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‘Humanity’s remaining timeline? It looks more like five years than 50’: meet the neo-luddites warning of an AI apocalypse | Artificial intelligence (AI) | The Guardian

theguardian.com · 3,829 words · saved by 1 readers

From the academic who warns of a robot uprising to the workers worried for their future – is it time we started paying attention to the tech sceptics? E liezer Yudkowsky, a 44-year-old academic wearing a grey polo shirt, rocks slowly on his office chair and explains with real patience – taking things slowly for a novice like me – that every single person we know and love will soon be dead. They will be murdered by rebellious self-aware machines. “The difficulty is, people do not realise,” Yudkowsky says mildly, maybe sounding just a bit frustrated, as if irritated by a neighbour’s leaf blower or let down by the last pages of a novel. “We have a shred of a chance that humanity survives.” It’s January. I have set out to meet and talk to a small but growing band of luddites, doomsayers, disruptors and other AI-era sceptics who see only the bad in the way our spyware-steeped, infinitely doomscrolling world is tending. I want to find out why these techno-pessimists think the way they do. I

Illustration: Lisa Sheehan/The Guardian From the academic who warns of a robot uprising to the workers worried for their future – is it time we started paying attention to the tech sceptics? By Tom Lamont Sat 17 Feb 2024 02.00 EST Last modified on Wed 28 Feb 2024 09.23 EST Share Prefer the Guardian on Google E liezer Yudkowsky, a 44-year-old academic wearing a grey polo shirt, rocks slowly on his office chair and explains with real patience – taking things slowly for a novice like me – that every single person we know and love will soon be dead. They will be murdered by rebellious self-aware m

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