AI Doomerism has been in the news lately, especially with the loud, viral resignation of Jacob Coxon from Anthropic.
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They can't, because the Doomer narrative *is* the Booster narrative. To debunk the Doomer stuff (and it *is* bunk), you have to point out that it's based on pure fantasy that the mathy maths are going to combust into consciousness ...
... or if not consciousness, then some thinking, reasoning, self-improving entity.
>>As @alex and I write in The AI Con (see cp 6): even though the Boosters and the Doomers like to portray themselves as holding down opposite extremes of opinions on "AI", they are two sides of the same coin.
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As @alex and I write in The AI Con (see cp 6): even though the Boosters and the Doomers like to portray themselves as holding down opposite extremes of opinions on "AI", they are two sides of the same coin.
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The Boosters say: AI is a thing, it's inevitable, it's imminent and it's going to solve all of our problems.
The Doomers say: AI is a thing, it's inevitable, it's imminent and it's going to kill us all.
These are obviously the same story, with just different twists at the end. And both are nonsense. There is "moderate" position between them, but there is space outside of that fantasy world where we can see the actual harms happening in the name of "AI".
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The Boosters say: AI is a thing, it's inevitable, it's imminent and it's going to solve all of our problems.
The Doomers say: AI is a thing, it's inevitable, it's imminent and it's going to kill us all.
These are obviously the same story, with just different twists at the end. And both are nonsense. There is "moderate" position between them, but there is space outside of that fantasy world where we can see the actual harms happening in the name of "AI".
>>Nadella, Pichai, Huang, Zuckerberg, Huang, Dean --- you all own this unhinged narrative just as much as the Doomers do.
* * *
Of course, they're happy to own this, because they benefit as much as Altman, Amodei, and Musk from keeping the policymakers focused on fantasies.
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Nadella, Pichai, Huang, Zuckerberg, Huang, Dean --- you all own this unhinged narrative just as much as the Doomers do.
* * *
Of course, they're happy to own this, because they benefit as much as Altman, Amodei, and Musk from keeping the policymakers focused on fantasies.
>>As I was walking home yesterday, I got flagged down by my neighbor who had heard a panic-inducing story about rogue AI from a friend over lunch and hoped I could talk her down.
I could and I did! But I am recognizing her distress (likely repeated across many many ordinary people) as yet another harm perpetuated by the people selling "AI" narratives.
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As I was walking home yesterday, I got flagged down by my neighbor who had heard a panic-inducing story about rogue AI from a friend over lunch and hoped I could talk her down.
I could and I did! But I am recognizing her distress (likely repeated across many many ordinary people) as yet another harm perpetuated by the people selling "AI" narratives.
>>I want everyone, especially journalists, to notice the silence of the tech execs about this. This includes people like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg whose recent blog posts talk about balancing the benefits and harms of "AI", and don't include Doomer scenarios among the harms.
They are complicit in the misinforming of the public. They are complicit in stoking everyone's fear. They reap the benefits of the Doomer narrative because it is their narrative.
/fin
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The Boosters say: AI is a thing, it's inevitable, it's imminent and it's going to solve all of our problems.
The Doomers say: AI is a thing, it's inevitable, it's imminent and it's going to kill us all.
These are obviously the same story, with just different twists at the end. And both are nonsense. There is "moderate" position between them, but there is space outside of that fantasy world where we can see the actual harms happening in the name of "AI".
>>@emilymbender absolutely. Both are attempts to name the apocalypse, which is a claim that whatever they think has to be important to all of us.
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I want everyone, especially journalists, to notice the silence of the tech execs about this. This includes people like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg whose recent blog posts talk about balancing the benefits and harms of "AI", and don't include Doomer scenarios among the harms.
They are complicit in the misinforming of the public. They are complicit in stoking everyone's fear. They reap the benefits of the Doomer narrative because it is their narrative.
/fin
LA Times story about Bill Gates calling AI one of the greatest problems facing mankind now, last Saturday at Telluride.
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LA Times story about Bill Gates calling AI one of the greatest problems facing mankind now, last Saturday at Telluride.
@James @emilymbender with a lens that AI is useful and going to stay relevant for some time despite the myriad harms, to me this becomes obvious: they are trying for regulatory capture through fear mongering.
Nobody gets to own sovereign AI or have their own ‘intelligence’ they can run and use at their leisure how they see fit; it’s simply too dangerous.
Therefore, you must rent it from us, at recurring cost, indefinitely, because we are the only ones who can ensure it is used ‘responsibly’.
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AI Doomerism has been in the news lately, especially with the loud, viral resignation of Jacob Coxon from Anthropic.
