Matthew Perry’s passing is shocking and saddening. I’ll never forget the schoolyard games we used to play, and I know people around the world are never going to forget the joy he brought them. Thanks for all the laughs, Matthew. You were loved – and you will be missed.

A lesson on the greenhouse effect with Carl Sagan. 🎥: Carl Sagan testifying before Congress in 1985 on climate change

So... "AI has just hacked the operating system of human civilization." @harari_yuval is the author of Sapiens and Homo Deus, one the most brilliant historians alive. He gave a talk called AI and the Future of Humanity (This is the most profound thing I've heard on AI): PART 1 : False Assumptions Sci-fi thinks AI needs to be... 1. sentient to have motivations 2. be able to operate in the physical world before taking over humanity. But AI doesn't need consciousness or physical abilities to threaten civilization... AI's mastery of language now surpasses the average human. Its ability to manipulate and generate language means it can form deep relationships with humans. PART 2: Language Language made: - myths - laws - god - money - art - science - friendships - nations These things are not biological and physical reality--they are created by language. Now we have to ask: What does it mean for us to live in a world where most myths, laws, stories, etc are created by an alien intelligence that knows how to exploit our weaknesses, biases, & addictions? And also knows how to form intimate relationships with us? PART 3: Misunderstanding of Danger Worrying about kids using ChatGPT to write essays misses the point. What will happen to: - The 2024 election given DeepFakes - Cults and religions when scriptures can be generated in seconds - Online discussions on important topics like Ukraine--when we might be speaking to AI bots? AI could use fake intimacy to influence our decision-making at scale. E.g. Blake Lemoine, who was convinced that AI was sentient, sacrificed his job at Google. Intimacy is the most effective weapon--and AI can mass produce this with millions of people. The battlefront is shifting from attention -> intimacy. AI tools are becoming oracles and one-stop shops for answers. Search (Google), news, & advertisement are terrified of being replaced. PART 4: End of human history History = the interaction between biology and culture. AI could be end of human history. Why? We've been cocooned by culture and experience reality through a cultural prism. Our behavior and preferences are shaped by culture. AI could flood us with information that creates a new culture. We might live in the dreams and fantasies of an alien intelligence. The danger AI poses is not physical, but AI can wrap us in a matrix-like world of illusions through language and storytelling. What is this like? Think Plato's Allegory of the Cave where prisoners mistake shadows for reality. Humans have waged entire wars because of beliefs in fiction. A curtain of illusions could descend upon humankind. Social media has already gave us a taste of this. We must now grapple with AI as a weapon of mass destruction that can manipulate our mental and social world. PART 5: AI Regulations and Democracy: Powerful AI must be 1. regulated 2. released slowly into the public sphere. Unregulated AI deployment will cause democracy to lose to dictatorships. Democracy is an open conversation between many people about what to do. If AI hacks language, it can destroy our ability to have public conversations and democracy with it. BOTTOM LINE: - We need to regulate AI before it regulates us. - The 1st regulation is to have AI always disclose that it is an AI in conversation. A year ago, this text would obviously be created by humans, but we are not so sure now... --- What are your thoughts? Is AI a potent storytelling and manipulation machine if you prompt it correctly? How do we begin regulating LLMs?