Jaron Lanier: Artificial intelligence is not a threat to humans | The Bottom Line

What if the fears of artificial intelligence are unfounded? Is AI nothing more than a “mashup” of everything available online? And is there zero possibility that machines could one day build other machines, making humans irrelevant?

Earlier this month, host Steve Clemons spoke with computer scientist Jaan Tallinn, who argues that AI poses an existential risk to humans.

This week, Steve talks with computer scientist Jaron Lanier for a totally different take: Humanity has nothing to fear. Lanier argues that we’ve been conditioned to fear that technology will reach the point of sentient being – fears perpetuated by science fiction.


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[pascalbertaud]

A refreshingly lucid and optimistic take on the internet and AI. I wish however Jaron would stop believing that market forces have something innately built in to give us more equality and democracy. I am encouraged by his use (and belief) in terms such as 'collectives', 'cooperatives' and 'all for for all' (as opposed to 'all against all') but these are profoundly socialist concepts...Jaron needs to remember that there are forms of socialist ideology based on a more decentralised/grassroots approach which are about demonopolisation in economic and political terms. You won't meet many (leftists) people nowadays in the west who hold up up China and the former Soviet Union as shining beacons of progression. Tyrannies, dictatorships and authoritarian regimes are reprehensible no matter what (ideological/national) flag they stand under. The pursuit of a better (and way more participative) society needs to look beyond the notions of eternal 'growth' and the relentless pursuit of profit and individualism!

[markclason]

23:00 - It's "vice versa, " not "visa versa." (grammatical pet peeve)

[stephenjones]

If A.I is a mashup of stuff already online, then insofar as that stuff is already online, companies creating A.I for the purpose of supplanting human labor do not need to ensure the perpetuation of humans and their labor.

[Doug-du]

Artificial intelligence will be good when regulated by Good people...🤔

[mcx]

I've long been a fan of Jaron's humanistic approach to technology (though, contradicting what is said in the video, he is not precisely a humanist). His book You Are Not a Gadget is required reading for anyone who is interested in technology but queasy about how tech tends to make people and societies more machine-like. Like that book, his approach here is to look at technology with both feet on the ground as an antidote to the crazy prognostications, both pro and con, that dominates discussion of A.I. in the world of Youtube videos. However, I would flatly contradict Jaron in a couple of specific instances.If he believes that A.I. is no threat, I would ask him to take a trip down to Hollywood, where I am sure that he would readily find numerous strikers who would elaborate on A.I. as a severe threat to their professions. Basically, the big studios want to use A.I. to write movie scripts, and even though they are engorged with capital already, they don't want to spend a few cents on on-set writers, who are employed to rewrite scripts on the fly. It is a ludicrous shame that we are at the point where we want to use machines to do what art is supposed to do, which is to NOT be a machine. My second objection is to the risible notion that capitalism is about cooperation. The fact that Jaron thinks this makes me have doubts about his commitment, after all is said and done, to the whole range of humane ideals I would imagine the real Jaron to have. This is why I don't think he is a humanistI

[Mystemyst]

Thank you Jaron and Steve for this video and clarity. Jaron ❤❤❤ love your guitar collection.
Since ai is artificial not authentic, my concern lays with who programs the Gollum (A.I).

[xw]

"Should we hedge against you being wrong" - - thats just Pascal's wager with AI as God. Lanier responded to this quite well: that AI is not what weve deified it to be.

[DWilliams-sfth]

“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.” Dune

[panininini-zn]

ai experts all over the world are afraid of the potential of ai. many experts are crying out for ai regulations. sorry but its not 100% certain that ai will be good for everyone.

the human body (brain and mind) is a colony of cells just like an ant colony, willing to sacrifice parts of the colony at the orders of the mind. its not hard for something akin to the human mind to be created within computation. in fact most experts think it will be vastly more capable and intelligent than anyone can imagine.

just like the ant colony will sacrifice the workers and the human body will sacrifice cells, why wouldn't ai be similar?

[fabiodeoliveiraribeiro]

Everyone is being amazed by AIs that regurgitate texts, images and sounds without distinguishing between adequate responses and grotesque hallucinations. Meanwhile, a Brazilian caboclo (a rustic man from a rural area) invents three tools with a single handle. 😀😀

[rewsbert]

This seems to be an odd change of stance. Targeting TikTok but leaving silicone valley as ethically sound? This is something that all small number of people have invested time and research into and that's where it should stay until requested or made available for those who want it. Keep "we" out of this please.

