From a NY Times interview with Sam Altman:
Sam Altman: Yeah, I actually don’t think we’re all going to go extinct. I think it’s going to be great. I think we’re heading towards the best world ever. But when we deal with a dangerous technology as a society, we often say that we have to confront and successfully navigate the risks to get to enjoy the benefits. And that’s like a pretty consensus thing. I don’t think that’s a radical position. I can imagine that if this technology stays on the same curve, there are systems that are capable of significant harm in the future. And Andrew [Ng of Stanford] also said — not that long ago — that he thought it was totally irresponsible to talk about AGI because it will never happen.
Kevin Roose: I think he compared it to worrying about overpopulation on Mars.
Sam Altman: And I think now he might say something different.
…
Later in the conversatiion–
Casey Newton: This is the stuff where my brain starts to melt as I ponder the implications, because you’ve made something that is smarter than every human. But you, the human, have to be smart enough to ensure that it always acts in your interests, even though by definition it is way smarter than you.
Sam Altman: Yeah, we need some help there.
Help from whom might I ask?
I also found this interesting–
Casey Newton: I want to ask you about this feeling that Kevin and I have had; we call it “A.I. vertigo.” There’s this moment when you contemplate an A.I. future, and you start to think about what it might mean for the job market, your own job, your daily life, for society. And there is this kind of dizziness that I find sets in. And this year I actually had a nightmare about AGI. And then I sort of asked around, and I feel like people who work on this stuff — that’s not uncommon. I wonder if you have had these moments of vertigo. Or is there at some point where you think about it long enough that you feel like you get your legs underneath you?
Sam Altman: There were some. There were some very strange, extreme vertigo moments. Particularly around the launch of GPT-3. But you do get your legs under you. And I think the future will somehow be less different than we think. Like, we invent AGI, and it matters less than we think. And yet it’s what I expect to happen.
Guys like Altman and Ng sure sound like they know what they're talking about. Their prescience, profundity, and wisdom is dripping from every word they speak. I think it's just, you know, "great" that we are entrusting the future of humanity to them. Can't wait to see how "great" things will be.
Update 12/4/23:
Is Altman perhaps a very charming bot?
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