This is bad propaganda because it derives all of its persuasive force from the substitution of “demons” for AI, where people already know that “demons” are supposed to be bad; the reader is encouraged to sneer at the stupidity and wickedness of AI developers for working with the mythical incarnation of the concept of evil itself. But one of the main reasons the world is in so much danger from AI is precisely because the danger isn’t that obvious.
Imagine you’d never heard of “demons” before. If, as in this story, demons liked to “[k]ill, maim, and slaughter with squealing glee and ecstatic delight” and the degree of human control over demons was “50/50” “[o]n a good day”, then, indeed, those who summon demons would be bad people—and it also wouldn’t be very hard to get an international treaty banning demon-summoning. (No one likes killing, maiming and slaughtering with ecsatic delight. We banned CFCs for much less.)
If, as with real-world AI, millions of people had lots of everyday experience with demons routinely obeying human commands to answer questions, summarize documents, write code, and generate images, the case for banning demon-summoning altogether would be an extremely hard sell. Most of the people who understood some of the theoretical arguments for why demons could be dangerous would rather work on demon safety (and increase investments in demon safety and security efforts in response to the occasional rogue demon accident) than just give up on something so useful that had already become part of their lives. If people who thought demon safety research was doomed despaired of winning the technical argument on the merits with Society’s demon experts, they might switch messaging strategies to trying to demonize demons in the eyes of policymakers and the general public, but fighting the economic incentives would be an uphill battle.
I think readers intrigued by the premise of this story should save themselves the click and instead read “Love Stays Loved”, which explores the analogy between AI and the occult with serious literary merit rather than as cheap satire.
nah, it’s a perfect illustration of the feeling how the situation looks like to many of us… not a cold-hearted Vulcan-rational description, but sometimes when we feel “is it me or is the world insane” it’s the world who’s insane ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ a starting point to tell others how it feels, not to persuade others they ought to feel the same, but for others to see a wider Overton window
This is bad propaganda because it derives all of its persuasive force from the substitution of “demons” for AI, where people already know that “demons” are supposed to be bad; the reader is encouraged to sneer at the stupidity and wickedness of AI developers for working with the mythical incarnation of the concept of evil itself. But one of the main reasons the world is in so much danger from AI is precisely because the danger isn’t that obvious.
Imagine you’d never heard of “demons” before. If, as in this story, demons liked to “[k]ill, maim, and slaughter with squealing glee and ecstatic delight” and the degree of human control over demons was “50/50” “[o]n a good day”, then, indeed, those who summon demons would be bad people—and it also wouldn’t be very hard to get an international treaty banning demon-summoning. (No one likes killing, maiming and slaughtering with ecsatic delight. We banned CFCs for much less.)
If, as with real-world AI, millions of people had lots of everyday experience with demons routinely obeying human commands to answer questions, summarize documents, write code, and generate images, the case for banning demon-summoning altogether would be an extremely hard sell. Most of the people who understood some of the theoretical arguments for why demons could be dangerous would rather work on demon safety (and increase investments in demon safety and security efforts in response to the occasional rogue demon accident) than just give up on something so useful that had already become part of their lives. If people who thought demon safety research was doomed despaired of winning the technical argument on the merits with Society’s demon experts, they might switch messaging strategies to trying to demonize demons in the eyes of policymakers and the general public, but fighting the economic incentives would be an uphill battle.
I think readers intrigued by the premise of this story should save themselves the click and instead read “Love Stays Loved”, which explores the analogy between AI and the occult with serious literary merit rather than as cheap satire.
nah, it’s a perfect illustration of the feeling how the situation looks like to many of us… not a cold-hearted Vulcan-rational description, but sometimes when we feel “is it me or is the world insane” it’s the world who’s insane ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ a starting point to tell others how it feels, not to persuade others they ought to feel the same, but for others to see a wider Overton window