AI Optimism | Yaron Brook Show

00:00 Intro
00:55 Housekeeping
01:25 AI Optimism https://a16z.com/2023/06/06/ai-will-save-the-world/
06:05 Panic
12:38 Baptists and Bootleggers
19:48 Rationalists
24:15 Life is Risky
27:26 Is AI Going to Kill Us?
38:03 Free Will
39:20 Baptists
40:52 Precautionary Principle
42:27 Millennial Cult
43:22 Will AI Ruin Our Society?
47:29 Other Points
49:23 Benefits of AI
54:24 AI Optimist

Live Questions:
59:26 Hey Yaron! love this topic. I think fear of the unknown and the frequency of AI rebellion in culture is a major factor. Do you suppose another part is a reflection of slavery in the past and how we would react to being enslaved?
1:04:11 {I worked with Autonomous Expert System and Neural Network AI at Bell Labs] Current AI systems are trained on academic lit favoring views that dominate academic discourse. This can retard intellectual innovation. Yr opinion?
1:07:27 Any thoughts on why the rationalists represent an almost certain chance of destruction from AI when all they derive is a minority chance of destruction?
1:09:16 It would be great to get a deeper look, maybe with one of ARI's philosophers, of Yudkowsky and the Less Wrong/rationalist community. They are the driving force behind AI doomism, as well as connected to EA/longtermism.
1:12:16 Missing from the pro-technology side is a romantic streak. An indelible image to me was Frank-LW’s drawing of a nuclear-powered elevator rising in a tall building. Imaginations need to be stoked as to how good things could be
1:13:33 Very clever Neil Peart lyric: "Unstable condition, a symptom of life."
1:13:56 Off topic; I have been watching the Scott Peterson trial. He was the school resource officer who didn't go in to stop the school shooter in Parkland, FL. He is on trial for "criminal child neglect". This seems like BS. Is it a crime to be a coward?
1:15:47 What about addictions (the ones not involving drugs), are they an indicative that we don’t have full control over our behavior?
1:18:21 Good show, Yaron. I’m optimistic that AI is more objective than culture today. Looking forward to the robots spreading Rand’s philosophy!
1:18:47 AI perspective: People react to ChatGPT like they do with their child's first words. Think about how far you've come intellectually since your first words. AI has far longer way to go than that.
1:20:00 How much can Ai realistically contribute to GDP growth? Can it really by us another few decades like the internet did?
1:21:19 For those who worry about AI or any new technologies... get new skills continuously to stay competitive!
1:21:30 Are most upper middle class leftists motivated by alleviating suffering or alleviating their own guilt?
1:23:15 Ayn Rand was more precise with her language than anyone I have ever read. Almost superhuman. Why do you think evolution produced such a wide deviation in human cognitive ability?
1:24:32 Would it be good marketing to name an AI company "Skynet"?
1:24:44 Why do conservatives feel the need to morph Christianity into a mechanism for defending limited government and free markets?
1:25:29 Do people need purpose more than money? Dostoyevsky said "if you give a man everything he wants, he'll eventually smash everything to bits so something interesting will happen".
1:26:37 I recommend that anyone in the SF/Silicon Valley area go visit the Computer History Museum. Seeing all the innovation gave me hope for the future.
1:27:05 As a young boy in Israel during the 1973 war, were you scared out of your mind, or were most Israeli's confident the IDF would crush them like they did in 1967?
1:28:06 Would an AI sex robot be immoral? Would it be equivalent to prostitution?
1:29:18 If you had a chance to meet Ayn Rand in person, would you shake her hand or give her a hug?
1:29:38 Neil Peart, "From first to last, the peak is never passed, something always fires a light that gets in your eyes."
1:30:32 Without consciousness and free-will, would AI ever be a threat to humanity?
1:30:57 See pinned comment for timestamps of additional questions

1:42:33 Outro

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