In Today’s Journal
* The Bradbury Challenge Report
* Wow
* Wow #2
* “AI Execs Express Fears”
* Of Interest
The Bradbury Challenge Report
Participating in any challenge is a great way to have fun and grow as a writer.
The requirement is to write at least one short story per week, then let me know the title, word count, and genre per the format below. During the past week, the following writers wrote these new stories:
- Vanessa V. Kilmer “The Night Watch” 3076 Thriller
- Christopher Ridge “Attack of the Fifty Foot Roach Part 2” 2345 horror
- William Ridge “Flight into Tomorrow” 1665 Sci-Fi
- Dave Taylor “Last Ride of the Night” 4,560 Science Fiction
- Glynn Young “A Call from Dubai” 2130 words General
Congratulations to all of these writers.
Wow
While working over my author website, I came across the earliest blog post I wrote on that site: June 10, 2013.
And then I found the post I wrote on the day I finished my first novel: November 10, 2014. I might share that post in the next few days just for kicks. It was pretty good.
Wow #2
After putting several novels and a lot of stories through this business computer, I happened across my old dedicated writing laptop a few days ago.
It’s an 11.5″ screen HP ProBook, and the keyboard fits my hands perfectly.
Typing on the business laptop (an HP EliteBook) is all right, but I find myself reaching for the backspace or delete key often.
So I decided to bring my ProBook out of retirement. In fact, I might get on eBay and see whether I can hunt up another one just in case that one kicks the bucket.
But then I realized I couldn’t make the font large enough to read easily on that tiny screen, so I got online with HP and bought my first-ever brand new 27″ monitor.
It’ll be here in the next day or two, and I can hardly wait.
“AI Execs Express Fears”
“Oh, good!” or “Sigh… really?”
They’re finally “expressing fear” over an idea that was wrong-headed from the beginning? So it was somehow lost on them that the very idea of creating AI the way they went about it was immoral and illegal from the beginning?
Sorry, folks. I don’t often express my opinion on non-writing topics, but this was such low-hanging fruit I couldn’t resist.
AI was founded on the notion that the outright theft of others’ IP is fine.
Yet even the federal government, with all its flaws, has said you aren’t allowed to steal someone else’s IP until they’ve been dead for seventy years.
So are these geniuses somehow more mentally dense than the federal government?
Apparently so. I can only imagine the reasoning:
“Okay, let’s go ahead and build a whole new frontier on the foundation that theft is a good thing. You know, the ends justify the means… something like that.
“After all, we can always ‘express fear,’ just as if we’re surprised when it looks as if it might get out of control. Just in case building something that can turn on us turns out to be not a good idea.”
The level of greed and stupidity is unbelievably astounding.
Anyway, finally, Dario Amodei (the head of Anthropic) has written an essay titled “We Must Pace the Frontier” (see Of Interest).
Wasn’t that good of him? Yeah, that’ll fix it. Or at least make him look like one of the marginally good guys.
And according to 1440 Digest, Open AI’s Sam Altman even “delayed an anticipated initial public offering amid rising concerns over AI safety.”
With the technology based on theft in the first place, both men’s entire premise is flawed. How can they possibly be surprised they’ve created an amoral monster they won’t be able to control?
For Amodei to say we should ‘pace’ the further development of AI is like saying—just after you realize that loud buzzing noise is a nest of rattlesnakes—you should pace your approach to the nest.
You know, instead of turning away and finding something else to do.
This is a prime example of intelligent beings pushing a mixture of ignorance and stupidity beyond a dangerous boundary just as if they have no other option.
But you don’t have to be a genius to predict their greed will win out over their fears. After all, they’re billionaires, and billionaires never have enough money. Only the relatively poor are ever truly satisfied and appreciative of what they have.
Of course, someday these greed mongers can write essays in which they “express their regret.”
Not that they will. But either way, it won’t make the slightest bit of difference.
Even the current essay stinks of being only another ploy to subliminally reassure everyone they’re on the ball and keeping a close eye on AI.
So what can any of us do about it?
Certainly not much, but we don’t have to be complicit in their stupidity.
Shrug. Everything’s a choice. Don’t use AI.
Of Interest
We Must Pace the Frontier Fears about AI as presented by the head of Anthropic.