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Thoughts on a Crazy Week in AI News - by Melanie Mitchell

I'm a big fan of Melanie Mitchell, and this run-down of hers of the recent AI hypefest is refreshingly clear-headed as usual.
@abucci I just listened to the full one hour episode you just posted earlier 😆 i'm feeling lazy, can you summarize this article? 🙏
@abucci I just listened to the full one hour episode you just posted earlier 😆 i'm feeling lazy, can you summarize this article? 🙏
@abucci I just listened to the full one hour episode you just posted earlier 😆 i'm feeling lazy, can you summarize this article? 🙏
@prologic Happy to but I'll have to do that tomorrow. It's too much to tap out on a phone!
@prologic OK, so Melanie Mitchell is a fairly well-known AI researcher; she was already quite active when I was a graduate student and has continued to be so ever since. She recently published a book called *Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans* (disclaimer: I've only read excerpts, not the whole book yet) that is a nice critique of hype around AI. She has a Substack that she updates regularly. The link is to an Apr 3 post where she runs down the firehose of horseshit that appeared in the news and Twitter in the previous week.

1. Chris Murphy, a Senator from Connecticut in the US, tweeted uninformed alarmism about AI. Mitchell responded to him on Twitter, and he had a temper tantrum about it that was noticed by major media outlets. Not looking good for our politicians taking an informed stance on this stuff
2. She also reacted to the bullshit "letter" that the Future of Life Institute put out calling for a "pause" on AI research. She basically concludes it cannot be taken at face value
3. Time Magazine, a major publication in the US, published an opinion piece by a well-known kook in the AI world, a guy who has been claiming for decades that AI is going to kill us all. She calls out Time for being irresponsible like that
4. She gives a few thoughts one what she thinks we should *actually* worry about, as realistic people who aren't mind-poisoned by the AI hype. Amplifying bias, and amplifying misinformation and disinformation

Running through the post is a theme that "Artificial General Intelligence" is a misleading, bad term and is serving the interest of a lot of bad actors but misinforming the public.

Read the post though, it's chock full of countless useful insights, facts and asides that this summary can't possibly do justice to.
@prologic OK, so Melanie Mitchell is a fairly well-known AI researcher; she was already quite active when I was a graduate student and has continued to be so ever since. She recently published a book called *Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans* (disclaimer: I've only read excerpts, not the whole book yet) that is a nice critique of hype around AI. She has a Substack that she updates regularly. The link is to an Apr 3 post where she runs down the firehose of horseshit that appeared in the news and Twitter in the previous week.

1. Chris Murphy, a Senator from Connecticut in the US, tweeted uninformed alarmism about AI. Mitchell responded to him on Twitter, and he had a temper tantrum about it that was noticed by major media outlets. Not looking good for our politicians taking an informed stance on this stuff
2. She also reacted to the bullshit "letter" that the Future of Life Institute put out calling for a "pause" on AI research. She basically concludes it cannot be taken at face value
3. Time Magazine, a major publication in the US, published an opinion piece by a well-known kook in the AI world, a guy who has been claiming for decades that AI is going to kill us all. She calls out Time for being irresponsible like that
4. She gives a few thoughts on what she thinks we should *actually* worry about, as realistic people who aren't mind-poisoned by the AI hype. Amplifying bias, and amplifying misinformation and disinformation

Running through the post is a theme that "Artificial General Intelligence" is a misleading, bad term and is serving the interest of a lot of bad actors but misinforming the public.

Read the post though, it's chock full of countless useful insights, facts and asides that this summary can't possibly do justice to.
@prologic OK, so Melanie Mitchell is a fairly well-known AI researcher; she was already quite active when I was a graduate student and has continued to be so ever since. She recently published a book called *Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans* (disclaimer: I've only read excerpts, not the whole book yet) that is a nice critique of hype around AI. She has a Substack that she updates regularly. The link is to an Apr 3 post where she runs down the firehose of horseshit that appeared in the news and Twitter in the previous week.

