A technologist who worked on DARPA drones in 2013 now says we're at the singularity Vernor Vinge described, where change accelerates beyond human comprehension. He's not a doomer, but admits the future after that point is unknown and could be serious trouble.
I found some like PBS interview with you in, I want to say it was like 2013, and someone was proposing this idea of quite sophisticated AIs, and they're like, "That'll never happen." I don't know, you were already promoting this idea back then.
That was already my DARPA days. I think the episode, if I recall, was called "Rise of the Drones," right? Yeah, I mean, I've always been a proponent of autonomy and very interested in autonomy technologies. So you're not a doomer? Well, Let's talk about it. I think we are on the cusp of what Vernor Vinge called the singularity, right? And I am super grateful to be alive at this time because I think it's probably one of the most interesting times in human history. But I do think that Vinge's sort of description of the singularity as a point at which technological change progresses so quickly that we can't really see past it, so kind of like an event horizon of an astrophysics singularity, I think that point is very valid. And so I don't think we know what is on the other side of the singularity, but I think it is nigh.
It sounds like you're not necessarily a doomer, but you're not discounting the fact that this could go awry. I guess that's what you're saying.
I think it absolutely could, but I think we have the opportunity to shape it. And that's one of the reasons that I really wanted— I felt the urgency to dive into the AI world. It's not out of our control. Yeah. It's not fate. It's our future to shape and build. And I want to be here for that.
