AI could solve fusion, carbon capture, and personalized medicine—if we don't screw it up
Why the AI future will be awesome
The author argues that AI's benefits—fusion reactor design, energy-dense batteries, carbon capture, sustainable food, personalized medicine—outweigh its risks. He dismisses existential fears as overblown and zero-sum, and proposes keeping AI a level playing field, banning patents on AI discoveries, and sharing abundance via 'Star Trek-style space communism.'
If we get to my future, the resulting abundance should be shared. And while my little Ayn Rand altar in the corner can't believe I said this, I'm afraid it's true.
- Grombobulous
I understand and maybe even agree with the general “vibes” here, but I think we need to be careful about making the assumption that AI will just figure out every style of “hard problem.”
It’s been really great for certain problems. It may even “cure cancer.” As it stands, AI is good at specific things and not all types of things. Yet.
- datadrivenangel
Author is misguided:
"Designing energy stores the size of an AAA battery, but with the capacity to power a cruise ship, is hard, but possible."
is false.
- busssard
CO2 capture is limited by thermodynamics sadly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBN9JeX3iDs
The materials science and biology part yes, it will be awesome.
but the question is always qui bono.
First we will have the end of propriatry software and everything moving to the cloud. Even PC will end to exist with Microsoft pushing hard on their M365 virtual computers.
Who will receive these new materials.
I am looking forward to "Diamond Age" becoming reality. But it will be hell of a ride
- swader999
If it can make a web page responsive and keep in bounds when I zoom in the font that would be a glorious future.
- dTal
Biggest danger of LLMs as they currently fit into society: the radical consolidation of information flow through corporate-controlled bottlenecks that make current generation algorithmic social media (rancid as it is) look like child's play. When people no longer "search" for things, but simply "ask ChatGPT", the lever of social control is nearly absolute.
(Of course, all this is up in the air. If LLMs become commodities, the situation becomes very complex; the information flow doesn't get quite so consolidated, but it still becomes impossible to tractably analyze, as all the LLMs train off each other)