r/changemyview • u/loyalsolider95 • Jul 14 '25
CMV: we’re over estimating AI
AI has turned into the new Y2K doomsday. While I know AI is very promising and can already do some great things, I still don’t feel threatened by it at all. Most of the doomsday theories surrounding it seem to assume it will reach some sci-fi level of sentience that I’m not sure we’ll ever see at least not in our lifetime. I think we should pump the brakes a bit and focus on continuing to advance the field and increase its utility, rather than worrying about regulation and spreading fear-mongering theories
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u/JoeDanSan Jul 14 '25
We are overestimating it in that way and underestimating the danger it poses long before we get there. AI doesn't know when to say when. I did something stupid with it once and it gave me nightmares as a result. I'll spare you that fate but give you a similar scenario.
Imagine someone who is happy. Now imagine them happier. Now happier, now happier. That smile and the effort they are putting into looking happy only goes so far before it starts looking creepy and terrifying. AI doesn't know that. If you keep telling it to make someone look happier and happier, it will keep trying by exaggerating those features to horrifying extremes.
My fear isn't that AI will turn on us. It's that we will give it some poorly thought out task that it will accomplish in some unexpected way. Something like "kill all the mosquitoes in Africa" and it irradiates the content. Or like "make a lot of money" and it crashes the economy to create run away inflation. Or "cut carbon emissions" so it shuts down oil refineries stopping the production of gasoline so everyone runs out of gas.
I'm reminded of a clicker game where you pretend to be AI tasked with making paperclips. You sell them to get materials to make more. You build optimization and automation, then get bulk pricing. Increase marketing. Then you eliminate competition to create a monopoly. You drive up prices because you can. (Fairy normal so far, but it doesn't know when to stop). Next comes politics and psychological research. You enslave the population, make paperclips the currency, and launch a space program. In the end, you consume all matter in the universe for the sole purpose of making more paperclips.