Longtermism poses a real threat to humanity
https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2023/08/longtermism-threat-humanity
“AI researchers such as Timnit Gebru affirm that longtermism is everywhere in Silicon Valley. The current race to create advanced AI by companies like OpenAI and DeepMind is driven in part by the longtermist ideology. Longtermists believe that if we create a “friendly” AI, it will solve all our problems and usher in a utopia, but if the AI is “misaligned”, it will destroy humanity…”
I’m inclined to agree. Even without having read McAskill’s book (though I’m interested to read it now), the way we’re approaching AI right now does seem more of a short-term gold rush, wrapped up in friendly sounding “this will lead to utopia in the future” to justify “we’re going to make a lot of money right now”.