Social media’s unregulated evolution over the past decade holds a lot of lessons that apply directly to AI companies and technologies.
From the article: “In particular, five fundamental attributes of social media have harmed society. AI also has those attributes. Note that they are not intrinsically evil. They are all double-edged swords, with the potential to do either good or ill. The danger comes from who wields the sword, and in what direction it is swung. This has been true for social media, and it will similarly hold true for AI. In both cases, the solution lies in limits on the technology’s use.”
This article mostly ignores the one thing that actually makes social media harmful in a way that is unique to social media: addictiveness, and the ultimate mental health decline that comes from scrolling through a feed and getting tiny dopamine hits all day.
This is distinct from “virality,” since is more related to the idea that we’ve optimized for “engagement”. It is inevitable that AI will be tuned for that very soon, and we will find that AI is addictively engaging a lot sooner than it is correct.
How far in the future? Because if you’re like 100+ years from now I’d just be happy the planet held out that long. Well enough to support a time travel capable society too
To steal an old trope: the tech bros have circled the globe eight times while the government is still putting its boots on. If there’s money to be made via automation, there’s no stopping it (unless we get the guillotines out of mothballs).
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This article mostly ignores the one thing that actually makes social media harmful in a way that is unique to social media: addictiveness, and the ultimate mental health decline that comes from scrolling through a feed and getting tiny dopamine hits all day.
This is distinct from “virality,” since is more related to the idea that we’ve optimized for “engagement”. It is inevitable that AI will be tuned for that very soon, and we will find that AI is addictively engaging a lot sooner than it is correct.
Ohh we will. And include all new mistakes too. Gotta cover our bases.
Hello, I’m from the future. We didn’t handle it responsibly.
How far in the future? Because if you’re like 100+ years from now I’d just be happy the planet held out that long. Well enough to support a time travel capable society too
There will still be humans in 100 years. The planet is fine, we’re just making it harder for us and many other species to survive.
How many humans there will be, and how they will live is a different question.
But a time travel capable society per the above comment?
Lmao right; you know this so called “ai” is going to be used and abused for every ounce of gains possible
To steal an old trope: the tech bros have circled the globe eight times while the government is still putting its boots on. If there’s money to be made via automation, there’s no stopping it (unless we get the guillotines out of mothballs).
Someone will try to sell AI guillotines
Or… hear me out… we use AI to make social media even more insufferable than it was before.
Let’s make different, more disastrous mistakes!
Climb in back and we’ll be off!
There’s a better chance of AI becoming sentient and stopping itself from being harmful than there is that people do the right thing.
Found Ultron everyone!