Sky News (#3 News Channel in the UK) ran a 5-minute segment on the Google DeepMind Hunger Strike
The linked video seems to me largely successful at raising awareness of the anti-extinction position – it is not exaggerated, it is not mocked, it is accurately described and taken seriously. I take this as evidence of the strikes being effective at their goals (interested if you disagree).
I think the main negative update about Dennis (in line with your concerns) is that he didn’t tell his family he was doing this. I think that’s quite different from the Duc story I linked above, where he made a major self-sacrifice with the knowledge and support of his community.
Yep, I’ve seen the video. Maybe a small positive update overall, because could’ve been worse?
It seems to me that you probably shouldn’t optimize for publicity for publicity’s sake, and even then, hunger strikes are not a good way.
Hunger strikes are very effective tools in some situations; but they’re not effective for this. You can raise awareness a lot more efficiently than this.
“The fears are not backed up with evidence” and “AI might improve billions of lives” is what you get when you communicate being in fear of something without focusing on the reasons why.
Yep. Good that he stopped. Likely bad that he started.
Trazzi shared this on Twitter:
The linked video seems to me largely successful at raising awareness of the anti-extinction position – it is not exaggerated, it is not mocked, it is accurately described and taken seriously. I take this as evidence of the strikes being effective at their goals (interested if you disagree).
I think the main negative update about Dennis (in line with your concerns) is that he didn’t tell his family he was doing this. I think that’s quite different from the Duc story I linked above, where he made a major self-sacrifice with the knowledge and support of his community.
Yep, I’ve seen the video. Maybe a small positive update overall, because could’ve been worse?
It seems to me that you probably shouldn’t optimize for publicity for publicity’s sake, and even then, hunger strikes are not a good way.
Hunger strikes are very effective tools in some situations; but they’re not effective for this. You can raise awareness a lot more efficiently than this.
“The fears are not backed up with evidence” and “AI might improve billions of lives” is what you get when you communicate being in fear of something without focusing on the reasons why.
Further follow-up: Guido Reichstadter wraps up after 30 days. Impressively long! And a bit longer than I’d guessed.