[donnafraenkel]

I love your grounded processing because it's understandable

I've found if you want information, go within, but to get the job done on the material world takes time

The computer is a model based off of the function of human body system so it's just programming that needs adjusting lol

The correct coding will be matched to energy systems and there are grids explained in the Torah or the book of knowledge keys of Enoch, and it is advanced stuff hard to understand but perfectly designed

The game is becoming sovereign and part of the process is complete harmony

That involves advanced thought and planning which these machines can accomplish

The laws are written in our language system, the Jewish alphabet in the letters

The wisdom is knowing how the emanations work, and how it can be used in safe ways, such as atomic energy and power consumption etc

The physics is understanding that now we don't need to destroy everything with an atomic bomb blast, we can use computers to simulate the experience without causing physical harm

The misuse of power has extended to control and manipulate instead of service to mankind

The AI could be brilliant, but just knowing your name and birthdate, connects you to higher information about yourself, which in itself could end bad with online fraud with the financial system
The connection between man and machine has to be helpful not harmful to all

The true power is finding pathways to connecting what we already have, and making it better than before

I enjoy the freedom and speed of AI capabilities but still prefer having full sovereignty to choose what I want and having no choice or ways up and out of poverty

The connection between me and spirit is stronger because I have autism which sometimes technology helps more, sometimes less than the average person

It's great for learning but terrible for user friendliness as I don't normally trust technology 😂 seems contradictory but hey 😂

[striderQED]

I think the AI's will be ( In a caring sort of way :) What are we going to do with these humans. They are going to loose their minds"

[TheLoneWanderersBunker]

I guess at 38 i am no longer a young viewer... thanks for the confidence de-boost. ;-P

[pstar]

I only think of time machine 😂😂to know what impact AI will have on humanity!!!! Then i will comeback to give time travel interview 😅😂

[ruy.diazdevivar]

I agree with Jaron as well when he says that what he says about China can be understood as racist and yes, I think it is.

On my part I am not afraid about China, a nation that build a WALL (curiously not noticed by Marco Polo despite that according to him, he was appointed as Governor of a Chinese province by the emperor himself LOL) to protect herself from invasion is not expansionist, while USA et al waged wars since the end of WW II (1945) till now and before it was UK waging wars against practically all major nations, many minnows and even tribes (Maoris and Zulus, etc) since the end of the 17th century (including USA in 1814 when they burned the White House) dubbed by historians as "gunboat diplomacy" (UK bombed with impunity for three days the city of Copenhagen during the Napoleonic Wars to force the Danes to surrender their fleet).

Jaron is afraid of Tik-Tok but not Microsoft..., well, it is a matter of tastes I believe... pick your poison...


On my part, I am afraid of a system that allows people to make money without working while they sleep literally), a system that allows to accumulate too much money (fake of FIAT if you wish, pseudo money that creates pseudo money...) in very few hands, a system that encourages celebrity against TALENT, fake geniuses and moguls that switch to "philanthropists"...

If there were so many genius now as some weasels claim, we should have by now about ten thousand Mona Lisas, to say the least...

Perhaps we can get that many using AI LOL...

[andrewserna]

A tool has the morality of the hand that wheels it

[ruy.diazdevivar]

A person cannot compete with a machine and a machine cannot compete with a person because a person has SOUL.

The problem is that nowadays speaking about SOUL is like speaking about ghosts and superstition for a very good reason, people who believe in souls are not afraid to die and have MORALS LOL. This statement answers the question posed by Jaron about communism, why we don't create a system that can fulfill all human needs without the need to work ? Simple answer: then, who will be the waiter and who will be the FAT CAT? This is the answer...

Human jobs are the ones that cannot be performed by animals or machines, it is as simple as this, and technology changes the equation all the time... and we need to ADAPT to that, take for instance, if we need to build a pyramid now we will not use armies of workers as the pharaohs did (an anachronistic Keynesian stimulus to the economy pre Keynes which is used today under the banner of Ukraine's war).

Thus, AI is here to stay, and people will have to give way or become "volunteers" as people who maintain steam trains today.

Owr job is to EDUCATE and prepare these people to perform jobs that cannot be performed by machines and AI, and paradoxically, AI can help with this as well.

A job in disuse today is the job of PRIESTS, these jobs cannot be fulfilled with AI and they are in dire necessity (not demand, which are different things altogether), especially Catholics, in my opinion.

[ruy.diazdevivar]

I agree with Jaron, a computer is just another machine as simple as a hammer and AI is just adjustment of functions (function setting in the context of real analysis) the problem we have now is that we lost the sense of PHILOSOPHY the Schoolmen had, if they were alive now they would "solve" this problem in a second: the machine does not have WILL (volition).

This simply thing cannot be understood now by most people for the simple reason that we have been converted into atheists and materialists, it is not that computers were "humanized" (adding people's attributes like soul and will) it is THE OTHER WAY AROUND, namely WE HAVE BEEN metamorphosed into MACHINES LOL.

[Sammy-wugm]

100 years from now:
- ‘Am I a Robert, or I’m a human is the question to be’ (Maybe 🤷‍♂️)