In this episode Ron and Ed dissected a recent blog post by Marc Andreessen entitled "Why AI Will Save the World." It is a deep and thoughtful piece by someone who has done some very deep thinking. We discussed the items upon which agree and those with which we quibble. The post can be found here.
Use these show notes to follow along with the audio.
Segment one:
From Marc Andreessen’s article — An even shorter description of what AI could be: A way to make everything we care about better. https://a16z.com/2023/06/06/ai-will-save-the-world/
Can AI think? That’s like asking a submarine if it can swim.
Also from Marc’s article: Perhaps the most underestimated quality of AI is how humanizing it can be. https://a16z.com/2023/06/06/ai-will-save-the-world/
Who remembers ELIZA, the early natural language processing computer program? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA
“The most validated core conclusion of social science across many decades and thousands of studies is that human intelligence makes a very broad range of life outcomes better. Smarter people have better outcomes in almost every domain of activity.” https://a16z.com/2023/06/06/ai-will-save-the-world/
Our show on Public Choice Theory covered Baptists and Bootleggers as a segment. Episode number 44 with a link here: https://www.thesoulofenterprise.com/44
Segment two:
Pessimists Archive tracks all of the doom and gloom technophobia over the years. We love this site! https://pessimistsarchive.org/
“AI will kill us all” is NOT a new idea. Check out the Prometheus Myth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus
In Marc Andreessen’s article, he does a good job of walking through 5 significant AI risks as he sees them. https://a16z.com/2023/06/06/ai-will-save-the-world/
“In short, don’t let the thought police suppress AI.” https://a16z.com/2023/06/06/ai-will-save-the-world/
From Marc Andreessen’s article: AI is going to take all of our jobs because “this time is different” https://a16z.com/2023/06/06/ai-will-save-the-world/
Ed did some quick research during the show and there are currently 155 jobs on Indeed.com related to prompt engineering https://www.indeed.com/q-Ai-Prompt-Engineer-jobs.html?vjk=695910cd1453a618
Segment three:
Ed referenced Frederic Bastiat during the show today. Ron and Ed did a GREAT memorable mentors show on him at this link: https://www.thesoulofenterprise.com/125
From Andreessen: “As the owner of a piece of technology, it’s not in your own interest to keep it to yourself – in fact the opposite”. See Elon Musk’s secret plan here https://www.tesla.com/blog/secret-tesla-motors-master-plan-just-between-you-and-me
On Marx and inequality from Marc Andreessen’s article: “This is not to say that inequality is not an issue in our society. It is, it’s just not being driven by technology” https://a16z.com/2023/06/06/ai-will-save-the-world/
Will AI lead to bad people doing bad things? “Let’s mount major efforts to use AI for good, legitimate, defensive purposes.” >> https://a16z.com/2023/06/06/ai-will-save-the-world/
Ron and Ed mentioned Gödel's incompleteness theorems on the show today. More here: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jan/10/can-you-solve-it-godels-incompleteness-theorem
Segment four:
Marc Andreessen’s most important point for moving forward with AI: “Big AI companies should be allowed to build AI as fast and aggressively as they can – but not allowed to achieve regulatory capture” https://a16z.com/2023/06/06/ai-will-save-the-world/
After Marc Andreessen’s article, Ron and Ed talked about an article in The Economist titled, “What would humans do in a world of super-AI?” https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2023/05/23/what-would-humans-do-in-a-world-of-super-ai
“By automating the things that are easier to do, it could just free us up to do more of the things that humans prefer to do.” —Ron Baker
Ron and Ed referenced this book today on the show. It’s called, “Humans Are Underrated: What High Achievers Know That Brilliant Machines Never Will” https://www.amazon.com/Humans-Are-Underrated-Achievers-Brilliant/dp/0143108379
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