Starring game theory expert Liv Boeree, Faces of AI integrates different perspectives on artificial intelligence into a synthesis view.Faces of X is a reader-supported publication.
Thanks for the video, makes the AI discussion fun.
To me, AI is 100% terrible, beginning with the mining required to make the computers and computer chips. The moment a digger puts its excavator bucket into the ground to remove the "overburden" (i.e. the natural world) before mining for the quartz (to make silicon), copper, aluminum, cobalt, gallium, etc. that's required to make a computer chip, the game is over. And it all gets worse from there... the computers, the wiring, the cooling systems, the racks, the buildings, the grid infrastructure; on and on and on the destruction rolls, before we ever get to "training" the models (on gigawatts of electricity) or understanding what AI is used for (deepfake porn that is destroying the lives of women and girls - see Collective Shout's most recent report about AI, as an example).
All along the way the devastation and pollution and societal damage spills out for miles beyond every single computer chip, like a levee breaking in a flood. It sickens me to my core.
I recently read More Everything Forever by Adam Becker and everything I thought about the psychopathic fantasies of the techbros making all of this happen is even worse than I could possibly have imagined. They are all human supremacists in the extreme; they are all delusional.
It is utterly insane that this is happening--on top of everything else!!--in this time of catastrophic ecological overshoot. It proves how unsuited humanity is to modern industrial living that we can't collectively see that. I suppose it will simply accelerate our race to the inevitable collapse... but in the meantime it is deeply saddening to think about the species decimated by the environmental damage, the minds lost to the hallucinations spewed out by these master pattern matching machines, and the billions of dollars being hoovered up by the wealthiest in society on the backs of everyone else.
In the document by Civilization Research Institute, "AI Industry Trends, Rhetoric, and Risks", the authors estimate 965 thousand metric tons of mining waste rock were generated just for the GPUs in OPENAI's original custom built computer systems to train their first AI. Since then, many other such computer systems have been built, along with the many data centers to serve query results to AI users. The waste is staggering; the damage to the natural world horrifying. Add in the damage to build the data centers themselves, and the grid infrastructure to power them, and it is not hard to see how AI is accelerating ecological overshoot.
Certainly a tour-de-force on the part of Liv. I am curious though, that in some ways the ending implies that there is hope if we just synthesize, without really saying how we would get out of the designed systems we are in culturally, politically, economically that are actively working against listening, cooperation, and subtlety? It feels hard to buy into the idea of "we just figure out how to get along and listen to each other" - but of course Risk Realist does sound "accurate" to me relative to some of the other voices so...
Thank you to BOTH of you and ALL the voices, even the ones that weren't included. This is a wonderful invitation into conversations that take care for synthesis as the first ground rule.
Hi, thank you. I see you mentioned in the references the Dark Side of Conscious AI. Not sure if it made the cut, but I just wanted to thank you anyhow. – Curt
It made the cut! Your conversation with Daniel def informed the script. Also....I'd love to make something with you. Keep that seed planted for when the time is right 🌱
Thanks for the video, makes the AI discussion fun.
To me, AI is 100% terrible, beginning with the mining required to make the computers and computer chips. The moment a digger puts its excavator bucket into the ground to remove the "overburden" (i.e. the natural world) before mining for the quartz (to make silicon), copper, aluminum, cobalt, gallium, etc. that's required to make a computer chip, the game is over. And it all gets worse from there... the computers, the wiring, the cooling systems, the racks, the buildings, the grid infrastructure; on and on and on the destruction rolls, before we ever get to "training" the models (on gigawatts of electricity) or understanding what AI is used for (deepfake porn that is destroying the lives of women and girls - see Collective Shout's most recent report about AI, as an example).
All along the way the devastation and pollution and societal damage spills out for miles beyond every single computer chip, like a levee breaking in a flood. It sickens me to my core.
I recently read More Everything Forever by Adam Becker and everything I thought about the psychopathic fantasies of the techbros making all of this happen is even worse than I could possibly have imagined. They are all human supremacists in the extreme; they are all delusional.
It is utterly insane that this is happening--on top of everything else!!--in this time of catastrophic ecological overshoot. It proves how unsuited humanity is to modern industrial living that we can't collectively see that. I suppose it will simply accelerate our race to the inevitable collapse... but in the meantime it is deeply saddening to think about the species decimated by the environmental damage, the minds lost to the hallucinations spewed out by these master pattern matching machines, and the billions of dollars being hoovered up by the wealthiest in society on the backs of everyone else.
What a frickin' mess.
Thank you, Elizabeth! Hear you. Is there something specific you'd want to add to the "cutting room floor" above? E.g. a specific statistic or quote?
In the document by Civilization Research Institute, "AI Industry Trends, Rhetoric, and Risks", the authors estimate 965 thousand metric tons of mining waste rock were generated just for the GPUs in OPENAI's original custom built computer systems to train their first AI. Since then, many other such computer systems have been built, along with the many data centers to serve query results to AI users. The waste is staggering; the damage to the natural world horrifying. Add in the damage to build the data centers themselves, and the grid infrastructure to power them, and it is not hard to see how AI is accelerating ecological overshoot.
Thank you! I can't find a paper called "AI Industry Trends, Rhetoric, and Risks" -- can you please link to it, so I can use your quote?
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/61d5bc2bb737636144dc55d0/t/66958505d89b99287c4ecab3/1721074950447/AI%2C+Climate+and+the+Environment-07-12.pdf
Thank you. Hereby added to the "cutting room floor"!
Certainly a tour-de-force on the part of Liv. I am curious though, that in some ways the ending implies that there is hope if we just synthesize, without really saying how we would get out of the designed systems we are in culturally, politically, economically that are actively working against listening, cooperation, and subtlety? It feels hard to buy into the idea of "we just figure out how to get along and listen to each other" - but of course Risk Realist does sound "accurate" to me relative to some of the other voices so...
Hear you. Check out the "cutting room floor" above -- what do you think of those points?
Thank you to BOTH of you and ALL the voices, even the ones that weren't included. This is a wonderful invitation into conversations that take care for synthesis as the first ground rule.
Love you True Human 😘
Hi, thank you. I see you mentioned in the references the Dark Side of Conscious AI. Not sure if it made the cut, but I just wanted to thank you anyhow. – Curt
It made the cut! Your conversation with Daniel def informed the script. Also....I'd love to make something with you. Keep that seed planted for when the time is right 🌱
i heard about humans but missed reference to non humans....?