I’m usually not a fan of tone-policing, but in this case, I feel motivated to argue that this is more effective if you drop the word “delusional.” The rhetorical function of saying “this demo is targeted at them, not you” is to reassure the optimist that pessimists are committed to honestly making their case point by point, rather than relying on social proof and intimidation tactics to push a predetermined “AI == doom” conclusion. That’s less credible if you imply that you have warrant to dismiss all claims of the form “Humans and institutions will make reasonable decisions about how to handle AI development and deployment because X” as delusional regardless of the specific X.
I’m usually not a fan of tone-policing, but in this case, I feel motivated to argue that this is more effective if you drop the word “delusional.” The rhetorical function of saying “this demo is targeted at them, not you” is to reassure the optimist that pessimists are committed to honestly making their case point by point, rather than relying on social proof and intimidation tactics to push a predetermined “AI == doom” conclusion. That’s less credible if you imply that you have warrant to dismiss all claims of the form “Humans and institutions will make reasonable decisions about how to handle AI development and deployment because X” as delusional regardless of the specific X.
Hmm, I wasn’t thinking about that because that sentence was nominally in someone else’s voice. But you’re right. I reworded, thanks.