The world is going to become a much worse place over the next few years. I want to be an optimist, but it will take huge leaps in humanity's societal structures for AI not to be a net negative for the vast majority of people on this planet in the short term.
Did the world become a much worse place when the internet arrived, or did the positives end up outweighing the negatives? There were a few years where Nigerian scammers could convince grandma they were a prince who needed a bank transfer, but eventually grandma figured out the scam. I don't see why AI would be any different - sure, there may be an increase in new scams for a few years, but people will learn and adapt, like they always have. And meanwhile the positive aspects of AI will have a positive impact on society. Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater because we can imagine all the ways to abuse new technology.
Maybe instead of freaking out and trying to restrict innovation, we should be working on insurance products to mitigate the financial risk of scams, and educational content to reduce their effectiveness. The fact that many scams are even possible in the first place stems from the absurd idea that "identity theft" is your fault [0], so maybe we could start there.
If my bank uses my voice as my password, or if my phone company is willing to present fraudulent caller ID telling me it really is my son calling to ask for money, then is the problem really the scammers, or is it the easily defraudable systems with no incentives to reduce abuse of their platforms?
AI is just one threat and there are others. Regardless of whether or not COVID-19 was man made, it could have been, and it's just the first of what will be many pandemics in the next few decades. Barrier to entry for genetic engineering and bioweaponry is lower than ever, and within the reach of hobbyists or NGOs.
Yea I already started moving to the very edges of society and trying to move even further. Had pretty successful crops just need to scale it up and reduce need for outside resources more and more.
