Lambert says fear is the simplest story, one people cannot look away from
Nathan Lambert describes fear as an attention-grabbing narrative in AI discourse. He says Jacob Coxon’s resignation reached a receptive audience and spread more widely than expected.
Supporting evidence
One resignation turned the embers of AI fear into a wildfire
Original excerpt
Jacob Coxon was the one who stumbled into this new powder keg, totally unaware of what was going to come.
Context
Then, some basic factors of human nature apply, with the most crucial being that fear sells. Fear is the simplest story, the one people cannot look away from. What looked like a fairly innocuous event – another AI researcher quitting citing safety risks – landed into a very different environment and it caught like wildfire. The discussion of existential risk, mass extinction, and the trajectory of AI has traveled further than even the most seasoned AI commentariat would ever predict.
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