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General AI could be the biggest ever discovery for humanity. But it will never be if we don't put a hard enough effort. The bad thing, is that economy laws seem to assign a limited effort toward it. In my opinion we should be trying harder. Worth mentioning is OpenAI (https://openai.com/), an effort by Y Combinator, Elon Musk and others. Brilliant initiative.

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Overpopulation and the deterioration of the environment will push us to find solutions through AI.

environment is an issue, but I think the overpopulation card is overplayed and controversial

Overpopulation in terms of running out of space is definitely overplayed. But it's a direct multiplier for our effect on the environment. If the world's population were cut in half, we'd emit about half as much pollution, half as much greenhouse gas, half the land used for farming would be left wild, etc.

Not necessarily...carbon emissions per capita is not constant around the globe. Energy use is skewed towards modern countries, i.e United States. If you wiped out the 300 million people in the US, you would save more on carbon emissions than wiping out 300 million in China.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_...

That's true. It depends on which Chinese people, too! But overall, the point remains: reduce the population, reduce the environmental impact.

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