Could be, or it could be a simple flawed net present value calculation, similar to Effective Altruism.
SBF said if he had a die and it had a 99% chance of killing everyone and a 1% chance of making the world 1 million times happier he would roll the die. Repeatedly. And Silicon Valley loved him.
I think AI is a similar calculation. Humans are tearing themselves apart and the only thing worth betting on is AI that can improve itself, self replicate and end scarcity. I believe that these VCs believe that AI is the only chance to save humanity.
And if you believe that, the net present value of AGI is basically infinite.
> Humans are tearing themselves apart and the only thing worth betting on is AI that can [...] end scarcity
Scarcity, wow...
- There is no scarcity in the rich world by historical standards.
- There is extreme poverty in large parts of the world, no amount of human intelligence has fixed this and therefore no amount of AI will. It is primarily not a question of intelligence.
- On top of that "ending scarcity" is impossible due to the hedonistic treadmill and the way the human mind works as well as the fact that with or without AI there will still be disease, aging and death.
I think they act as if making these bets is the only way to save themselves. None of them care about humanity obviously.
I think they care about the nebulous concept “humanity” as represented by themselves “the light of consciousness”. Humans? Not so much.
Well in that end game of a post scarcity is there a need for humans?
If you were in the top 1% and you don’t need labor anymore because it can be automated.
Even in post scarcity some people will want as much as possible for themselves, if history is any baseline.