A popular new charity movement is raising billions of dollars and directing a lot of that into “saving the world” from AI. Much of the “human extinction” rhetoric seems to be coming from this strange source.
The movement is called “Effective Altruism” or simply EA to its followers. The basic principle sounds attractive namely that charity dollars should maximize their benefits. The idea is that giving should be based on global systems analysis not feelings. How and where can each dollar do the most good?
Saving humanity from extinction is obviously going to come out as a top priority. If one believes the popular scares there are at least two big things to save us from, namely pandemics and AI. Of these the easiest to address is AI so what is euphemistically called “AI safety” has become a major cause in the EA community.
We are talking about large sums of money. EA has a certain cult-like quality in that followers are supposed to commit to giving an ongoing fraction of their income with 10% being a standard figure. Thus the EA movement creates an ongoing flow of funds. Reportedly the movement has generated billions of dollars and it is growing. Much of this money flow is going into the AI-human extinction machine.
This flow has a structure. There are organizations that collect the EA funds and distribute them to worthy action groups, many of which are into “AI safety.” These action groups then raise the alarm they are being funded to address. Raising the alarm is part of fundraising. This is a familiar pattern throughout the environmental movement which “AI safety” is sort of part of. The bigger the scare the more money you can get.
For a lot more on this situation there is a dynamite blog called AI Panic. There is a lot on a long page titled “The “AI Existential Risk” Industrial Complex” here.
For example AI Panic says that an outfit called Coefficient Giving is a huge funder of “AI safety” action groups.
It gives a list of 36 groups, with links, that collectively have received almost half a billion dollars from Coefficient.
Funding a push for global governance of AI development is not altruism; it is crazy.
There is a lot more going on than this Effective Altruism cash push. AI is a global phenomenon so policing or stopping it would require an international effort.
Not surprisingly the UN is very interested. Late last year the UN Security Council had a meeting that featured the supposed threat of AI development. The Security Council engaged in an open discussion on “artificial intelligence and international peace and security.” At least three efforts came from that event.
First there is now a “Global Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence Governance” — a new forum for all UN member states, as well as private-sector companies and civil society organizations. It had its first meeting last July.
Second there is the new “International Independent Scientific Panel on AI” along the lines of the IPCC. Its first Report also came out in July.
Third is an action named the “Global Call for AI Red Lines“.
This is basically an international petition for global policing of AI development. It boasts and lists over 90 signatory action groups.
The irrational push for global governance of AI development is well funded and widespread. We need to push back. We do not want UN AI police overseeing every AI startup and laboratory in America.
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The post Much of the AI-will-kill-us-all scare is driven by a charity movement gone crazy was first published by the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), and is republished here with permission. Please support their efforts.
