If rising oceans aren’t worry enough, add this to the risks New York City faces: The metropolis is slowly sinking under the weight of its skyscrapers, homes, asphalt and humanity itself.
New research estimates the city’s landmass is sinking at an average rate of 1 to 2 millimeters per year, something referred to as “subsidence.”
That natural process happens everywhere as ground is compressed, but the study published this month in the journal Earth’s Future sought to estimate how the massive weight of the city itself is hurrying things along.
How should we respond to the idea that advances in AI pose catastrophic risks for the wellbeing of humanity?
Two sets of arguments have been circulating online for many years, but in light of recent events, are now each mutating into new forms and are attracting much more attention from the public. The first set argues that AI risks are indeed serious. The second set is skeptical. It argues that the risks are exaggerated, or can easily be managed, and are a distraction from more important issues and opportunities.
In this London Futurists webinar, recorded on the 27th of May 2023, we assessed the skeptical views. To guide us, we were joined by the two authors of a recently published article, “AI Risk Skepticism: A Comprehensive Survey”, namely Vemir Ambartsoumean and Roman Yampolskiy. We were also joined by Mariana Todorova, a member of the Millennium Project’s AGI scenarios study team.
The meeting was introduced and moderated by David Wood, Chair of London Futurists.
OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman has been touring Europe for the past few days, meeting head of governments and startup communities to talk about AI regulation, ChatGPT and beyond. In his latest on-stage appearance at Station F in Paris, Altman answered questions from local entrepreneurs and shared his views about artificial intelligence.
A few days ago, Altman met with Emmanuel Macron. Station F director Roxanne Varza first asked him about the content of the conversation. As expected, the discussion mostly revolved around regulation. “It was great, we talked about how to get the balance right between protection with this technology and letting it flourish,” Altman said.
He then explained why he’s been traveling from one country to another at a frenetic pace. “The reason for doing this trip is to get out of the Bay Area tech bubble,” he said.
