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That time in 2023 when Very Serious People started holding flashlights under their chins and intoning "Aaaaaaa Iiiiiiii" in a spooky voice until they all went and hid under the covers.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90892235/researcher-meredith-whittaker-says-ais-biggest-risk-isnt-consciousness-its-the-corporations-that-control-them

#AI #LLMs #LLCs #MeredithWhittaker
I think we need to dig into what is happening here, which is that, when faced with a system that presents itself as a listening, eager interlocutor that’s hearing us and responding to us, that we seem to fall into a kind of trance in relation to these systems, and almost counterfactually engage in some kind of wish fulfillment: thinking that they’re human, and there’s someone there listening to us. It’s like when you’re a kid, and you’re telling ghost stories, something with a lot of emotional weight, and suddenly everybody is terrified and reacting to it. And it becomes hard to disbelieve.
the most annoying part is that AI fearmongering *is* AI marketing. "It will replace people" is absolutely the value-add for AI. It's why every C-suite in the country is suddenly obsessed.

"AI will gain sentience and replace people!!!"
"You mean we can cut payroll without cutting productivity???"