In case you're wondering why I keep actively engaging with AI skeptics

It's because I LIKE you if you're skeptical about AI. It means you have a critical mindset, and you care deeply about ethics of technology

Most of the negative things people say about AI are 100% justified

I care that you have the best possible information to help inform your criticism, and that you can avoid arguments that are easily debunked so you can focus attention on the huge number of arguments that hold weight 

 I sometimes wonder how much better our society would be if there had been better informed criticism of the automobile and highway systems during the decades that those were first being rolled out

(It's quite possible that the smartest, most well informed cricificsm in the world would have been ignored entirely) 

 @4ebb1885 I think there was criticism, but the benefit to people who literally never left their hometowns or states was rather life changing in ways that GPT chat bots are not. 

 @3c135028 I guess the challenge back then - just like today - was how to both embrace the new potential of the automobile while finding the right balance against the negative consequences 

 @4ebb1885 There was a tremendous public benefit to mobilizing society. While I use LLMs and am skeptical of the gold rush we are seeing today to control LLMs, I do not see the same public benefit for everyone as other technical revolutions. The potential for misinformation and harm currently has no ceiling though. 

 @3c135028 Sure, there was huge public benefit. But did we really need to trash entire (mostly minority) neighbourhoods to build six lane freeways? And did we really need to tear up the tram systems ala Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Europe kept its passenger train networks, America mostly dismantled them.

I want us to be able to adopt this kind of technology without making those kinds of mistakes.