Maybe I've missed it, but I haven't seen any statements from CEOs and other execs who are more on the AI Booster side of the ledger.
🧵>>
I'd just appreciate it if these dorks would be more specific. Exactly how is a bot in a computer network going to destroy me? Please elucidate, otherwise I assume this is just another round of cash-inducing bullshit.
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The Boosters say: AI is a thing, it's inevitable, it's imminent and it's going to solve all of our problems.
The Doomers say: AI is a thing, it's inevitable, it's imminent and it's going to kill us all.
These are obviously the same story, with just different twists at the end. And both are nonsense. There is "moderate" position between them, but there is space outside of that fantasy world where we can see the actual harms happening in the name of "AI".
>>@emilymbender its very evitable if we stop letting the absolute worst interests run our societies. kinda like other things that are letting them destroy things faster.
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I want everyone, especially journalists, to notice the silence of the tech execs about this. This includes people like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg whose recent blog posts talk about balancing the benefits and harms of "AI", and don't include Doomer scenarios among the harms.
They are complicit in the misinforming of the public. They are complicit in stoking everyone's fear. They reap the benefits of the Doomer narrative because it is their narrative.
/fin
@emilymbender All the while, human culture erodes and oceans boil.
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As @alex and I write in The AI Con (see cp 6): even though the Boosters and the Doomers like to portray themselves as holding down opposite extremes of opinions on "AI", they are two sides of the same coin.
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@emilymbender @alex or not.
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They can't, because the Doomer narrative *is* the Booster narrative. To debunk the Doomer stuff (and it *is* bunk), you have to point out that it's based on pure fantasy that the mathy maths are going to combust into consciousness ...
... or if not consciousness, then some thinking, reasoning, self-improving entity.
>>It's like P. T. Barnum but without the flair. "Step right up. Come see the AI that will DESTROY THE WORLD! Look at its horrible consequences, gasp in fear as it shakes its chains. Will _you_ be its next victim? Only 50 pence to find out. Step right up!"
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J jwcph@helvede.net shared this topic
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I want everyone, especially journalists, to notice the silence of the tech execs about this. This includes people like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg whose recent blog posts talk about balancing the benefits and harms of "AI", and don't include Doomer scenarios among the harms.
They are complicit in the misinforming of the public. They are complicit in stoking everyone's fear. They reap the benefits of the Doomer narrative because it is their narrative.
/fin
@emilymbender well there's at least one, kind of https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/sep/10/anthropic-researchers-warn-ai-musk
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@emilymbender absolutely. Both are attempts to name the apocalypse, which is a claim that whatever they think has to be important to all of us.
@ntnsndr I'd rather prefer we turn back battling climate heating and turning away from fossil fuels. Well, and NOT to build crazily energy & ressources gobbling data centers for these LLMs and all that hype. IMHO it is a too costly enshittification of data processing. @emilymbender
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Where are Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai, Mark Zuckerberg, Jensen Huang, XD Huang, Jeff Dean on this? Why aren't they out there calling out the Doomer narrative for the nonsense that it is?
I have an hypothesis:
>>@emilymbender My suspicion is that they'd have to admit that a large number of their block-and-tackle AI engineering corps are cultists, which means either having to flush them out and face a brain drain, or supporting them and dealing with a PR nightmare. Pretending to ignore it and making noises that capital markets like is the line of least resistance.
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@emilymbender well there's at least one, kind of https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/sep/10/anthropic-researchers-warn-ai-musk
@ligaturerecords not exactly
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I want everyone, especially journalists, to notice the silence of the tech execs about this. This includes people like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg whose recent blog posts talk about balancing the benefits and harms of "AI", and don't include Doomer scenarios among the harms.
They are complicit in the misinforming of the public. They are complicit in stoking everyone's fear. They reap the benefits of the Doomer narrative because it is their narrative.
/fin
@emilymbender Gates is an attention whore, except when it involves Epstein.
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@ligaturerecords not exactly
@emilymbender yes that's why i said "sort of" but I guess that serves to reaffirm a sort of doomerism legitimacy (as adversarial to boosterism), since this is musk he wasn't really about to say something true or smart (i was the meme "the worst person you know juste made a great point" until i actually read the article)
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It's like P. T. Barnum but without the flair. "Step right up. Come see the AI that will DESTROY THE WORLD! Look at its horrible consequences, gasp in fear as it shakes its chains. Will _you_ be its next victim? Only 50 pence to find out. Step right up!"
@skjeggtroll @emilymbender
Or…
Step up, folks and solve the greatest problem of our age! Get into the biggest tent of all and fight against the most foolish tyrants of our age.
