Paris AI Summit Train Wreck
Almost nobody seems happy
A whole lot of boldfaced named are gathered in Paris right now to discuss AI. I am not there, but from everything I can tell far afar, it’s become an absolute train wreck, displeasing almost everyone, for different, and somewhat conflicting reasons.
Even before the event started there many complaints about a leaked draft of a statement that the summit wrote in advance and planned to release:
Regulatory capture seemed huge:
People like FLI’s Max Tegmark were irate:
And at least two major countries looked like they indeed would not sign on:
Retweeting the same, David Lawrence didn’t hold back:
Meanwhile, Miles Brundage memed the whole thing:
Perhaps the only person grinning, at least briefly, was Macron:
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I tend to agree with those that feel that the draft should not be signed. It would accomplish little, and let too many people off the hook, allowing them to say that they had addressed AI risks without actually doing all that much.
Considering all the big names that were assembled, this all feels like a wasted opportunity.
Better luck, for all of us, next time, I hope.
Gary Marcus warned about this kind of mess in his most recent book, Taming Silicon Valley.
This comment isn't related to Paris but I just wanted to tell Gary, if he didn't watch, that Salesforce's superbowl AI ads were hilarious and embarrassing. The first one was Matthew trying to argue that without AI people wouldn't be able to find their airport terminal - as if people haven't been doing this successfully for decades. The second was Matthew trying to argue that absent AI a restaurant would seat you outside in pouring rain and give you food you didn't order lol. They are really trying to make us think we are helpless. I'm hoping that people know better - I worry when I hear that school's are integrating this into their curriculum. It makes me think of how cabbies used to be skilled operators who knew the roads and traffic patterns in their city. Now they are clueless operators who follow the directions.
The only way I see the current gen of AI succeeding is if the overlords succeed in training us to be helpless.
Why did they bother having a summit? It's literally an AI meeting - so why not just send in the various avatars and have them interface with each other and produce a well-polished knock-off of something-something-agreement? #WeAreTheBorg