These days, I am anxious when I take action and depressed when I don’t. But I’m not anxious about the end of the world anymore, just about, like, talking to people and preparing presentations and stuff. I’ve done a lot of processing at this point.
That’s how it’s going, but here’s how it started:
Over the course of about a year starting in March 2023, I became increasingly anxious about AI extinction risk. During that time, I donated to AI risk organizations, helped out on AI Safety field-building projects, and became an active digital volunteer in the PauseAI movement. But I didn’t fully leave my comfort zone, and I knew I was holding back. Finally, one evening, I broke down sobbing in the shower, finally really feeling that the world was going to end, and I wasn’t doing enough to stop it. I decided I would do whatever I concluded was the most useful thing to do, even if I really didn’t want to do it.
So I made the decision to start a local group (PauseAI Phoenix), all alone in my state, and commit to outreach and local organizing. I started with flyering, reasoning that even with my social anxiety, it would be hard to screw up handing someone a piece of paper. Even then, I was deeply terrified to engage the public on this issue, expecting to be mocked and humiliated. Instead, almost everyone was nice, and I actually had fun. After that, it became clear to me that fear would never be able to prevent me from doing something that I know I should do. (Today, that local group is growing and thriving and holding regular events.)
I was also able to speak with my state-level representative, state-level senator, and federal representative about AI risk, and they all became more concerned about the issue. After a single meeting with me, my Arizona representative Stacey Travers drafted an AI safety transparency bill, which she introduced this session. I repeatedly engaged the office of my federal representative Greg Stanton, and 1-on-1 at a recent town hall, he told me “if no one can make AGI safe, then it doesn’t matter who builds it,” and he said he was interested in supporting a global AI treaty. (At a previous town hall, he had said that we have to beat China.) These incremental improvements to the outlook of our situation occurred primarily because of my actions, despite my inadequacies. The problem of political will is surprisingly amenable to sheer effort.
I sound very optimistic here, but from my perspective, I am playing to my outs. I personally believe that it is more likely than not that we will all die soon. But while there is action to be taken to improve our odds, I will continue to take that action. We can turn the odds in our favor, difficult though it may be. No matter the odds, when failure would be total, giving up is always more foolish.
My personal experience:
These days, I am anxious when I take action and depressed when I don’t. But I’m not anxious about the end of the world anymore, just about, like, talking to people and preparing presentations and stuff. I’ve done a lot of processing at this point.
That’s how it’s going, but here’s how it started:
Over the course of about a year starting in March 2023, I became increasingly anxious about AI extinction risk. During that time, I donated to AI risk organizations, helped out on AI Safety field-building projects, and became an active digital volunteer in the PauseAI movement. But I didn’t fully leave my comfort zone, and I knew I was holding back. Finally, one evening, I broke down sobbing in the shower, finally really feeling that the world was going to end, and I wasn’t doing enough to stop it. I decided I would do whatever I concluded was the most useful thing to do, even if I really didn’t want to do it.
So I made the decision to start a local group (PauseAI Phoenix), all alone in my state, and commit to outreach and local organizing. I started with flyering, reasoning that even with my social anxiety, it would be hard to screw up handing someone a piece of paper. Even then, I was deeply terrified to engage the public on this issue, expecting to be mocked and humiliated. Instead, almost everyone was nice, and I actually had fun. After that, it became clear to me that fear would never be able to prevent me from doing something that I know I should do. (Today, that local group is growing and thriving and holding regular events.)
I was also able to speak with my state-level representative, state-level senator, and federal representative about AI risk, and they all became more concerned about the issue. After a single meeting with me, my Arizona representative Stacey Travers drafted an AI safety transparency bill, which she introduced this session. I repeatedly engaged the office of my federal representative Greg Stanton, and 1-on-1 at a recent town hall, he told me “if no one can make AGI safe, then it doesn’t matter who builds it,” and he said he was interested in supporting a global AI treaty. (At a previous town hall, he had said that we have to beat China.) These incremental improvements to the outlook of our situation occurred primarily because of my actions, despite my inadequacies. The problem of political will is surprisingly amenable to sheer effort.
I sound very optimistic here, but from my perspective, I am playing to my outs. I personally believe that it is more likely than not that we will all die soon. But while there is action to be taken to improve our odds, I will continue to take that action. We can turn the odds in our favor, difficult though it may be. No matter the odds, when failure would be total, giving up is always more foolish.