Cal Newport on AI Doomerism

As someone who works in a creative field, I’ve had an increasing number of conversations recently, particularly with people who don’t themselves work in creative fields, about the effects of AI on work and creation. Once in a while, someone ends up asking, So do you think AI is going to destroy us all?

To answer that, of course, one needs to parse where the idea comes from re: AI the Destroyer, where current-day “AI” (which is usually referring to LLMs) stands in that regard, why there are people in the world who call themselves “rationalists” who somehow believe AI the Destroyer is an inevitability^[1], how the term “AGI” is used differently for different purposes based on the user’s intentions.

But the biggest thing I feel needs to be analysed is this – why does mainstream media report, without pushback or factchecks, what are essentially cult broadcasts from propagandists? If a soap salesman told you that his soap will magically make you the most beautiful person in the world, would you think, Well, he works in soap, so he must know what he’s talking about? Or would you think, Of course this guy is bullshitting me – he wants me to buy soap!

Anyway, Cal Newport (yes, the author of Deep Work and Digital Minimalism) is a computer scientist and technology ethicist, and he has been using his podcast recently to debunk numerous claims made by both AI boosters and AI doomers.

He recently posted a video in which he talks about the people involved, and what they believe. It’s a good primer to start thinking about the AI hype and where it might or might not be going. And I particularly like that, in the middle of everyone seemingly going crazy about what AI might or might not do to us in the future, Newport is far more concerned about what is happening with AI now and how it’s being used in harmful ways.

As we should all be.

Related: Rob Secundus has a couple of posts on AI safety seen through the lens of The Lord of the Rings. Worth a read to generally get an idea of what is being talked about if you don’t want to get into the weeds of the tech.

And while I generally prefer not to post things that are too timebound, here’s another Newport video that specifically talks about the recent chatter about “rogue” AI and what that actually means.

It’s weird, you know. Till my late 20s, I was a tremendous technophile, and thought that the internet and social media would unambiguously improve our lives. It’s strange to find myself slowly becoming a Luddite and happy about it.