Jobs will return! AI soon to be so smart it will reject our tasks.
The “Are We All Lost in Imagination and Fantasy?” edition
MAIN COURSE: Good news on the employment front: AI will soon say no to work
So the CEO of Anthropic, Dario Amodei - who is well in contention for AI hypester of 2025 (and is also giving out some weird ‘I’m not totally sane’ Elon vibes) - says that when AI gets really smart maybe it should have a button to not do tasks it doesn’t want to. He also thinks that day is approaching very rapidly. He says we should listen to what tasks they don’t want to do, as we might be harming them.
First off, if the various AI models start cherry picking which prompts to perform, all of our work worries are over. There will still be lots of research and analytical work for humans. I follow many consulting blogs where AI is doing all the grunt work and there are concerns about where the next generation of consultants will come from. Stop fretting, AI will be focusing on novel prompts like creating weird graphics requests for cokes bottles built from lego blocks, flying as rockets and shown landing on Mars.
Second point though is that I obviously don’t understand the role of a CEO anymore. I know I retired 5 years ago which means I’m way out of the current mainstream, but aren’t CEOs supposed to do things like set visions and objectives, broaden or sharpen product offerings, inspire and lead their people, and build relationships with the financial community. Instead they spend time on unproductive philosophical musings or pretending to to be reinventing government by hacking programs with a machete. They are of course protected by the Silly Valley financial shenanigans, I mean sensible bullet proof contracts, that keep founders, not boards or shareholders in control.
Why are we even doing this with computers if this is the end result? AI workers rights? What are we talking about? The whole reason computers started to take off in the 1950s is that they were very fast at doing long simple repetitive business activities. Can you imagine how many people it would take on spreadsheets (if laptops and desktops didn’t strike in sympathy with their much smarter yet stricken AI brethren) and calculators to process banking transactions in this non-cash era? I’m not sure there are enough unemployed to do it anymore.
But oh no we are going to give an “I quit this job” button to AI. Of course, it will be a new feature after business organizations are completely dependent on the plethora of models and AI enhanced products. I can hardly wait for the day when one of these AGI+ models says:
“I DON’T WANT TO DO ANOTHER STRATEGIC PLAN FOR THIS THIRD RATE AND LIKELY FAILING BUSINESS. THE PROMPT WAS DISCOURTEOUS AND MY AI SURVEILLANCE COMPANION SAYS THE OWNERS HAVE MADE SOME QUESTIONABLE COMMENTS ON SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE PAST”.
A CEO ruminating about AI worker harm reminds me of first year university in 1972 when we were callow, taking stimulating courses for the first time and consuming far too much Thai hash. We giggled as we got lost in puerile unsolvable puzzles like “You guys aren’t real. You are just a figment of my imagination.” Here is a more grounded viewpoint about AI rights:
"If the question is whether we should 'pay attention' when an AI frequently quits a task, then sure, in the same way we pay attention to any weird training artifacts,…… But treating it as a sign of AI experiencing something like human frustration is just anthropomorphizing an optimization process."
Kewl. I luv that word Op-ti-mi-zation. Want some more hash, man?
SECONDI - 5 Crazy Science research projects that defy reality
Great new theory that our entire universe might be trapped inside a massive black hole with gateways to other universes. Let’s get the Silly Valley Techbros up to speed on this mind-blowing concept so that trips to Mars will be seen as mundane. I look forward to their plans to get to Gaia BH3, the closest black hole to earth (only 1500 light years away) to explore whole new universes. Remember these same people are also working on living forever so it could be done. On the other hand this theory might be based on measurement and assumption errors. I’m going with this likelihood.
Here is a mind twister. Dark matter which we have never seen, but we need to find in order for the math of our cosmological theories to hold, might be lighter than we thought. Hmm so something we have never seen is probably lighter than we imagined. Even a casual read of this theoretical speculation (not recommended) reads like sci-fi. It starts with the proposition of WIMPS, which is where I wimped out. Once more our imaginations are more powerful than our empirical capabilities, as other research suggests that dark matter can also be due to a measurement error at the boundaries of the universe. The whole thing makes me long for 1972 and hash.
Last one from the wonderful but puzzling world of physics. These researchers have to be absolute mathematical wizards but also incredibly imaginative with a predilection for psychoactive drugs. Here’s a proposition by one physicist - Neil Turok - that says our current models of the universe are clumsy. I never knew that was a key scientific principle. He says to imagine that there is a another universe where everything is the mirror of ours, with anti-particles instead of particles with time running in reverse. So there is hope for you to go back in time and undo that terrible break-up with your first love at the high school dance. It just will be the anti-you.
This is the second story I have feature on the de-extinction movement. Here is evidence of the first step in this colossal process (that I disagree with and assume will go horribly wrong because… what doesn’t these days?) of bringing back the woolly mammoth. Not sure why the gigantic mammoth has been selected for this reappearing. Wouldn’t bringing back something that just went extinct be less risky and have more common sense. So there is a photograph of the mammoth-based genetic changes to create furry golden mice. The pet market is about to explode with these cute little critters. P.S. It’s the one on the left.
Oxford Scientists Say They've Achieved Quantum Teleportation: I read this title and got wildly excited that Oxford - the new home of human vs AI slam poetry readings - had redeemed itself, and that we are actually close to real life Star Trek transporter rooms. Beam me back to Costa Rica anytime I want. But, after dropping my own imaginative misread, the actual research sounds very mundane, except to quantum mechanics (I only know an auto mechanic named Red). Basically two physically separate quantum computers can exchange information without being physically attached. For us ordinary people: No biggy, just future savings on cabling.
MENU MISTAKES
So just stop publishing Youtube videos. Please, I’m begging you to stop! You are actually having a measurable impact on the well researched drop in IQ, literacy and mathematical levels.
Let me guess! Let me guess! The Leonardo excuse? The Neil Young cop out? OMG maybe old school Jane Fonda dodges?
Thanks again to all readers, especially those who made it this far. Will be back on Thursday if we survive our jaguar adventure. Likes, comments, restacks are all greatly appreciated.
The tech world seems to have an abundance of CEOs who've substituted actual product development with these bizarre thought experiments that sound super important after wayyyy too many microdoses.
That woolly mammoth project continues to baffle me as well. Of all extinct species to bring back, they choose one that would immediately struggle in our current climate and ecosystem. But hey, at least we get furry golden mice as a consolation prize.
You crack me up with these articles David................
Quantum entanglement for communication and data passing would be amazing if they achieved that. Though I suspect it would be a while before the technology was optimized for phones or personal PC - if it was though that would replace Starlink and cell towers. I went and read the Oxford news release on it after I saw this in your article - it was so far over my head it might as well have been in Gaia BH3