1. Chris Murphy, a Senator from Connecticut in the US, posted uninformed alarmism about AI. Mitchell responded to him on Twitter, and he had a temper tantrum about it that was noticed by major media outlets. Not looking good for our politicians taking an informed stance on this stuff
2. She also reacted to the bullshit "letter" that the Future of Life Institute put about calling for a "pause" on AI research. She basically concludes it cannot be taken at face value
3. Time Magazine, a major publication in the US, published an opinion piece by a well-known kook in the AI world, a guy who has been claiming for decades that AI is going to kill us all. She calls out Time for being irresponsible like that
4. She gives a few thoughts one what she thinks we should *actually* worry about, as realistic people who aren't mind-poisoned by the AI hype. Amplifying bias, and amplifying misinformation and disinformation

Running through the post is a theme that "Artificial General Intelligence" is a misleading, bad term and is serving the interest of a lot of bad actors but misinforming the public.

Read the post though, it's chock full of countless useful insights, facts and asides that this summary can't possibly do justice to.
@prologic OK, so Melanie Mitchell is a fairly well-known AI researcher; she was already quite active when I was a graduate student and has continued to be so ever since. She recently published a book called *Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans* (disclaimer: I've only read excerpts, not the whole book yet) that is a nice critique of hype around AI. She has a Substack that she updates regularly. The link is to an Apr 3 post where she runs down the firehose of horseshit that appeared in the news and Twitter in the previous week.

1. Chris Murphy, a Senator from Connecticut in the US, tweeted uninformed alarmism about AI. Mitchell responded to him on Twitter, and he had a temper tantrum about it that was noticed by major media outlets. Not looking good for our politicians taking an informed stance on this stuff
2. She also reacted to the bullshit "letter" that the Future of Life Institute put about calling for a "pause" on AI research. She basically concludes it cannot be taken at face value
3. Time Magazine, a major publication in the US, published an opinion piece by a well-known kook in the AI world, a guy who has been claiming for decades that AI is going to kill us all. She calls out Time for being irresponsible like that
4. She gives a few thoughts one what she thinks we should *actually* worry about, as realistic people who aren't mind-poisoned by the AI hype. Amplifying bias, and amplifying misinformation and disinformation

Running through the post is a theme that "Artificial General Intelligence" is a misleading, bad term and is serving the interest of a lot of bad actors but misinforming the public.

Read the post though, it's chock full of countless useful insights, facts and asides that this summary can't possibly do justice to.
@abucci Thanks! 🙇‍♂️ Nice write to 👌 I'll read the article today once I get out of bed 😆
@abucci Thanks! 🙇‍♂️ Nice write to 👌 I'll read the article today once I get out of bed 😆
@abucci Thanks! 🙇‍♂️ Nice write to 👌 I'll read the article today once I get out of bed 😆
Finished reading this in full 👌 Key take-always l for me are:

- politicians are idiots
- journalists are also idiots
- the public lacks AI literacy
- "AI" companies are fueling the fire and hype to profit from (no surprise)
- we need better accountability, transparency, and openness from builders of these systems
- The general public needs to be better educated on the limitations of these so-called "AI" systems
Finished reading this in full 👌 Key take-always for me are:

- politicians are idiots
- journalists are also idiots
- the public lacks AI literacy
- "AI" companies are fueling the fire and hype to profit from (no surprise)
- we need better accountability, transparency, and openness from builders of these systems
- The general public needs to be better educated on the limitations of these so-called "AI" systems
Finished reading this in full 👌 Key take-always for me are:

- politicians are idiots
- journalists are also idiots
- the public lacks AI literacy
- "AI" companies are fueling the fire and hype to profit from (no surprise)
- we need better accountability, transparency, and openness from builders of these systems
- The general public needs to be better educated on the limitations of these so-called "AI" systems
Finished reading this in full 👌 Key take-always for me are:

- politicians are idiots
- journalists are also idiots
- the public lacks AI literacy
- "AI" companies are fueling the fire and hype to profit from (no surprise)
- we need better accountability, transparency, and openness from builders of these systems
- The general public needs to be better educated on the limitations of these so-called "AI" systems