In my opinion, this movement is shooting itself in the foot when we say that science fiction gives people bad intuitions. Most laypeople have a fear of AI already built in by Hollywood et al., and the complaint is that ‘anthropomorphizing’ the AI will cause people to make bad guesses. We are essentially demanding that people throw out millions of years of evolved skill at dealing with other agents in the world, even though that skill is an incredible asset in this crisis. We are making the perfect the enemy of the good.
In my opinion, this movement is shooting itself in the foot when we say that science fiction gives people bad intuitions. Most laypeople have a fear of AI already built in by Hollywood et al., and the complaint is that ‘anthropomorphizing’ the AI will cause people to make bad guesses. We are essentially demanding that people throw out millions of years of evolved skill at dealing with other agents in the world, even though that skill is an incredible asset in this crisis. We are making the perfect the enemy of the good.