#general AI

[reasonsforhope]

"Major AI companies are racing to build superintelligent AI — for the benefit of you and me, they say. But did they ever pause to ask whether we actually want that?

Americans, by and large, don’t want it.

That’s the upshot of a new poll shared exclusively with Vox. The poll, commissioned by the think tank AI Policy Institute and conducted by YouGov, surveyed 1,118 Americans from across the age, gender, race, and political spectrums in early September. It reveals that 63 percent of voters say regulation should aim to actively prevent AI superintelligence.

Companies like OpenAI have made it clear that superintelligent AI — a system that is smarter than humans — is exactly what they’re trying to build. They call it artificial general intelligence (AGI) and they take it for granted that AGI should exist. “Our mission,” OpenAI’s website says, “is to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.”

But there’s a deeply weird and seldom remarked upon fact here: It’s not at all obvious that we should want to create AGI — which, as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will be the first to tell you, comes with major risks, including the risk that all of humanity gets wiped out. And yet a handful of CEOs have decided, on behalf of everyone else, that AGI should exist.

Now, the only thing that gets discussed in public debate is how to control a hypothetical superhuman intelligence — not whether we actually want it. A premise has been ceded here that arguably never should have been...

Building AGI is a deeply political move. Why aren’t we treating it that way?

...Americans have learned a thing or two from the past decade in tech, and especially from the disastrous consequences of social media. They increasingly distrust tech executives and the idea that tech progress is positive by default. And they’re questioning whether the potential benefits of AGI justify the potential costs of developing it. After all, CEOs like Altman readily proclaim that AGI may well usher in mass unemployment, break the economic system, and change the entire world order. That’s if it doesn’t render us all extinct.

In the new AI Policy Institute/YouGov poll, the "better us [to have and invent it] than China” argument was presented five different ways in five different questions. Strikingly, each time, the majority of respondents rejected the argument. For example, 67 percent of voters said we should restrict how powerful AI models can become, even though that risks making American companies fall behind China. Only 14 percent disagreed.

Naturally, with any poll about a technology that doesn’t yet exist, there’s a bit of a challenge in interpreting the responses. But what a strong majority of the American public seems to be saying here is: just because we’re worried about a foreign power getting ahead, doesn’t mean that it makes sense to unleash upon ourselves a technology we think will severely harm us.

AGI, it turns out, is just not a popular idea in America.

“As we’re asking these poll questions and getting such lopsided results, it’s honestly a little bit surprising to me to see how lopsided it is,” Daniel Colson, the executive director of the AI Policy Institute, told me. “There’s actually quite a large disconnect between a lot of the elite discourse or discourse in the labs and what the American public wants.”

-via Vox, September 19, 2023

[andmaybegayer]

attaching gdb to my android bf and single stepping him. Installing a debug build of his firmware on my android bf.

[enewai]

Discover what General AI (Artificial General Intelligence) really means, how it works, and when experts predict it will arrive.

[fandom-girl-99]

I love Chat GTP it has helped me a lot!

BUT using to write entire essays now that is not right! Even the site itself says that some info might be wrong! And I have tested said theory during my creative writing brainstorming with Chat GTP, I have said something factually and historically wrong that is factually and historically correct and the chat run with it without correcting me, so that goes to show a lot! Having said that, 600 words (for me at least) it's not that hard to write but of course is all objective and subjective. I'm a very talkative person both on paper and in real life, so finding words it's easy for me, but I have found myself struggling to write essays when the topic I'm being asked to write about isn't in my wheelhouse and/or I don't give a flying fuck about or can delude myself to give a fuck about. So, I can see how Chat GTP can come in clutch when the aforementioned scenario takes place. Alas, Chat GTP is a helping tool not a one-solution-fits-all! You should use it to enrich or brainstorm your essays and even use to help you narrow down your essay if you tend to ramble in them!

From personal experiences I have been given to do an essay during my second degree (Filmmaking was my major) that I couldn't bring myself to care about in 2018 when Chat GTP didn't exist, the agonizing sensation I felt trying to research the material…my god I wanted to rage against everything! And the essay it was for me to read and watch Arthur Clarke's 2001 Space Odyssey and make comparisons between the book and the movie, highlight the directorial inputs and cinematography and the writing behind the book plus a mini deep-dive on the author of the book and director of the movie and actors and the cultural impact of both in our society, and the film industry, both artistically and technically. If I had Chat GTP back then I won't lie, I would have used it as some capacity but I wouldn't have used it to write my entire essay.

In addition, in 2023 I was given to do an essay in my third degree (Computer Science) and the topic of the essay was on AI; with the title and premise being AI and Humanity; The Pros, the Cons and the Future Maybes. I had kept the topic on educational, technical, governmental, industrial and medical with only honorable mentions on the artistic level because I was being too broad. It took me months to compile research and it was a topic I was very limited informed and I wasn't something I was that interested yet I wanted to learn more and saw the fun potential in learning more, but I was overwhelmed with amount of information and misinformation out there. Plus at the time they were HUGE developments in General AI, robotics based AI and Narrow AI that made me scrap my essay thrice! I was running out of deadline time and understanding of where and how I can compile all that and present it in just 20 minutes and to people who were above 50 years old with limited understanding in technology since that was my presenting audience. I was at a dead end and I asked one of my professors for help BUT found no help; I was told and I quote; "Go ask Chat GTP.".

