AI is not a fad - read this if you don't agree

AI is everywhere and everyone is talking about it.

But most of the time, people are just talking about Gen AI - the new kid in the block popularized by ChatGPT about a year ago. Slowly people are starting to realize its limitations - what it can and cannot do. By seeing its limitations, many people would dismiss AI as another fad.

However, AI is much broader and has a lot more potential and Gen AI is a toy compared to AGI and ASI's potential. (AGI is short-form for Artificial General Intelligence. ASI is short-form for Artificial Super Intelligence)

Back in 2015, I stumbled upon an article written by Tim Urban on Artificial Revolution, written in 2 parts - which explains the exponential changes happening to humanity and how our linear thinking is not able to see the exponential future in front of us clearly. It also discusses how when (not if) we crack open the genie bottle with AGI, a fast take-off to ASI is inevitable leaving us no time to react to the consequences.

Look at the below two images to see if they make sense.

If you really want to put some tangible perspective on what we are going through with AI today, how we ended up here, and what is awaiting us in this century, I strongly recommend you spend a weekend (or more) reading these two parts (links given below).

The real conversation in the AI space is the alignment problem - how do we make the AGI aligned to human needs?

The ability to align the AGI to human needs decides whether we would become extinct or immortal.

Yes, immortal, I am not kidding - many of the experts in this area including Nick Bostrom and Ray Kurzweil believe that ASI could help us solve some of humans' biggest challenges, including a well-known uncurable disease (until now) called death.

But we can get there only if we live to see the fruits of the ASI. And that is why AI alignment is such a huge deal.

Will we take the path to become extinct or achieve immortality?

What do you think?

Just hit reply and let me know.

Cheers,

Nanda

Links:

Part 1 -> https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html

Part 2 -> https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-2.html