🚨 AI Coverage's Blind Spot Omitting the role of the Rationality and Effective Altruism movements in shaping AI discourse leaves audiences with a distorted view of who's driving the conversation and why they chose that path. 1/10 (Link below ↓)
The problems start with a false dichotomy. We are presented with two main visions of the future: utopian or dystopian. AI will save us all, or AI will kill us all. It makes our AI discourse shallow and misleading. 2/10
Two famous phrases — "Bad is stronger than good" and "If it bleeds, it leads" — help explain the media's choice to lean into the negative: It's the news people will most likely read. 3/10
The missing context The biggest funders of these movements — billionaire Dustin Moskovitz, billionaire Jaan Tallinn, and former-billionaire-turned-felon Sam Bankman-Fried — were rarely mentioned. This specific trio is responsible for the proliferation of hundreds of
Tom Chivers: "What they have achieved in terms of the AI debate is, I think, remarkable: They've taken the niche, practically dystopian-science-fiction idea of AI risk and made people take it seriously." 5/10
Context isn't a nice-to-have; it's crucial for accurate reporting. 6/10
Timothy B. Lee: "There is great technology journalism being done today, but it tends to appear in specialist publications that cater to tech-savvy audiences." 7/10
It's essential — and totally possible — to improve the coverage of AI in general and AI doomerism in particular. Here are four actionable steps news organizations can take to raise the quality of their AI coverage: 8/10
The overpromised utopia has its own flaws (e.g., inflated expectations), but in this piece, I'm focusing on the dystopian narrative since it has a differentiated impact on the here and now. 9/10
Scott Alexander: "I'm slightly conflating EA, rationalism, and AI doomerism rather than doing the hard work of teasing them apart." David Morris: "EAs and rationalists are effectively a Venn diagram forming something close to a circle." https://www.aipanic.news/p/ai-...
@DrTechlash We know xRisk doomers aren't organic but how many are asking why p(Doom) marketing serves those positioned to entrench new monopolies and crush real innovation? AIxBio is one of the biggest threats to their control. I think you’ll really enjoy my latest: https://antoniomax.substack.co...
@DrTechlash I don't think I have ever seen you make a strong argument about AI risks & x-risks. I am certain I have never seen you engage in substantive debate on the topic. But you'll post your theories characterizing those you disagree with while saying nothing about the topic itself.
@DrTechlash Becoming a billionaire seems to utterly detach a person from reality.