Which claims? The SIAI collectively seems to think some pretty strange things to me. Many are to do with the scale of the risk facing the world.
Since this is part of its funding pitch, one obvious explanation seems to be that the organisation is attempting to create an atmosphere of fear—in the hope of generating funding.
We see a similar phenomenon surrounding global warming alarmism—those promoting the idea of there being a large risk have a big overlap with those who benefit from related funding.
You would expect serious people who believed in a large risk to seek involvement, which would lead the leadership of any such group to benefit from funding.
Just how many people do you imagine are getting rich off of AGI concerns? Or have any expectation of doing so? Or are even “getting middle class” off of them?
Some DOOM peddlers manage to get by. Probably most of them are currently in Hollywood, the finance world, or ecology. Machine intelligence is only barely on the radar at the moment—but that doesn’t mean it will stay that way.
I don’t necessarily mean to suggest that these people are all motivated by money. Some of them may really want to SAVE THE WORLD. However, that usually means spreading the word—and convincing others that the DOOM is real and immanent—since the world must first be at risk in order for there to be SALVATION.
Look at Wayne Bent (aka Michael Travesser), for example:
Which claims? The SIAI collectively seems to think some pretty strange things to me. Many are to do with the scale of the risk facing the world.
Since this is part of its funding pitch, one obvious explanation seems to be that the organisation is attempting to create an atmosphere of fear—in the hope of generating funding.
We see a similar phenomenon surrounding global warming alarmism—those promoting the idea of there being a large risk have a big overlap with those who benefit from related funding.
You would expect serious people who believed in a large risk to seek involvement, which would lead the leadership of any such group to benefit from funding.
Just how many people do you imagine are getting rich off of AGI concerns? Or have any expectation of doing so? Or are even “getting middle class” off of them?
Some DOOM peddlers manage to get by. Probably most of them are currently in Hollywood, the finance world, or ecology. Machine intelligence is only barely on the radar at the moment—but that doesn’t mean it will stay that way.
I don’t necessarily mean to suggest that these people are all motivated by money. Some of them may really want to SAVE THE WORLD. However, that usually means spreading the word—and convincing others that the DOOM is real and immanent—since the world must first be at risk in order for there to be SALVATION.
Look at Wayne Bent (aka Michael Travesser), for example:
“The End of The World Cult Pt.1”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvytVhqiO6E
The END OF THE WORLD—but it seems to have more to do with sex than money.