I think you’re pointing to a real and harmful possible dynamic
However I’m generally a bit sceptical of arguments of the form “we shouldn’t try to fix problem X because then people will get complacent”
I think that the burden of proof lies squarely with the “don’t fix problem X” side, and that usually it’s good to fix the problem and then also give attention to the secondary problem that’s come up
I note that I don’t think of politicians and CEOs to be the primary audience of our paper
Rather I think in the next several years such people will naturally start having more of their attention drawn to AI falsehoods (as these become a real-world issue), and start looking for what to do about it
I think that at that point it would be good if the people they turn to are better informed about the possible dynamics and tradeoffs. I would like these people to have read work which builds upon what’s in our paper. It’s these further researchers (across a few fields) that I regard as the primary audience for our paper.
This is very helpful, thanks! I now have a better understanding of what you are doing and basically endorse it. (FWIW, this is what I thought/hoped you were doing.)
To add to what Owain said:
I think you’re pointing to a real and harmful possible dynamic
However I’m generally a bit sceptical of arguments of the form “we shouldn’t try to fix problem X because then people will get complacent”
I think that the burden of proof lies squarely with the “don’t fix problem X” side, and that usually it’s good to fix the problem and then also give attention to the secondary problem that’s come up
I note that I don’t think of politicians and CEOs to be the primary audience of our paper
Rather I think in the next several years such people will naturally start having more of their attention drawn to AI falsehoods (as these become a real-world issue), and start looking for what to do about it
I think that at that point it would be good if the people they turn to are better informed about the possible dynamics and tradeoffs. I would like these people to have read work which builds upon what’s in our paper. It’s these further researchers (across a few fields) that I regard as the primary audience for our paper.
This is very helpful, thanks! I now have a better understanding of what you are doing and basically endorse it. (FWIW, this is what I thought/hoped you were doing.)