It’s the premier technology of our age. You can hardly seem to shake a stick these days (or visit a website) without encountering a half dozen AI chatbots; and that’s not even mentioning the tsunami of slop its flooded every social media platform with. I still remember how revolutionary ChatGPT felt when I first tried it in late 2022, and the technology has only gotten better since. This entry was inspired by a recent article I read in The New York Times that claimed AGI (“general” models that can perform essentially every mental task better than a human) is just 2-3 years away; which frankly absolutely terrifies me, because once released, human labor will be rendered obsolete for all but the most physically demanding work. My dream is to become a doctor, but why would anyone consult an MD when they could just ask ChatGPT what their ailment is and get an answer that’s as good or even better than what a trained professional could provide? That’s going to repeat itself across all the “knowledge” professions (lawyer, software engineer, etc) that are the only real path to the upper middle class at this point. What are we all going to do, go back to the fields and hope to scrape a pittance? That’s the best part, nobody knows! The best I can tell, the AI industry is essentially flooring a sports car and letting Jesus take the wheel, consequences be damned.
Overall, I feel like I’m in a similar boat to people who came of age just as computers were being adopted, or who graduated right after the Great Recession; with the world I grew up in (a digital society that nevertheless still relied on human labor for all but menial, physical tasks like factory work) disappearing in favor of a whole new paradigm. I remember thinking about how cool it would’ve been to be a teen in the early / mid 90s when PCs were just becoming mainstream; but now I realize how scary actually being in the middle of one of these paradigm shifts is. For all I know, I could end up wasting tens of thousands of dollars pursuing medicine because an AGI will replace everyone by 2035, maybe an AI hallucination will spark a devastating war with China, or maybe AI will fizzle out and in 10 years this article will look as ridiculous as the people who thought Y2K heralded the end of the world. To be clear, AGI could also usher in a drastic increase in living standards if utilized correctly; after all, the rise of computers, while not always smooth, led to many of the modern marvels we take for granted today. But considering the types leading the charge in developing AI… the future seems more likely to resemble Blade Runner than Meet The Robinsons.