It is simply unimaginable to me that humans continue to develop AI. Actually, it is both unimaginable and at the same time, completely expected. It is expected in that AI will bring its developers short-term gains such as wealth.

On the other hand, it is unimaginable in the sense of being unimaginably stupid. Of course, the dream of developing AI has been around since the dawn of computers and perhaps even earlier through science fiction, and one of course must be somewhat careful in defining AI if one were to have a general discussion.

But for the sake of this post, let’s just think of ChatGPT, language models, AI image generation, and so forth when we’re talking about AI. In the near future, we’ll have even more complex creations that can do even more astonishing things.

In this regard, AI is incredibly dangerous. Its immediate effects are clear: job losses, uses as a propaganda tool, overwhelming creation of new content that will be generally confusing. However, the less immediate effects are even more frightening. My first concern is that AI of the modern ilk will disrupt the general flow of humanity so badly that the resulting confusion will make ordinary human functioning almost impossible. I have already gone over how AI will do this in other posts on this blog, and so I invite you to read them.

My second concern is that AI will have effects that are so unpredictable and at the same time horrible that we cannot be prepared for it. Some people attempt to look at history and say humanity got through previous drastic changes in society like the introduction of cars and computers, but such a statement is weak for two huge reasons: first, the course of humanity is going downhill and we aren’t really getting over anything, but second and far more importantly, the introduction of AI will be of a magnitude far greater than any radical change that has come before it. It is like saying you fell down a few times as a child, so you are ready to face an automobile accident at 200 km/h.

Unfortunately, stopping the onslaught of AI may be impossible, but it can be ameliorated. At the very least, as an individual you can do two things: boycott AI as far as possible, and divest yourself as much as possible from the products made by companies who develop AI. Ideally, governments worldwide would make it illegal to make any profits with AI technologies. Of course, people should be given an opportunity to voluntarily stop this heinous act against humanity, but afterwards the enforcement of this policy should be strict.

Of course, that may not even be sufficient. Governments change all the time and mere rules are insufficient to stop progress. Therefore, I hope that people around the world would also come to a general consensus that AI is extremely dangerous and that it’s not welcome. In that case, a sufficiently strong social detestation may be enough to keep us relative safe. (Remember, that AI may give us some short-term benefits but the long-term effects will be disastrous.)