u/Tulanian72

This may be nothing, but I’m starting to wonder if the AI execs and other rich-or-soon-to-be-rich people’s warnings about AI getting out of control and wrecking things comes from fear that an AI might be used by people specifically trying to attack the interests of the ownership class.

Think about it: One of them expresses worry about an AI causing a civilization-ending event, then people of the ordinary class respond and say there’s no way the current systems can cause our extinction. Maybe they aren’t talking about extinction so much as destruction of the banking system, or crypto, or the stock market. There are lots of ways a non-AGI level system could be used to destabilize the market or otherwise harm financial systems.

From the POV of someone who owns a lot of stocks, has other investments, holds crypto in large amounts, etc., an AI attack on the financial sector really would feel like a potential civilization-ender.

Now, I’d assume that the closed systems like Claude and GPT, etc. have restrictions that prevent them being used to attack banking systems, stock trading platforms, etc. But an open-source platform could be used to develop unrestricted tools to attack financial infrastructure. Less directly it could be used to run social engineering schemes to obtain critical passwords, gain root access to otherwise protected systems, etc.

There are over 8 billion people worldwide, and fewer than 3,000 billionaires. The top infinitesimal fraction owns an enormous portion of the wealth. That kind of disparity is a systemic issue. It requires a very specifically designed infrastructure of not just technical platforms but also legal and statutory protections. The money that controls politicians isn’t physical anymore and has not been for decades. The modern police state itself is technically dependent.

Dependency creates a kind of vulnerability. Especially when you have an imbalanced arrangement that has to be propped up and protected. A system that specific can be subjected to targeted attacks that could cause cascade failures.

For most of us, it would be survivable. We don’t have billions of imaginary dollars to protect. We don’t depend upon a statutory framework bought and paid for to advantage us. Life would be disrupted, but not destroyed. But for someone on the level of a Larry Ellison, or even Sam Altman would be well and truly fucked if the current system was wrecked.

8 billion against 3 thousand. A disparity created and protected by a highly technical arrangement that AI may be uniquely equipped to wreck.

Civilization ender? For us, not really. For them, absolutely.

Again and again we see reports of prominent AI researchers or corporate leaders in the AI space warning that we are going to reach a point where AI systems become impossible to control. Differing probabilities are cited, but there is broad agreement that there is a non-zero chance that this technology will cause something catastrophic.

Yet companies and academics keep building them. Keep pushing the technology towards the very brink they’re warning us about.

What is the end game here? It can’t be economic. An economy needs consumers, and consumers need money. If they lose their jobs to AI systems, there won’t be enough consumer demand to sustain an economy. No, UBI won’t be the outcome. It has theoretical merit, but no government has ever come close to even considering it at scale. Then we have the steady flow of economic reports that show that
companies replacing workers with AI systems aren’t saving nearly enough to make the numbers work. People aren’t stupid to that extent. There is no WAY that the endgame is companies wrecking themselves to save ten percent on labor costs, and in turn destroying the income of the people whose buying power keeps those companies afloat.

Further, if the use case is economic, people would not see the race to be first to AGI as an existential competition. One company hitting AGI wouldn’t preclude others from following, potentially with better platforms.

I’m just some rando, and what do I know, but it seems
to me that the only explanation that fits all of the inconsistent data points is that the industry isn’t
aiming at something economically transformative. They’re racing to be the first to obtain a system that will give advantages so overwhelming that no equivalent response by an adversary would be possible. Something that could destroy digital payment systems in an eyeblink, wipe out critical records, cripple key infrastructure.

It wouldn’t be a repeat of America being the first to obtain nukes. When that happened, we couldn’t just develop thousands of them and go on a radioactive rampage across the Soviet Union. The scarcity of necessary materials meant that production volume started very low.

Computer systems have no such bottleneck. You don’t need rare fissile materials to build them. Production capacity for ICs is plentiful, and could be dramatically enlarged much faster than production of nukes could be.

