April 4, 2023

2023-04-04 · explainer · Hank · 0:59 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube · mode: Personal essay

In a short clip following up his AI invasion video, Hank says AI entities that seem human without being human will be like an invasive species such as a rat in Hawaii, and warns that whatever society releases to control them may be as bad as the introduction itself.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Hank refines his AI-as-invasive-species metaphor: counterfeit humans like rats in Hawaii, and the risk of the controls we release

• ★ Hank says he rewatched the video and did not make the point well, but he was leading the listener toward it and they got there. — 00:00:00
• ★★★ Hank says an ecological metaphor lets us look ahead: things unlike anything before will travel through society, feeling human but not human and unable to do everything humans can. — 00:00:00
• ★★★ Hank says such entities, whose every action looks human, are like an invasive species: like a rat in Hawaii, a mammal where there have never been mammals. — 00:00:29
• ★★ Extending the metaphor, Hank asks what society will release to control these entities and whether that will also be a problem, since it too will be new and poorly understood. — 00:00:29
• ★★★ Hank says there is another level: our reaction to the new thing, which is often just as bad as its introduction. — 00:00:29

Threads in this video

• restate · Can humans build artificial intelligence? — Hank says an ecological metaphor lets us look ahead: things unlike anything before will travel through society, feeling human but not human and unable to do everything humans can. (00:00:00)
• refine · Is trying to make the world better worth the risk of accidentally making it worse? — Hank says there is another level: our reaction to the new thing, which is often just as bad as its introduction. (00:00:29)

Mentioned

Central: artificial intelligence · invasive species

Also: biological pest control · ecology · Hawaii · rat

Also centred on artificial intelligence: Google in your Brain · Question Tuesday Except I'm an AI · Asking an AI Image Generator for Pizza Johns · AI tells me if AI will write novels. · Things are Changing Very Fast · After 12 hours in LA I'm a stand-up comic doing ASMR with a side gig as a music promoter

Also centred on invasive species: The Coming AI Invasion

Replies to

• continues · The Coming AI Invasion — “I watched the video again and I didn't make the point well”

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