Matrice—for more on the stigmatization strategy, see my EA Forum post from a couple years ago, here
IMHO, a grassroots moral stigmatization campaign by everyone who knows AGI devs would be much more effective that just current users of a company’s products boycotting that company.
As a reality check, “any company which fund research into AGI” here would mean all the big tech companies (MAGMA). Much more people use those products than people know AGI developers. It is a much easier ask to switch to using a different browser/search engine/operating system, install an ad blocker, etc. than to ask for social ostracism. Those companies’ revenues collapsing would end the AI race overnight, while having AGI developers keep a social circle of techno-optimists only wouldn’t.
Matrice—maybe, if it was possible for people to boycott Google/Deepmind, or Microsoft/OpenAI.
But as a practical matter, we can’t expect hundreds of millions of people to suddenly switch from gmail to some email alternative, or to switch from Windows to Linux.
It’s virtually impossible to organize a successful boycott of all the Big Tech companies that have oligarchic control of people’s digital lives, and that are involved in AGI/ASI development.
I still think the key point of leverage of specific, personalized, grassroots social stigmatization of AGI/ASI developers and people closely involved in what they’re doing.
(But I could be convinced that Big Tech boycotts might be a useful auxiliary strategy).
Your scenario above was that most of the 8 billion people in the world would come to believe with high likelihood that ASI would cause human extinction. I think it’s very reasonable to believe that this would make it quite easier to coordinate to make alternatives to MAGMA products more usable in this world, as network effects and economies of scale are largely the bottleneck here.
Matrice—for more on the stigmatization strategy, see my EA Forum post from a couple years ago, here
IMHO, a grassroots moral stigmatization campaign by everyone who knows AGI devs would be much more effective that just current users of a company’s products boycotting that company.
As a reality check, “any company which fund research into AGI” here would mean all the big tech companies (MAGMA). Much more people use those products than people know AGI developers. It is a much easier ask to switch to using a different browser/search engine/operating system, install an ad blocker, etc. than to ask for social ostracism. Those companies’ revenues collapsing would end the AI race overnight, while having AGI developers keep a social circle of techno-optimists only wouldn’t.
Matrice—maybe, if it was possible for people to boycott Google/Deepmind, or Microsoft/OpenAI.
But as a practical matter, we can’t expect hundreds of millions of people to suddenly switch from gmail to some email alternative, or to switch from Windows to Linux.
It’s virtually impossible to organize a successful boycott of all the Big Tech companies that have oligarchic control of people’s digital lives, and that are involved in AGI/ASI development.
I still think the key point of leverage of specific, personalized, grassroots social stigmatization of AGI/ASI developers and people closely involved in what they’re doing.
(But I could be convinced that Big Tech boycotts might be a useful auxiliary strategy).
Your scenario above was that most of the 8 billion people in the world would come to believe with high likelihood that ASI would cause human extinction. I think it’s very reasonable to believe that this would make it quite easier to coordinate to make alternatives to MAGMA products more usable in this world, as network effects and economies of scale are largely the bottleneck here.