Artificial superintelligence is still a hypothetical, but we’re inching closer every day. What happens when we finally create a digital beast that vastly surpasses human intellect in all domains?
MIT physics professor Max Tegmark warns that if that day comes, we’ll be in deeper trouble than we can imagine.
Despite the evident dangers and widespread hesitation, people like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, a leading figure in the AI boom, are determined to see it happen at any cost.
“Sam Alman believes he’s creating God. … There’s a lot of people in Silicon Valley that want to meet God of their creation,” says Glenn Beck, who’s been warning for years about the dangers of an artificial intelligence takeover.
Tegmark is equally disturbed by Altman’s dystopian tech dreams, which go even beyond creating artificial superintelligence. In his 2017 essay “The Merge,” Altman describes the fusing of man and machine as a necessary step to keep up with superhuman AI. He even suggests that we will be able to “design our own descendants.”
Most people, however, want nothing to do with this transhumanist, cyborg future, but it’s looking like Altman and other tech billionaires are set on pushing humanity in that direction anyway.
“So how do you stop it?” Glenn asks.
On this episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Tegmark outlined four ways we can push back against the AI revolution.
1. Reject the ‘inevitable’ AI myth
“Lobbyists from these companies keep trying to convince us that it’s unstoppable,” Tegmark says. “That’s the number one psy-op trick in the book.”
Just because a technological advancement is possible doesn’t mean it will come to fruition, he explains. He gives the example of human cloning, which is technically feasible today but not practiced due to ethical, legal, and practical obstacles.
“The consensus around the world was we could lose control over our species if we start messing with ourselves in that way, and it became so stigmatized it just didn’t happen,” he says. There’s a chance ASI and cyborgs will be viewed similarly — technically possible but too risky to try, especially if people at large start rejecting the notion that these advancements are inevitable.
2. Control > chaos
Some will argue that the United States has to trudge forward in the AI race because we’re competing against China, but Tegmark reminds that ASI is a “suicide race” because once we reach superintelligence heights, humans will become slaves to a digital master.
But China values only one thing more than technological dominance: control.
The United States, finally back on top as a global superpower thanks to President Trump, isn’t interested in losing control either. “The way the U.S. or China will compete for dominance is not by doing something that’s going to take away the power from both countries,” Tegmark says.
3. Call for government regulations
Glenn is still concerned about people like Sam Altman, who have unlimited money and resources, continuing to push AI to new heights, but Tegmark says they’re biding their time as unrestricted tech pioneers.
“Once upon a time, there were no regulations on biotech. They could sell any medicine they wanted in the supermarket, and sometimes this caused tragedies,” Tegmark says.
He points to the 1950s and ’60s sedative thalidomide, which was prescribed to pregnant women to treat morning sickness. The medication proved so harmful — over 100,000 severe birth defects — that the drug was not only banned, but the government began regulating the biotech industry as a whole to prevent future devastations.
“We’ve done the same thing with every other industry,” Tegmark says.
“So saying that AI companies should be the only companies in America that don’t have to meet any safety standards is really just asking for corporate welfare for AI companies,” he adds.
4. Amplify the public voice
Many people don’t voice their opposition to the AI race because they think either they’re powerless to stop it or that they’ll be condemned as Luddites. But Tegmark says neither is true.
“Less than 5% of Americans actually want a race to superintelligence,” he says.
And now our voices can be heard. Through his Future of Life Institute, Tegmark has created a petition aimed at holding AI developers accountable for the risks of advanced AI. Many high-profile people from both sides of the political spectrum have already signed it, including Glenn.
I urge you to sign this,” Glenn says.
“This is the end of humanity if we lose control of our technology,” he adds.
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