I was appalled at the professor who would suggest such a thing instead of guide their student! And I grew so angry at him. And at the point, I hadn't used Chat GTP not once in my life at that time and I was doing an essay mentioning it, my little sister (age 21…yeah not so little but she is my baby sis even if she reached 100!) is and was set against and she had influenced my view on it too. So, out of spite towards my professor and curiosity I asked Chat GTP to help me shape up my essay to make it less rambling and it did help me! It unstuck me and helped calm my nerves and anxiety! It changed my perspective on Chat GTP and AI and I mentioned it in my presentation the next day. Mind you my presentation went swimmingly and my professor (not the one who told me to ask Chat GTP) requested to keep my essay as an example to show it to other younger students who were asked to do an essay on the same topic. I was honored!

And lastly, after that event, I used Chat GTP to teach myself more on the class of the professor who told me to ask Chat GTP, him and I couldn't see eye to eye since day one and his style of teaching triggered my ADHD (I'm diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia since I was six years old) and I couldn't keep up or understand him so I used my coursebook, Google, Chat GTP and various other blogs to teach myself Python programming and other thing on Computer Programming and Computer Network Technologies that this very same professor taught and again Chat GTP was a god-send. And now, in 2025, I'm teaching myself Copywriting using Chat GTP, videos on YouTube and blogs, it's a lot harder since I don't have a coursebook to guide me but again Chat GTP as a tool to enhance and keep me on a path is amazing!

But it won't and it shouldn't replace good old research both online and in books and new articles if that is possible for the topic of essay one is given! My late maternal grandma (a primary school teacher from 1950s to 1980s) used to say research is the cousin of learning and repetition of information learned is the mother of learning. And it's so true! And that is my two-cents on Chat GTP being used to author essays nowadays! Btw I'm 25 years old so not that old!

[the-forest-library]

kill the imposter syndrome in your head because not only is there someone out there doing it worse than you, they’re also using chat gpt to do it

[elexuscal]

"what did students do before chatgpt?" well one time i forgot i had a history essay due at my 10am class the morning of so over the course of my 30 minute bus ride to school i awkwardly used by backpack as a desk, sped wrote the essay, and got an A on it.

six months later i re-read the essay prior to the final exam, went 'ohhhh yeah i remember this', got a question on that topic, and aced it.

point being that actually doing the work is how you learn the material and internalize it. ChatGPT can give you a short cut but it won't build you the the muscles.

[thelocalmuffin]

Hey everyone, I know it's going to be a busy day for a lot of people, but Google enrolled everyone over 18 into their AI program automatically.

If you have a google account, first go to gemini.google.com/extensions and turn everything off.

Then you need to go to myactivity.google.com/product/gemini and turn off all Gemini activity tracking. You do have to do them in that order to make sure it works.

Honestly, I'm not sure how long this will last, but this should keep Gemini off your projects for a bit.

I saw this over on bluesky and figured it would be good to spread on here. It only takes a few minutes to do.

[holmesandtheroman]

NOTICE: As more and more fanfic writers are using generative AI for their works (you uncreative dweebs), I hereby swear on everything I hold dear that I have not and will NEVER use generative AI in ANY of my written work. Everything I post will be organically and creatively my own.

[victusinveritas]

[going2hell4everythingbutbeingbi]

chatgpt is the coward's way out. if you have a paper due in 40 minutes you should be chugging six energy drinks, blasting frantic circus music so loud you shatter an eardrum, and typing the most dogshit essay mankind has ever seen with your own carpel tunnel laden hands

[vexic929]

I think a lot of what pro-AI people are really wanting is stuff that already exists but they don't know it's out there like

can't format a work email? templates

don't know how to write a resume? templates

writing a thank you card or a condolences card or a wedding invitation? templates templates templates

not sure how to format your citations in MLA or whatever format? citationmachine.net

summary of something you're reading for school/work? cliffsnotes.com

recipe based on ingredients in your fridge? whatsintherefrigerator.com

there's a million more like, guys, we don't need AI, we never needed generative AI

[prokopetz]

A couple of years ago we were all terribly concerned about the fact that a lot of American high schools are assigning such crushing homework loads that some kids literally don't have enough time to eat or sleep (and all this in spite of the fact that there's no good evidence that assigning homework actually improves academic outcomes at the pre-university level), but now we're hearing stories about those same schools struggling to stop kids from using ChatGPT to write their essays and suddenly It's The Children Who Are Wrong. Like, do you think maybe there's a certain level of cause and effect in play here?

[kalichi09]

Sonic approves

[dicklessthewonderclown]

no matter what your most embarrassing moment in life is, at least it’s not having fucking chat gpt write fanfic for you bc you’re too lazy to do it yourself

[clinical-space-podcast]

Reblog if your art project has not, does not, and never will make use of generative ai at any point in your creative process.