Folks who have been around The
Hayride for more than a few days will know of the many problems with carbon
capture and sequestration. As bad as
this phony industry is, at least it still involves work done by actual human
beings. This is quite different from
what awaits us with artificial intelligence (AI).
A leading AI researcher by
the name of Daniel Kokotajlo was interviewed by The NYT’s Ross Douthat,
and some disconcerting details were shared about what lies in store for us in
the near future. As it relates to
employment opportunities, AI is going to devastate them. This is Mr Kokotajlo speaking:
‘We predict that they
finally, in early 2027, will get good enough that they can automate the job of
software engineers. . . .
‘The next step after that is
to completely automate the A.I. research itself, so that all the other aspects
of A.I. research are themselves being automated and done by A.I.s. We predict
that there’ll be an even bigger acceleration around that point, and it won’t
stop there. I think it will continue to accelerate after that as the A.I.
becomes superhuman at A.I. research and eventually superhuman at everything.
‘The reason it matters is
that it means we could go in a relatively short span of time — a year or
possibly less — from A.I. systems that look not that different from today’s
A.I. systems to what you can call superintelligence, fully autonomous A.I. systems
that are better than the best humans at everything. In “AI 2027,” the scenario
depicts that happening over the course of the next two years, 2027-28. . . .
‘Historically, when you
automate something, the people move on to something that hasn’t been automated
yet. Overall, people still get their jobs in the long run. They just change
what jobs they have.
‘When you have A.G.I. — or
artificial general intelligence — and when you have superintelligence — even
better A.G.I. — that is different. Whatever new jobs you’re imagining that
people could flee to after their current jobs are automated, A.G.I. could do,
too. That is an important difference between how automation has worked in the
past and how I expect it to work in the future’ (Rod Dreher, ‘AI Apocalypse
Coming Hard And Fast,’ roddreher.substack.com).
We are already seeing the
first-fruits of this latest technological/industrial revolution:
‘Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has predicted that AI will be
doing all coding tasks by next year—but an existential crisis is already
hitting some software engineers. One man who lost his job last year has had to
turn to living in an RV trailer, DoorDashing and selling his household items on
eBay to make
ends meet, as his once $150k salary has turned to dust.
‘Tech layoffs are nothing new
for Shawn
K (his full legal last name is one letter).
‘The software engineer first lost his job after the 2008
financial crisis and then again during the pandemic, but on both occasions, he
was back on his feet just a few months later.
‘However, when K was given
the pink slip last April he quickly realized this time was different: AI’s
revolution of the tech industry was playing out right in front of him.
‘Despite having two decades
of experience and a computer science degree, he’s landed fewer than 10
interviews from the 800 applications he’s sent out. Worse yet, some of those
few interviews have been with an AI agent instead of a human.
‘“I feel super invisible,” K
tells Fortune. “I feel unseen. I feel like I'm filtered out before a
human is even in the chain.”
‘And while fears about AI replacing jobs have been around for years,
the 42-year-old thinks his experience is only likely the beginning of a “social
and economic disaster tidal wave.”
‘“The Great Displacement is
already well underway,” he recently wrote on his Substack’ (Preston Fore, ‘Software engineer
lost his $150K-a-year job to AI—he’s been rejected from 800 jobs and forced to
DoorDash and live in a trailer to make ends meet,’ yahoo.com).
When communities begin to
unravel as unemployment soars, where will people look for help? Traditionally those with political power
provided them with aid of some kind, whether materially or etc., the old notion
of noblesse oblige. But in the
AI-powered and -controlled future we are heading into, those with by far the
most political power will be the same Big Tech overlords who own the AI systems
that are oppressing everyone, who have been and are now discussing this new era
as a dictatorship ruled by themselves. Per
Mr Kokotajlo again:
. . .
The rest is at https://thehayride.com/2025/05/garlington-dont-like-carbon-capture-ai-is-a-whole-lot-worse/.
--
Holy
Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema
to the Union!
No comments:
Post a Comment