Despite the unique features of advanced AI systems, a thorough study of historical examples from emergent technologies offers insight into navigation between the risks and benefits. The rapid advances in the AI development have left the field mostly devoid of large-scale studies of the historical and sociological lessons from earlier...
Understanding the power narratives have over different approaches to transformational technology, from Cold War to AI era. I am conducting research into the role of narratives as propagators / mitigators of catastrophic risks. With the rapid development of AI systems in the past few years, the discourse around the potential...
Despite the unique features of advanced AI systems, a thorough study of historical examples from emergent technologies offers insight into navigation between the risks and benefits.
The rapid advances in the AI development have left the field mostly devoid of large-scale studies of the historical and sociological lessons from earlier similar developments. While AI - both in potential benefits and risks - is in some forms unique, it shares similarities with earlier major technological breakthroughs. While some of these have been studied intensely,[1] there remains work to do in building a coherent overview of the shifting dynamics new technologies cause.
A new technological breakthrough is a disruption in the fabric of society, originally locally, inevitably... (read 2507 more words →)
Understanding the power narratives have over different approaches to transformational technology, from Cold War to AI era.
I am conducting research into the role of narratives as propagators / mitigators of catastrophic risks. With the rapid development of AI systems in the past few years, the discourse around the potential and risks of advanced AI has accelerated. However, the serious discourse is dominated by few perspectives on possible approaches. Papers such as Leopold Aschenbrenner’s Situational Awareness (June 2024) and published opinions such as Dario Amodei’s recent text in WSJ (January 2025) paint a path forward where our only societal hope is that the USA builds an AGI before anyone else, that it needs... (read 2319 more words →)