The Chant of the Barbie Dolls

TCOTBD has it on good authority that an un-named Italian high performance sports vehicle purveyor has an exciting new release in the works. It seems they have cracked the problem of developing a performance luxury sports car, with all the panache expected of Italian design, but fueled entirely on plant based products.

The industry rumor-mill has it that it's from Alfalfa-Romeo.

# posted by Flann O'Brien @ 8:16 AM 0 comments

Some time ago (as far back as January 2017 as it happens, long before the hue and cry of ChatGPT and its ilk) my benighted ramblings led me to the conclusion that rogue AIs were already alive and well and working within, amongst and against us lowly humans.

Remember, you heard it here first.

To be clear, the "AI" in question that I identified was the corporate entity. Using humans as scaffolding in the same way RNA used DNA as scaffolding (only to be replaced later as the pre-eminent replicator on the planet), these wild paperclip churning, solar system plundering entities are recklessly destroying the earth and "de-terraforming" the planet in their blind, relentless pursuit of optimised profit, whilst the costly, lethal, genocidal externalities don't even feature as a consideration in their universe.

I had never heard anyone else make the same argument until I heard Stuart Russell (apparently a computer scientist of some note in the area of safe AI) give the 2021 BBC Reith lectures. Actually, full disclosure, I only heard the last one of them, and I only heard the last 30 minutes of that one, so it wasn't like I was an invited guest or anything.

Anyhow you can hear the whole last lecture here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/ai-a-future-for-humans/id318705261?i=1000545757508

What was interesting to me was the question and answer from about -23:40 to -21:44 (as measured from the end of the lecture in the above CrApple podcast site).

Basically he says you don't have to wait 50 years to see what an uncontrolled, super-intelligent rogue AI looks like - the fossil fuel industry is exactly like that, now. Optimising for profit with no regard to externalities, like de-terraforming the planet. The fossil fuel industry has won. "I'm sorry we have lost" is his (terrifying) summary of the current situation.

On an uplifting note - he says an uncontrolled super-intelligent AI would be much worse than the fossil fuel industry. Thanks to the Exxon boys'n'gals (and all their cohort), we're unlikely to ever even be around to experience that though.

So: phew!

# posted by Flann O'Brien @ 7:58 AM 0 comments

 Someone who "shoos" your troubles away.

Gwan-oura-dah.

# posted by Flann O'Brien @ 5:46 AM 0 comments