There's an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, but nothing like it for other sources of planet-scale, society-wide risk - like AI. That should change.
Had a power cut the other day, night, and half day till it was fixed. Lost power to all power-points in the living area. It was a good reminder how dependent technology is on an uninterrupted power supply as I was unable to recharge both my laptop and mobile phone for 30 hours, as well as fridge and freezer defrosting. That powercut happened because one powerpoint short-circuited, causing the whole connected circuit to drop out. One level of control.
To connect my laptop to the internet I need ... power supplied to my house, a modem that also needs that power, the modem to connect into the broadband connection at the curb, glass fiber cable underground, some kind of mix-and-match station where all the cables meet, and so on. I only mentioned five levels of control there, all places where the connection can be lost. Power supply is a fragile commodity.
How many levels of control are needed to keep a large AI installation going, I wonder? And I wonder whether they could be limited in their output by limiting their power supply. Give them a system isolated from the net and make them ration themselves.
Or we can wait for an ice storm to do the job for us.
I'm With the Experts Warning that A.I.'s Potential for Huge Harms Needs Far More Attention
Had a power cut the other day, night, and half day till it was fixed. Lost power to all power-points in the living area. It was a good reminder how dependent technology is on an uninterrupted power supply as I was unable to recharge both my laptop and mobile phone for 30 hours, as well as fridge and freezer defrosting. That powercut happened because one powerpoint short-circuited, causing the whole connected circuit to drop out. One level of control.
To connect my laptop to the internet I need ... power supplied to my house, a modem that also needs that power, the modem to connect into the broadband connection at the curb, glass fiber cable underground, some kind of mix-and-match station where all the cables meet, and so on. I only mentioned five levels of control there, all places where the connection can be lost. Power supply is a fragile commodity.
How many levels of control are needed to keep a large AI installation going, I wonder? And I wonder whether they could be limited in their output by limiting their power supply. Give them a system isolated from the net and make them ration themselves.
Or we can wait for an ice storm to do the job for us.