People have been very concerned with the AI boom. Some call it a bubble, while others are being laid off every month. How much of the layoffs are because of AI is not really sure, but it definitely has been creating impact, that’s for sure. Does that mean that we should stop the pace of AI progress? This answer is also concrete, but definitely a case for not doing it can be made.
Marc Andreessen, the billionaire investor who has been making a lot of strides in the AI industry, recently wrote a 5000-word techno-optimist manifesto, highlighting the importance of not slowing down AI. “We believe any deceleration of AI will cost lives. Deaths that were preventable by the AI that was prevented from existing is a form of murder,” wrote Andreessen.
THE TECHNO-OPTIMIST MANIFESTO part 1
“You live in a deranged age — more deranged than usual, because despite great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing.”
— Walker Percy
“Our species is 300,000 years old. For the…— Marc Andreessen — e/acc (@pmarca) October 16, 2023
He says that we are being lied to. “We are told that technology takes our jobs, reduces our wages, increases inequality, threatens our health, ruins the environment, degrades our society, corrupts our children, impairs our humanity, threatens our future, and is ever on the verge of ruining everything.”
On the other hand, the truth is that, “Our civilization was built on technology. Our civilization is built on technology. Technology is the glory of human ambition and achievement, the spearhead of progress, and the realisation of our potential.”
AI bubble boom, not a burst
Andressen has been a long believer that technology is the answer to solving a whole lot of world problems, though he also says that it is not an utopianistic view. “Our enemies are not bad people – but rather bad ideas, ” wrote Andreessen. This is the second time that Andreessen is writing about the optimistic view of AI.
In June, AI will save the world post by Andreessen, as the name suggests highlighting how AI can make the world a better place. He is a long holder of the belief that AI researchers and companies should be able to build AI “as fast and as aggressively as they can.” He wants it without government regulations.
People might be sceptical to hear such comments made by an investor who is actually the most profitable with the AI boom. Even Sam Altman, possibly the onsetter of this generative AI trend with OpenAI, has been saying that it is “critical to mitigate the risks of increasingly powerful models.” This was on the same lines as the Pause Giant AI experiments letter signed by the likes of Elon Musk and others.
Following that, Gary Gensler, the chairperson of securities and exchange commission, issued a warning that AI in the financial market might cause a crash in the market. Though only concerned about AI in the financial institutions such as banks, he has shown concerns with the relying on AI models in most of the industries.
But when it comes to funding and the so-called “AI bubble”, there has been a stark contrast that is being witnessed in the current industry. According to PitchBook data, the funding for AI companies has climbed 27% in the third quarter when compared to last year. That is completely opposite to the fact that overall startup deals have fallen 31% in the same period.
Optimism is not a cult
Though it may seem like it is only investors who want to profit out of the AI boom, while not actually understanding it, on the other hand, Andreessen is not alone. Yann LeCun, the Meta AI chief, is also quite optimistic when it comes to the recent AI rush. He recently posted on Facebook that it is time for the silent AI scientists majority to step up and say that AI is not going to cause extinction and push for more open source model research.
LeCun and Andressen can sometimes be touted as over optimists of the AI boom, but they have been quite right on a lot of instances. LeCun had posted on X some months back that “AI is not going to cause instant mass unemployment. It is only going to displace jobs over time and make people more productive,” just like any other technological revolution.
Furthermore, he even went to the US Senate of Intelligence and said, “The Internet didn’t start out as open source, but as commercial. But then the open source platforms won because they are more secure, easy to customise, and safer,” comparing the internet with AI.
So even though calling out the slow down of AI as murder might be an overstatement, it is definitely true that there is a lot of progress in AI, and it is good to be optimistic at the moment. “We owe the past, and the future. It’s time to be a Techno-Optimist. It’s time to build.”
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