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Comment by bemtevi | Hacker News Reader

Would it? I don't think so. Not if the weapon is an indiscriminate one and makes everyone worse off. Yes, some people (maybe military generals) might support it. But there would be near universal hatred for it, if people wake up one day and find their bank accounts not working or their eletricity not working.

This is why I think AI is so stupid. It's just too powerful for anyone to control, especially with the inertial mass of capitalistic society powering it through the incremental, short-term advantages it gives.

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> Not if the weapon is an indiscriminate one and makes everyone worse off.

Nuclear weapons are indiscriminate and make everyone worse off if used. And everybody has them. Your optimism is unfounded.

> Nuclear weapons are indiscriminate and make everyone worse off if used.

The difference is most people have not experienced any immediate effects of nuclear weapons. But people will experience the immediate effects of AI taking down the electricity grid, for instance.

"most people" are in the set of things the trillionaires don't give a shit about. Their market distortion has already made PCs unaffordable and electricity prices rise, among other adverse effects. What else has to happen so you take notice?

To add to your point, many people’s jobs had been affected by AI, job market data don’t lie. That didn’t stop the progress, it became exponentially faster.

Right, just like the war to end all wars totally prevented the nations involved from going to war with each other... for a grand total of 20 years before they decided to do it again. There are other more powerful and influential factors that decide the fate of nations. Even if you get your wish and everyone suffers and everyone hates AI then it will simply disappear into classified research projects and government run data centres. The NSA could easily absorb it but I'm guessing government contractors would also want a piece of the pie for weapons research.

If we're at the point where all that matters is scale and reinforcement training then the public facing aspects could entirely disappear and progress would still continue especially when given an infinite budget of taxpayer dollars.

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