The relative lack of barriers to entry suggest that whatever the first mover intends to do with AGI
they would have to do quickly. If it’s a weapon, they don’t intend to hold it in reserve, they intend to USE it.

One last point: I’m sure many of you will be inclined to say that all of the warnings about AI dangers are just bullshit to attract investors. But what about the idea of a potentially uncontrollable and lethal technology makes it an attractive prospect for investment? Why does apparent risk presented by a technology make it more sellable?

It doesn’t make sense.

Unless it does.

Let’s say one had a base salary of 180K against 2000 hours, for ID work.

Would a bonus of $10K against another 250 hours be screwy?

If my math is right, that bonus has an effective hourly wage of $40/hr, compared to $90/hr at the base rate.

$190k against 2250 hours actually reduces the hourly rate from $90/hr to $84/hr…right?

This seems…off. Like, how am I incentivized to work more than ten percent additional hours when doing so effectively cuts my own rate?

If the bonus was calculated at the base rate it should be $22,500. But IMHO a bonus tier ought to pay out at a higher rate, as an incentive. If it was paid out at $100/hr it would be an even $25k.

Am I crazy here? Is there something I’m missing?

Last night I was playing Confucius Meji, very
close to science victory and economic victory. Wasn’t paying attention to culture.

Out of the blue I got an announcement that Augustus would win a culture victory in one turn. No warning.

Obviously I left myself open by ignoring culture. My question is how can I prevent a culture loss while focusing on science? Ancient Age wonders?

I’ve noticed several software sales on Akai’s website, but the Pro Pack never seems to be included. Sale after sale, the Pro Pack stays $199.

Does it go on sale during the Black Friday period?

So Rhaenyra takes King’s Landing and immediately learns that the treasury has been emptied by the Greens. No indication that it was spent, just moved.

Only two places it could go: The Lannister vaults in Casterly Rock or the Hightower vaults in Oldtown. The only other great house rich enough to have a vault that could hold the royal treasury would he the Velaryons.

Hightower and Lannister conspired to usurp her, and she has six dragons. So take the dragons to Casterly Rock (their lord just died in the Battle of the Gullet) and them they either pay back every gold dragon that was taken or the dragons start slagging Lannisport.
Then do the same to Oldtown. Make with the money, bitches.

Instead, Daemon wants to go storm Essos.

Note: I’m aware of what happens in Fire
and Blood. This is strictly about the show.

When the Wachowskis released their version of Speed Racer back in 2008 I wasn’t a huge fan. Missed it in theaters, only saw it as a DVD rental. It seemed like a swing and a miss.

I was wrong.

It is exactly the movie it wants to be, faithful to the goofball spirit of the original anime, with the visuals…kicked into overdrive. *Takes off shades dramatically, “Won’T Get Fooled Again” plays*

Seriously. This 4K transfer is amazeballs. Vivid to the point of eyestrain, in a wonderful way. So far over the top it’s looking down at the top from low Earth orbit, doing donuts in the clouds.

It isn’t subtle. It has no restraint. It doesn’t *need* restraint, because it’s goddamn SPEED RACER and it *KNOWS* it’s Speed Racer.

I was messing around with crafting today, working on some unique charms to try different approaches for my ball static sorc.

So now I learn that uniques that are offensive cannot be made into charms? Well…some can. Azurewrath can. But not Rainment of the Infinite, or Esadora’s or
Galvanic Azurite.

I get not letting mythics get turned to charms. But the other uniques?

Both of them had countless opportunities to “have it all”, as in family, material success and personal fulfillment. Both succumbed to their own personality defects. IMHO, Walt’s downfall was driven by ego. Every major mistake he made came from his egotism.

Saul, on the other hand, was consumed by his insecurity. He was labeled the family fuck-up early
in life, and he alternated between trying to overcome that label and leaning into it. His inferiority complex in comparison to Chuck was a constant cloud over his head, and when Chuck killed himself Saul gave up trying to be better than his brother’s image of
him.