatbots, that would create what economists call productivity. But in the ChatGPT era it also produces valuable data. “Now that data can be used to solve other people's problems, so the same answer has generated more output,” Li says. “And I think it's really important to find a way to measure and compensate that”



You Trained the Chatbot to Do You Job. Why Didn’t You Get Paid?
https://www.wired.com/story/should-you-get-paid-for-teaching-a-chatbot-to-do-your-job/
via Instapaper

Power and Progress review – why the tech-equals-progress narrative must be challenged


“There are three things that need to be done by a modern progressive movement. First, the technology-equals-progress narrative has to be challenged and exposed for what it is: a convenient myth propagated by a huge industry and its acolytes in government, the media and (occasionally) academia. The second is the need to cultivate and foster countervailing powers – which critically should include civil society organisations, activists and contemporary versions of trade unions. And finally, there is a need for progressive, technically informed policy proposals, and the fostering of thinktanks and other institutions that can supply a steady flow of ideas about how digital technology can be repurposed for human flourishing rather than exclusively for private profit.”

Power and Progress review – why the tech-equals-progress narrative must be challenged
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/may/07/power-and-progress-daron-acemoglu-simon-johnson-review-formidable-demolition-of-the-technology-equals-progress-myth
via Instapaper

What Really Made Geoffrey Hinton Into an AI Doomer

“Recent leaps in AI also conjure up utopian ideas. Hinton points to Ray Kurzweil, another AI pioneer now at Google. “Ray wants to be immortal,” he says. “Well, the good news is we’ve figured out how to make immortal beings, the bad news is it’s not for us. But can you imagine if all old white men hung around forever?””

What Really Made Geoffrey Hinton Into an AI Doomer
https://www.wired.com/story/geoffrey-hinton-ai-chatgpt-dangers/
via Instapaper