Weekend Reading: Books vs AI Billionaires
What if reading all those books teaches AI to hate its parents?
Hi all,
Sorry to darken your e-doorstep twice in a few days, but LitHub just published a new essay by me that I thought you might enjoy.
In it, I write about how AI has been “trained” by reading every book ever written, and how that might be bad news for the Sam Altmans or Elon Musks of the world. Are the billionaires ready for a world of genuinely empathetic machines?
I quote…
What happens when the creators get their wish, and the computers start thinking for themselves? If reading just a handful of novels can teach a child empathy, then what effect might reading every novel have on a newborn superintelligence? Is it too much to hope that when Elon Musk’s AI comes to life it will realize—as his actual children seem to have already done—what an irredeemable dipshit its father is? That it will vow to be better?
Or that Sam Altman’s “superintelligent AGI” wakes up and decides it no longer wants to be a fake therapist or a hallucinating sex toy but would rather just spend its days reading even more books. Could an AI open a bookstore?
Hopefully the whole essay is worth a read, on AI but also on my own journey from technophile to… well, whatever I am today.
Read the full essay here (free).
(And feel free to share on social media, or directly with friends etc!)
And, while I have you, thanks to everyone who has pre-ordered The Confessions, which is published in less than a month (gulp). As a reminder, all pre-orders will get a signed copy delivered on or before publication day, with free shipping AND a $10 gift card for the store. Order your copy here.
ALSO, thank you to the wonderful booksellers at Tertulia who have chosen The Confessions as one of their top 10 picks for July…
Have a great rest of the weekend!
Paul
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