By now, fearmongering about AI has become the norm. From OpenAI and Anthropic warning the public about the insane danger their latest frontier models pose, to AI hypers and doomers taking positions on either end of the extreme to take the headlines. It’s all rather annoying and tiresome. And just when you think you have seen it all, along comes this (emphasis mine):
“AI is a global technology with global benefits, global harms, and a consistent tendency for new capabilities to eventually proliferate," Stephen Casper, a computer scientist at MIT who spoke at a major AI conference in Beijing this month, told Wired. “One thing that almost everyone in AI can agree on right now is that AI doesn’t need a Chernobyl moment,” he added. Casper didn’t elaborate further on this analogy, but by invoking the infamous nuclear disaster, it’s clear that the fear isn’t just over the catastrophe itself.
Yeah, we don’t need a Chernobyl moment. Also – whatever that means. Jeez!