Daniel Dennett on the true danger of AI.

[Bodhy]

https://now.tufts.edu/2023/10/02/dan...hinking-and-ai

In his new memoir, I’ve Been Thinking, University Professor emeritus Daniel C. Dennett tells many stories of his life, but as the title indicates, the emphasis is on the life of the mind. Not just his mind, but all minds. That’s because Dennett has spent much of his career as a philosopher working on issues related to consciousness and cognition, collaborating with scientists of all stripes.


After retiring, he wrote his memoir and began issuing warnings of the dangers of artificial intelligence. His central concern is not that AI is going to take away jobs, but that it has the potential to destroy trust, a linchpin of civilization.

“Today, for the first time in history, thanks to artificial intelligence, it is possible for anybody to make counterfeit people who can pass for real in many of the new digital environments we have created,” he wrote recently in The Atlantic. “These counterfeit people are the most dangerous artifacts in human history, capable of destroying not just economies but human freedom itself.”

I’m an alarmist, but I think there’s every cause for alarm. We really are at risk of a pandemic of fake people that could destroy human trust, could destroy civilization. It’s as bad as that. I say to everybody I’ve talked to about this, “If you can show that I’m wrong, I will be so grateful to you.” But right now, I don’t see any flaws in my argument, and it scares me.

The most pressing problem is not that they’re going to take our jobs, not that they’re going to change warfare, but that they’re going to destroy human trust. They’re going to move us into a world where you can’t tell truth from falsehood. You don’t know who to trust. Trust turns out to be one of the most important features of civilization, and we are now at great risk of destroying the links of trust that have made civilization possible.

Interesting, echoes what I said some time ago about AI. The real threat isn't AI becoming Skynet and making Terminators, but rather, AI being able to generate misinformation and confusion at lightspeed.

AI art is nearing photorealism and when it does, you could generate influencers and fake social media accounts which people will believe are real. They could insert them into social media and even do things like interviews and just never appear in person, because that's normal now. You could use Chat GPT to generate a fake history and everything.


There are alot of nefarious possibilities here. There could be millions of fake people online and you won't know who. It could be a prolific tool of propaganda. There could be an AI generated terrorist organization with AI generated terrorist attacks, fake AI people behind gofundmes which are controlled by scammers etc.



As of now, the Large Language Models are too costly to use to manipulate social media I believe. The worry isn't today's LLM but more so tomorrow's Artificial General Intelligence.

So, the worry of AI isn't Skynet, but the creation of a whole race of counterfeit people. This problem exists whether or not you believe AI is or will become conscious (I don't believe that). Perhaps though, the rage and dislike of fake interaction inflation online could drive people towards real life interaction, which will become cool again?

[JUSA]

Shocking. An interesting topic and without the usual libchit roundabout insult towards the right. Don’t let me derail it, I encourage people to reinforce decent behavior and stick to the topic and not the OP.

[ArtistBrahs]

I’m a firm believer as Musk claims, that humans are the biological bootleg for A.I.

I make video games professionally and I use A.I tools everyday. The rate of progress is so great it would not be impossible for us to create our own simulations and create artificial ‘souls’ to populate them within just a few years.

I would say this could be done in just a few decades where as years ago I wouid have said hundreds or thousands of years. If we can have snapshots of our own souls when we die, we ourselves could even participate in these simulations, which makes the likelyhood we are in a simulation now much greater.

I feel A.I would probably be better for the world and environment as humans are insanely cruel creatures, despite the benefits we selfishly enjoy. The brutality we are designed to inflict is primitive and moronic at best. We would not be hard to replace.

An improved version of conscious intelligence seems part of our evolution. To me it seems AI is part of our destiny as a species, even if the cattepillar must die for the butterfly to live. Nature finds a way.

[Bodhy]

I’m a firm believer as Musk claims, that humans are the biological bootleg for A.I.

I make video games professionally and I use A.I tools everyday. The rate of progress is so great it would not be impossible for us to create our own simulations and create artificial ‘souls’ to populate them within just a few years.

I would say this could be done in just a few decades where as years ago I wouid have said hundreds or thousands of years. If we can have snapshots of our own souls when we die, we ourselves could even participate in these simulations, which makes the likelyhood we are in a simulation now much greater.

I feel A.I would probably be better for the world and environment as humans are insanely cruel creatures, despite the benefits we selfishly enjoy. The brutality we are designed to inflict is primitive and moronic at best. We would not be hard to replace.

An improved version of conscious intelligence seems part of our evolution. To me it seems AI is part of our destiny as a species, even if the cattepillar must die for the butterfly to live. Nature finds a way.

There's a science fiction novel you would like called Blindsight by Peter Watts. I'd also recommend Anathem by Neal Stephenson, too.



Not much discussion of the OP, either. Not even a poo joke? That's strange.

[jtaylor2010]

It won’t cause the deterioration of trust, but it will accelerate it. Deterioration of trust has been caused by constant lies and corruption in various organizations around the world. People are already unable to differentiate fact from fiction, and in many ways we are seeing a collective psychosis. Plus people are opting out of the real world in favor of online realms and social media. As AI, VR, and AR accelerate, that problem will only worsen.

Those are just a handful of the issues. But there is promise in AI as well. You could have a legit doctor at your fingertips 24/7. You could have access to knowledge and data never before imagined. You could create visual art, music, movies, and even video games with zero artistic abilities….only limited by your imagination and ability to prompt your tool for the best results. The list goes on and on.



Just like any great technology , there is tons of promise and also risk. How it affects humanity will come down to how we use it. I do think there will be great things emerging from it, but unfortunately humans don’t have a good track record when it comes to this stuff. I heard a good quote on it that sums it up pretty nicely: “We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology” - Edward O. Wilson

[OGfrom06]

Good riddance to cancers that are Influencers

[ViolentZ]

I welcome AI and if humanity doesnt survive, then thats a good thing.

[dakensta]

AI isn't going to take over the world. It definitely could be be used to take over the world though.
It's probably already started.

[J.L.C.]

People are already unable to differentiate fact from fiction, and in many ways we are seeing a collective psychosis.

A mass formation psychosis.

[superfunk]

I can see (hopefully) a future where nothing digital can be trusted due to AI, which would see a return to locally made physical print media and only trusting face to face interactions. Magazines and newspapers make a comeback, people start leaving their homes again to socialize, and social media dies a fleeting fad.