What we’re reading (4/11)
“Pausing AI Developments Isn't Enough. We Need To Shut It All Down” (Time). “Many researchers steeped in these issues, including myself, expect that the most likely result of building a superhumanly smart AI, under anything remotely like the current circumstances, is that literally everyone on Earth will die. Not as in ‘maybe possibly some remote chance,’ but as in ‘that is the obvious thing that would happen’…If somebody builds a too-powerful AI, under present conditions, I expect that every single member of the human species and all biological life on Earth dies shortly thereafter.”
“AI Is Flooding The Workplace, And Workers Love It” (Vox). “Exposure was the highest among high-wage jobs that require degrees and had previously felt relatively safe from the onslaught of technological erasure: financial analysts, web designers, legal researchers, and journalists, among others. While the study said tools like ChatGPT could certainly save those jobs significant time completing tasks, it stopped short of saying those jobs would be fully automated by those technologies. It’s likely, however, that it will change them.”
“Where’s The AI Culture War?” (The Atlantic). “Part of what makes the politics of AI so tricky to get ahold of is that AI is an everything issue. It’s like so many different things—nuclear weapons, gain-of-function research, electricity—and in that sense not quite like any of them, which makes it hard to slot into any existing partisan framework. “If you asked 10 different people in Congress to define artificial intelligence,” Beyer told me, “you’d get at least 10 different answers.” It’s tough to split into two distinct camps when no one understands what you’re arguing about.”
“Inflation Data Expected To Show Continued Signs Of Cooling In March” (Yahoo! Finance). “March's Consumer Price Index (CPI), slated for release Wednesday, is expected to come in at 5.2%, a slowdown from February's 6% annual gain, according to estimates from Bloomberg. The number would mark the slowest annual increase in consumer prices since May 2021[.]”
“Ernst & Young Halts Breakup Plan After Revolt By U.S. Leaders” (Wall Street Journal). “Ernst & Young has axed its plan for a split of its auditing and consulting arms, marking a dramatic and costly retreat from a proposal that was meant to reshape the accounting profession but ended amid bitter infighting at the firm.”
