Draft for AI risk is corporations

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title: Humanity faces an existential threat
description: Humanity faces an existential threat right now. A lot has been made of predictions that there is a 10% chance that humanity could be wiped out in 10 years by AI. I'm not worried. We have been doing a pretty good job of annihilating and immiserating ourselves without AI.
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- There are some predictions about AI threats
- See the 10% in 10 years tweet.
- The mechanism isn't all that clear.
- This is not a technology problem, it's a human problem.
- Corporations are like a slow AI.
- The key is that they are a system complex enough to operate on it's own without any human actually overseeing it.
- Executives claim no knowledge, but they encourage workers to push boundaries. They assume they have the blessing of their board and their job depends on hitting those targets.
- Directors pursue aggressive targets but expect to stop short of harm and law breaking. They assume they have the blessing of leadership and their job depends on hitting the targets.
- ICs cut corners and break laws assuming they will have the blessing of leadership and their job depends on it.
- The board encourages the executives to make things happen and focuses on the metrics and targets.
- Corporations are perfectly capable of causing harm to the world already.
- Tobacco
- Oil
- Chemical companies
- Whaling
- Factory farming
- The actual threat of AI is in how we use it, not what we do.
- Someone has to give it resources
- Someone has to turn it on
- Someone has to look the other way when it starts misbehaving
- Someone has to ignore the warning signs
- AI won't kill humans, corporations will.
- Who can stop it?
- People can demand more
- Governments can put in regulation
- Governments can break up the monopolies.