"A laptop with a very tall screen that extends hundreds of feet into the sky"

The Infinite Article

How close are we to having a personal AI that can write the perfect thing just for us?

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Justin Jackson almost 3 years ago

I'm glad you started exploring the ethical ramifications in the final chapter. 👍

Whether or not this is a good thing will depend on how AIs interpret the phrase "the *perfect* article for *you*"

What will artificial intelligence optimize for?

Does "perfect article" mean content that appeals to my undignified desires? Does it mean producing something easy to read that doesn't upset me? Does "perfect article" mean content that reinforces my existing beliefs or content that challenges me?

The biggest ethical quandary for capitalists is that people have strong desires for things that aren't good for them (junk food, alcohol, social media).

For AI, this quandary becomes even more acute because you can design a self-learning system optimized to fulfill unhealthy human desires and habits.

A thoughtful AI, trained to challenge the human mind in healthy ways, has the potential to improve human society. A thoughtful AI could determine that "Justin could benefit from reading the stoics" and start sprinkling that into my daily reading. A thoughtful AI could help me better understand the people in my community and create more shared understanding.

But I fear these AIs will optimize for whatever gets us most addicted so that the companies with the compute power required (Facebook, Google, Amazon) can sell more ads.

Jason Morrison over 2 years ago

“Isn’t this just _____?” and fill in the blank with something like Twitter, Google, Facebook, Substack, Medium, RSS, etc.

I think this is different, the infinite article. But the algorithms that run these existing products clearly demonstrate the affect that tailoring content to a users interests has on human behavior and mental health.

The infinite article could end up being be the ultimate dopamine triggering system, making cocaine look like caffeine.