Artificial intelligence

[mikechamp]

What could possibly go wrong?

Artificial Intelligence used to design brand new viruses

Artificial Intelligence has been used to design brand new viruses that are fully functional and can replicate in the laboratory, say US researchers. It is the first time whole genomes have been successfully designed by AI. The resulting 16 novel viruses were created to infect bacteria and pose no threat to people.

The breakthrough has been labelled a "very significant turning point" in science that could unlock a new era for treating disease. But experts have also warned AI-designed viruses raise "urgent" safety and security concerns.

AI tools are rapidly advancing and have already been used to design new antibiotics. But that is relatively simple compared with designing a new viable virus from scratch.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y3j3ngevmo

We’ve learned NOTHING.

I almost tagged you on this, but then I was like, "Nah, he'll see it."

[Mary1966]

I decided to use Google AI to help me introduce my cats after letting them out together wasn’t leading to progress. At first I was impressed, but now it’s making stupid mistakes. And even though I have a Google account that I’m logged into, I have to keep the window open or I have to start over.

[WAR God]

OpenAI’s proprietary AI solved one of those unsolvable math problems in 88 hours. Using 10000+ AI agents. Apparently performing the equivalent of 100 years of human labor/research in that time frame. My understanding is this was largely riding the coattails of the latest research on this problem, and the AI essentially brute forced the problem space. But the issue is, a lot of fields are hitting a sort of reality bedrock where the remaining (known) problems require this approach, rather than human intuition.

I’ve spent a lot of time in this rabbit hole after this news. Feeling black pilled at the moment. The game theory driven arms race that ends with one country integrating AI into military innovation and oversight seems inevitable. Idk if it ends well.

To speak nothing of the massive economic disruption that appears only a couple years away.

[cardinalkarp]

As much as AI is “helpful” for the average person (although I try to do my best not to use it), the overall implications from the massive data center buildout, to like you mentioned, the military use, as well as surveillance, and massive job loss, I think the net negative implications for outweigh any sort of positive impact this will have on society.

[mikechamp]

Then you're really going to love this article. Not.

I'm no psychologist, but I feel like this is what happens when a lack of trust meets a god complex at the same time that there is a lack of leadership in Washington:

'Gambling with our lives': AI researcher quits Anthropic

An artificial intelligence researcher who left OpenAI to join Anthropic has decided to leave the industry, accusing both US companies of "gambling with our lives" in the race to develop AI models capable of self-improvement.

Jacob Coxon, 27, spent the past three years pretraining AI models, first at OpenAI and then, this year, at its rival Anthropic, which he considered more cautious in its approach. "Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives," Coxon said on Tuesday. "The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade," he said in a post on X. "This is not a marketing stunt," he added.

Anthropic safety executive Evan Hubinger backed up Coxon on X. "We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans!" he said, adding that he estimated that risk at more than 10 percent over the next decade.

Hubinger said Anthropic is "trying its best", but does not yet have a plan to ensure an AI system that surpasses human capabilities would obey its creators. He said there was a "low" risk of that happening with current models.

Coxon considers Anthropic's efforts genuine but said he believes no company can responsibly develop an AI that surpasses humans without government intervention or a coordinated slowdown. "At Anthropic, the stakes are well-understood, but they are locked in a race to get there first -- they believe no one else will act responsibly, so they must do it themselves, despite the risk," he said.

In February, Anthropic removed a pledge from its safety charter to halt the development of its models if it failed to control their risks. It argued that if it unilaterally paused its work, its less cautious rivals would dominate the industry, making it less safe overall.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/art ... 08501.html

[GeddyWrox]

As much as AI is “helpful” for the average person (although I try to do my best not to use it), the overall implications from the massive data center buildout, to like you mentioned, the military use, as well as surveillance, and massive job loss, I think the net negative implications for outweigh any sort of positive impact this will have on society.

Fully agree.

[WAR God]

As much as AI is “helpful” for the average person (although I try to do my best not to use it), the overall implications from the massive data center buildout, to like you mentioned, the military use, as well as surveillance, and massive job loss, I think the net negative implications for outweigh any sort of positive impact this will have on society.

Conversely:

It will cure/prevent aging.
Disease will be eliminated.
Menial labor will be unnecessary. Jobs could become hobbies. Not required.

Conversely, what does it mean to be human at that point?

[Joe Shlabotnik]

As much as AI is “helpful” for the average person (although I try to do my best not to use it), the overall implications from the massive data center buildout, to like you mentioned, the military use, as well as surveillance, and massive job loss, I think the net negative implications for outweigh any sort of positive impact this will have on society.

Conversely:

It will cure/prevent aging.
Disease will be eliminated.
Menial labor will be unnecessary. Jobs could become hobbies. Not required.

Conversely, what does it mean to be human at that point?

I'll tell you one way it means to be human at this point - pull the plug on the damned servers. Delete the code and algorithms. We have agency and the intelligence to see what is useful and what is harmful. Use it for crissake.

[haltz]

Anthropic safety executive Evan Hubinger backed up Coxon on X. "We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans!" he said, adding that he estimated that risk at more than 10 percent over the next decade.

Hubinger said Anthropic is "trying its best", but does not yet have a plan to ensure an AI system that surpasses human capabilities would obey its creators. He said there was a "low" risk of that happening with current models.

My theory is you're going to hear more about this and it's basically them begging congress to shut down and bail out their insolvent glorified search engine.

[mikechamp]

Yay that they blocked it? But it was AI that blocked it, so we're admitting that AI is our best safeguard from... AI.

(sigh) This just feels inevitable at this point:

Anthropic reportedly blocked possible attempts to make bioweapons using its AI

Anthropic released a paper Thursday that details how the company took action against several users of its AI models who were conducting research that could have led to the development of biological weapons. The report states that the cases it includes aren't typical examples of misuse of its agents, and include everything from fake dating apps to surveillance systems to potential bioweapons.

The organizations and individuals Anthropic blocked for the bioweapons research are not named in the report, and it doesn't mention what biological agents were involved. But Anthropic says there were scientists who made "efforts to obfuscate the purpose of their research to evade our safeguards."

One of the case studies Anthropic cites in the report involved "a grant application for orthopoxvirus research at a state-associated infectious disease laboratory," which described planned work with live orthopoxviruses. These viruses include variola, better known as smallpox, and Mpox, or monkeypox.

Anthropic says in the report that it's publishing its efforts publicly "because we believe we have a responsibility to disclose malicious misuse of our services. As models become increasingly capable, their risks will increase, unless AI developers and society's defenders act to make them safer."

https://tech.yahoo.com/ai/claude/articl ... 58097.html