An anti-AI activist in California has been missing for almost two weeks, according to atlanticAnd now his friends fear for his safety while San Francisco police fear he may target OpenAI employees.
The activist in question, 27-year-old Sam Kirchner, helped start it stop ai The group had committed to nonviolent protests last year, but became frustrated and angry that the group’s efforts did not go far enough or quickly because it saw AI as an imminent existential threat to humanity, the magazine reports.
Kirchner eventually separated from the group and went off the grid after attacking the current Stop AI leader; After this the city police received calls “Warned that Kirchner specifically threatened to buy high-powered weapons and kill people at OpenAI,” atlantic Report.
Kirchner’s position is clearly extreme, but perhaps not entirely surprising. AI has shaken societyprompt Doom and gloom storieseven amidst this The most ardent boosters like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman,
Philosopher, historian, and acquaintance of Kirchner, Emil P. Torre, said, “There’s this kind of apocalyptic mentality that people can get caught up in.” atlantic“The stakes are huge and literally couldn’t be higher, This type of rhetoric is everywhere in Silicon Valley,”
Kirchner’s downfall appears to have begun last month when he clashed with members of Stop AI, one of several AI skeptic organizations or online loose associations that have emerged in recent years. Stop AI’s mission is to push for a “permanent global ban on the development of artificial superintelligence”. atlantic Report.
Kirchner disagreed with Stop AI’s messaging for protest and then beat up the group’s current leader, Matthew “Yako” Hall, when Kirchner tried to get money from Stop AI’s coffers. Members later found his West Oakland apartment empty and learned that City police issued internal alert about Kirchner being armed and dangerous and a potential threat to employees at OpenAI; its offices closed down As a result last month.
Stop AI members do not think he is a public danger and are more afraid about his mental and physical health. He told the magazine that most likely, he is feeling hurt and embarrassed. However, some of his last words to Yakko were that “the ship of non-violence has set sail for me.”
“He had the weight of the world on his shoulders,” said Stop AI organizer Vind Kaufmin. atlantic,
A more extreme example of the AI skeptic group zijianA cult that is fearful that AI could wipe out humanity and which has been implicated in several murders, although those cases have nothing to do with AI. The second is Pause AI, which “advocates pausing superintelligent-AI development until it can proceed safely, or ‘aligns’ with democratically decided ideal outcomes.”
It’s hard to say how much AI is actually set to change society. It’s possible that its capabilities may soon hit a wall, or it may continue to grow stronger until it becomes a threat to the economic and social order, or even superintelligent AI may pose a threat to the human race. That last possibility is not an entirely marginal situation; For example, public intellectual Eliezer Yudkowsky recently published a book titled “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Will Kill Us,” which became an instant bestseller in September.
Aside from AI safety activists and extremists, even the leaders of tech companies pushing the latest AI can seem like detractors. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei And Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAISure, it may all be marketing hype, but people take these predictions seriously – which has inadvertently made these companies and leaders targets in the eyes of a disgruntled public who feel left out, their lives dictated by rich people who aren’t accountable for their actions,
Torres reflected on Kirchner’s story, saying, “I’m concerned about people in the AI-safety crowd resorting to violence.” “One can have that mentality and commit oneself to nonviolence, but that mentality leads people to think, Well, maybe any measure can be justified.”
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