my understanding of the ai race as the idea that at some point a breakthrough in AI is going to give a permanent advantage in the ability to make decisions that benefit a country and once that happens it will be next to impossible to lose that advantage as the next best will never catch up.
how true that is remains to be seen i guess but it does seem to be the prevailing theory by those fueling the race around the world. I think this only makes sense in a capitalist POV though, unless the advantage that is given is so great that all other countries become subservient with no hope.
in any case i would bet on China to win if the race is what they think it is. if China does not win, then god help us all.
the ability to make decisions that benefit a country
For who though is always the question of decision-making. The US’s focus is making decisions that benefit the hyper wealthy and exploit marginalized groups. China’s focus is making decisions that benefit regular people, that keep the capitalists under control and the imperialists at bay, and that work to transition to socialism and then communism.
I think this only makes sense in a capitalist POV though
Yes, I think the idea of AI “saving us” in some way is an expression of capitalist realism (“it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism”). In AES projects, they didn’t need AI to dramatically improve quality of life and China’s use of it now is more measured, as far as I can tell, than the haphazard western implementation, more cognizant of the need for it to do tangible social good. But in the heart of capitalist empire, when people are convinced there’s no alternative system because “communism ebil”, it makes a kind of sense they’d turn to the latest tech development as a hope for escape.
But in the heart of capitalist empire, when people are convinced there’s no alternative system because “communism ebil”, it makes a kind of sense they’d turn to the latest tech development as a hope for escape.
Exactly! I think in the ‘western’ viewpoint it is all a zero-sum game which is where any of this makes any sense at all. That is highly unlikely to be the case imo though.
I think it only makes sense in a European worldview. The idea that the decision making problems are algorithmic or mathematical in nature and this abstractable, universalizable, and permanent is a fantasy.
The more abstraction a higher order system has, the less it is able to respond to changes in the lowest order systems. Highly effective mathematical abstractions for decision making will solve a lot of problems in the short term, mostly problems that exist due to inefficiencies that mask solution spaces from us currently.
But once those short-term problems are solved and the inefficiencies in solution searching are gone, the hard problems will still remain.
permanent advantage in the ability to make decisions that benefit a country and once that happens it will be next to impossible to lose that advantage as the next best will never catch up.
That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen lol, current AI is a great assistant and can have near perfect knowledge on stuff hitherto, but when treading unchartered waters it’s not going to come up with a novel solution.
my understanding of the ai race as the idea that at some point a breakthrough in AI is going to give a permanent advantage in the ability to make decisions that benefit a country and once that happens it will be next to impossible to lose that advantage as the next best will never catch up.
how true that is remains to be seen i guess but it does seem to be the prevailing theory by those fueling the race around the world. I think this only makes sense in a capitalist POV though, unless the advantage that is given is so great that all other countries become subservient with no hope.
in any case i would bet on China to win if the race is what they think it is. if China does not win, then god help us all.
For who though is always the question of decision-making. The US’s focus is making decisions that benefit the hyper wealthy and exploit marginalized groups. China’s focus is making decisions that benefit regular people, that keep the capitalists under control and the imperialists at bay, and that work to transition to socialism and then communism.
Yes, I think the idea of AI “saving us” in some way is an expression of capitalist realism (“it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism”). In AES projects, they didn’t need AI to dramatically improve quality of life and China’s use of it now is more measured, as far as I can tell, than the haphazard western implementation, more cognizant of the need for it to do tangible social good. But in the heart of capitalist empire, when people are convinced there’s no alternative system because “communism ebil”, it makes a kind of sense they’d turn to the latest tech development as a hope for escape.
Exactly! I think in the ‘western’ viewpoint it is all a zero-sum game which is where any of this makes any sense at all. That is highly unlikely to be the case imo though.
I think it only makes sense in a European worldview. The idea that the decision making problems are algorithmic or mathematical in nature and this abstractable, universalizable, and permanent is a fantasy.
The more abstraction a higher order system has, the less it is able to respond to changes in the lowest order systems. Highly effective mathematical abstractions for decision making will solve a lot of problems in the short term, mostly problems that exist due to inefficiencies that mask solution spaces from us currently.
But once those short-term problems are solved and the inefficiencies in solution searching are gone, the hard problems will still remain.
That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen lol, current AI is a great assistant and can have near perfect knowledge on stuff hitherto, but when treading unchartered waters it’s not going to come up with a novel solution.