It's factors like this that make me skeptical that powerful AI could ever be a net-benefit to society, particularly if it's as accessible as current frontier models are. The cost of making society pandemic-proof and hack-proof is probably the trillions--and even that would only prevent two of the many catastrophes that powerful AI can cause.
Consider, too, that much of the upside of powerful AI is overstated. Even if it produces trillions of dollars of productivity gains, much of that extra production is probably directed toward things that don't promote human flourishing, or outright inhibit it. For example, generative AI accelerates the creation of TikTok videos by a factor of 10 or more:
It's factors like this that make me skeptical that powerful AI could ever be a net-benefit to society, particularly if it's as accessible as current frontier models are. The cost of making society pandemic-proof and hack-proof is probably the trillions--and even that would only prevent two of the many catastrophes that powerful AI can cause.
Consider, too, that much of the upside of powerful AI is overstated. Even if it produces trillions of dollars of productivity gains, much of that extra production is probably directed toward things that don't promote human flourishing, or outright inhibit it. For example, generative AI accelerates the creation of TikTok videos by a factor of 10 or more:
https://www.404media.co/inside-the-world-of-tiktok-spammers-and-the-ai-tools-that-enable-them/
https://www.404media.co/ai-slop-is-a-brute-force-attack-on-the-algorithms-that-control-reality/