A Few Questions for Our Would-Be AI Overloads by Jean-Marie Kauth

Are you creating a species to replace our own, then, oh mighty AI Overlords? It seems the answer to that is yes since you believe there is a 10% chance AI will wipe out humanity entirely and are proceeding heedless, nevertheless. Then I have just a few questions, I beseech you, before your planned apotheosis into the electronic ether.

Just as we have killed off all but 4% of wild mammals by weight, with another 60% for food, will the species that succeeds us likewise dramatically deplete us to sustain themselves? Will we be kept for food or some such? We need the ecosphere, but they might not so long as they reduce our numbers by billions, preserving just a few to feed and serve them.

Here’s my next question. Will AI creatures voluntarily constrain their own numbers and level of consumption so as to be themselves sustainable? Or will they also spin out of control, further and further destroying the ecosystem on which all of us, including AI Overlords, depend?

I wonder, whether the overlord species is human or AI, how this unlimited growth and insatiable voracious hunger will NOT ultimately destroy the planet on which all lives (even those in silico) depend? Or is that part of the plan, with Mars and all?

Could we not instead imagine a real revolution in intelligence, one consonant with a living planet and all its species, right down to the microbiota, to actually sustain continued life and mutual prosperity on Earth in the long-term? Can we imagine the plastic intelligence of AI coexisting long-term with the living biosphere?

If you are going to bring about the apocalypse, shouldn’t we also think about how to prepare our children? Will atrophying their brains and stunting their ability to solve problems and encounter adversity prepare them for anything but a future of cognitive surrender and abasing service to machines? Or is pacifying and mesmerizing them just the thing as we prepare them for the altar of sacrifice? Is that what you are already doing with the toxic combo of Tik-Tok and brain-stunting pesticides from the womb onward? 

How clever. Destruction of the natural world, which AI is accelerating, means that we cannot continue on this way. Instead of college, should we be preparing our students for a world without lightbulbs, clean water, healthy food, or indoor plumbing, much less the Internet?

Is all this just a distraction from climate change as AI ramps up the real damage to our ecosphere, tainting the air, spewing out CO₂, sucking dry the aquifers, sullying our soil, and cluttering our planet with a slatternly scattering of endless e-waste? Is AI both a smokescreen for bringing back coal-burning power-plants (pun intended) and also an accelerant poured on the already burning fires of our planet?

Do our would-be AI overlords have no children? Do they love no other human being or any of the rare fruits of human civilization?

There is a poignant, tragic plaint, not long ago a joke, patiently pacing the lonely hallways of the internet: “In the fast-paced world of Silicon Valley, the way you quit says everything about where you work. When someone leaves a normal job, they say, ‘you know, I’ve had a great time here, and now it’s on to the next adventure.’ When someone leaves an AI tech job, they say, ‘I have stared into the abyss. I am retiring to write poetry. Please spend time with your families.’”

And this sounds almost verbatim like the warning a resigning Anthropic safety lead issued just months ago: “The world is in peril. And not just from AI or bioweapons, but from a whole series of interconnected crises unfolding in this very moment. We appear to be approaching a threshold where our wisdom must grow in equal measure to our capacity to affect the world, lest we face the consequences. 

Moreover, throughout my time here, I’ve repeatedly seen how hard it is to truly let our values govern our actions…. I feel called to writing that addresses and engages fully with the place we find ourselves, and that places poetic truth alongside scientific truth as equally valid ways of knowing, both of which I believe have something essential to contribute when developing new technology. I hope to explore a poetry degree and devote myself to the practice of courageous speech.”

As a literature professor, the appeal to poetry tickles my soul, but don’t we think we need to also do something more concrete to avert disaster? What about commonsense regulation? What about Garrett Hardin’s “mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon”? Who does not feel disappointment that so many are giving up without a fight for our world, for all we love, without so much as a bang or a whimper?

-Jean-Marie Kauth

The book I have worked towards for more than 20 years, Poisoning Our Children, is now available for pre-order at https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/54124/poisoning-our-children

Pre-orders are hugely important, as they affect whether bookstores stock the book, how algorithms surface it, and how seriously publishers take authors. Your support matters more than you know. All author profits will be donated to Environmental Health non-profits.

Figure 1: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradtempleton/2019/06/05/dont-fear-robot-overlords-ais-will-rule-the-world-through-humans/