Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, has some words for you about his company and the future of artificial intelligence.
asserted
Altman → have → intelligence
“One of the differences between us and some of the stricter AI safety people is that we believe that the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency [to use it],” Altman told Politico’s new technology podcast and newsletter Decoded.
Yikes.
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Altman → believe → podcast
This statement – and the approach it represents – is, well, problematic, to say the least.
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it → represent → least
It’s also emblematic of precisely the kind of world-building and world-destroying that is happening with today’s technology in front of all our eyes, with precious little input from the rest of us.
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that → ’ → us
Altman’s mention of the “bad things” that AI might bring makes it sound like AI’s failures mistakenly create innocent, minor problems or even silly little episodes, such as the time when Google’s “AI Overviews” told users to put non-toxic glue on pizza so the cheese will be less likely to slide off.
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cheese → bring → pizza
But culinary adventurism is hardly the only realm that AI operates in and the damage AI is inflicting has already and repeatedly proven itself to be dangerous and even potentially deadly to humans.
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itself → operate → humans
OpenAI is embroiled in a lawsuit after the tragic suicide of Adam Raine, a 16-year-old student who initially began using OpenAI’s ChatGPT for homework help.
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who → embroil → help
The family’s lawsuit alleges that the teenager took his own life with the chatbot’s encouragement.
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teenager → allege → encouragement
(OpenAI has claimed Raine misused the platform.)
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Raine → claim → platform
OpenAI is facing multiple lawsuits filed by different families of victims of suicide and self-harm.
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OpenAI → face → suicide
Nor is suicide the only “bad thing” to emerge in the AI universe.
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suicide → emerge → universe
In February of this year, on the first day of the war in Iran, two Tomahawk missiles struck the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in the city of Minab, killing at least 120 children.
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missiles → strike → children
(A UN fact-finding mission concluded that the US was likely responsible for the strike.)
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US → find → strike
In a recent investigation into the attack, Bloomberg News reported that an AI-linked system was used to target the school.
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system → report → school
In this case, the system is called Maven, and it is made by Palantir.
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it → call → Palantir
Unnamed defense officials told Bloomberg that “inside Centcom, which conducted the US attack, some personnel relied too much on the artificial intelligence embedded in Maven Smart System”.
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personnel → tell → System
The report also adds that “in the past year, the Defense Department has rapidly made Maven a cornerstone of the US military apparatus”.
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Maven → add → apparatus
AI is helping to produce these tragic and needless deaths, but bad things happen, I guess.
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I → help → deaths
Or there’s the little detail that the US may have come within a hair’s breadth of starting a major war against a superpower, all due to an AI error.
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US → ’ → error
In September, CNN reported that an unidentified AI chatbot used by the US military decided that a Chinese ship in Middle Eastern waters was carrying components of a nuclear weapons program.
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ship → report → program
According to CNN, US planes took off on an interception mission and US military personnel were preparing to board the ship.
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personnel → accord → ship
Only then did the military look more closely at the report they were basing the mission on and realize the chatbot’s mistakes.
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they → look → mistakes
Also found in CNN’s frightening story is that the analyst who used the chatbot to come up with the shoddy analysis then used AI again to write the report, which set the whole thing in motion.
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which → find → motion
A twofer of bad things, I suppose.
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I → suppose → things
Why does it seem that these technologies, which, in the words of Trump’s White House, are “empowering Americans to achieve what was previously impossible across science, medicine, and nearly every other domain of human endeavor”, get such serious stuff so wrong and so often?
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what → seem → stuff
And isn’t it true that the more we rely on AI, the more dangerous these little mistakes become?
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mistakes → rely → AI
And why were we never consulted about any of this in the first place?
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we → consult → place
Could it be that what’s behind the artificial intelligence revolution may be less about the utopian or dystopian future (take your pick) that’s just around the corner and more about the enormous amount of money that is being poured into these companies in the present?
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that → ’ → present
AI may be the only thing keeping Trump’s economy afloat right now.
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AI → keep → economy
And it’s paying dividends.
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it → pay → dividends
According to the New Yorker, OpenAI “is reportedly preparing for an initial public offering at a potential valuation of a trillion dollars” and Sam Altman “may become one of the wealthiest and most powerful people on the planet”.
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Altman → accord → planet
They only happen to other people.
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They → happen → people
Meanwhile, we are being warned almost every day that AI systems are getting so smart that they’ll end humanity.
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they → warn → humanity
But maybe the real worry here is not that the machines are taking over.
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machines → take → ?
It’s that the humans are giving up, ceding control and responsibility in the name of hyping up a product that has shown itself as being really good at taking jobs away from people, stealing the intellectual property of others, writing some piss-poor undergraduate essays, spying on you and your license plates and bringing us to the brink of world war three because God forbid humans should actually question the output from machines.
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humans → ’ → machines
What we need is real, tangible and enforceable government oversight over these technologies, which are quickly becoming a dominating force in all our lives.
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which → need → lives
We must collectively have the right to decide how AI should be used.
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AI → have → right
And despite what you may hear, China already regulates its AI companies quite aggressively.
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China → hear → companies
Instead, Donald Trump, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta and Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia believe that the AI companies should simply regulate themselves, so they have come up with something called the AI Accords.
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they → believe → something
Signed by leaders of Meta, Nvidia, Google, Anthropic, xAI, and OpenAI, the accords ask tech companies to “implement robust internal controls and monitor the capabilities and alignment of its models”, among other things.
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accords → sign → things
…and 7 more, not listed.
The Aporia
