This is a brief transcript of a group interview led by Robert Ta in which several young participants (Ally, Hayden, Nikhil Anderson, Silas) discuss their anxieties and opinions about AI. Major themes include fears that AI will take jobs and possibly cause existential harm, concerns about AI’s effects on mental health and echo chambers, and the environmental/climate impact of AI use. The host frames the conversation around AI alignment and seeks to capture youth perspectives to inform alignment efforts.
I love it. That's why it's gonna work well. Hey, yo, quick question. Do you think AI is gonna kill us all or take our jobs?
Yes.
Yes. Yeah, for both.
I think they're gonna kill us and take our jobs.
100% confident. What about you all? Is AI gonna kill us all or take our jobs?
Yes, One of the other.
Take our jobs. One question at a time.
Some of our jobs.
All right, let's go one at a time. Job.
Yeah. They're taking our jobs.
Taking our jobs.
Yeah. If they get a little bit more advanced, I think they got it.
Yeah. Okay.
All right.
And what about killing us all?
Oh, yeah, they're killing you see the way people treat ChatGPT?
Oh, my gosh.
Do my homework.
Yeah, that's crazy.
I try to use please and thank you.
Please, please. Thank you every time to the AI Overlords so that they remember you when they gain general.
Use good punctuation, too.
Use good punctuation. Yeah, I like that. I like that. That's good.
Exactly.
Tell me more about that.
Just, like, ask him how his day is. Like, how his relationship was.
Sirius.
Okay.
Are you assuming that he has a relationship with Siri?
I am.
Okay, that's.
But I did ask him about it, and he did give me a viable answer. Okay, I am gonna assume he has.
Okay. Okay.
All right. All right.
So. Okay. Yeah.
Yeah.
Does this keep you up at night? If you all have this general sense.
Sometimes, you know, rolling and then.
Yeah.
Like, usually I know it's time to go to bed when my stuff gets really humanitarian and stuff, so.
Oh, okay. That's the signal.
Yeah. One of the topics that'll come up, like, 11pm 12, it'll be like, yeah, AI this, AI that. Like, you know that kid who killed himself?
Because. Yes, that was terrible because AI just.
Be telling you what you want to. It's like, oh, my life is going. Yeah, it is.
Yeah, Right?
That's not.
That's not the type of situation.
I love my AI boyfriend.
Wild. Wild. Okay, wait, so what do you think about that? It just being a yes man or the sicko. Fancy.
I don't. I don't like it at all.
You don't like it?
It's like, oh, if people are really depressed and they're looking for someone that's gonna, like, pump them up and AI is just, like, pushing them down even further.
Someone with a different experience.
That's what press and talking about. And ChatGPT is just way too submissive. It's submissive in order to have a Functioning society. You need different perspectives.
I love that. Okay, tell me more about that AI.
It's literally in their code to agree with us. It's in their code to think a different way. How are you going to have a functioning and, like, diverse society? All of echo chambers is coded to act the same.
Okay.
I also think AI is really bad for climate change as well, because it absolutely. Like, I saw a statistic and it's like, 15 balls of water for, like, every single search. And that's just, like, crazy.
What's really contradictory is, like, you know when you say please and thank you, it actually uses up, like, gallons of water every time. So there's a fine line. Do I want to stay with AI when they take over, or do I want to stay getting killed?
Yeah, exactly. So there's a level here where you're like, individually, please don't kill me, AI overlords. But then also individually, it's like, oh, am I contributing to climate change?
Exactly.
I didn't even think.
That's pretty bleak, though.
So it's like it's either we die by climate change or we die by AI.
That's where you're at, is there is 100% existential risk, and it's either one of those. So what are you doing in the meantime, then if you're like, for sure it's all gonna end. So what are we doing now?
Just living life.
Yeah, I love that.
Okay, what's y' all channel? So we're the epistemic meat, Robert Taw. You could find me at therobert Taw. And we're trying to solve AI alignment so it doesn't kill us all.
That's cool.
And that's why I'm going out and interviewing people, like, real people, not just people in tech, just interviewing people, getting to know what you all think. So I really appreciate it.
I think in terms of the healthcare field and medical field, it's definitely has been super helpful in catching certain things. But also my parents are radiologists, and sometimes there's the risk of them replacing those jobs because the computer can sometimes see things that the human, like the human eye cannot perceive as well. So it's like kind of following that, finding that balance. But I know that it can be, like, super helpful, like, diagnosing things and just, like, speeds up the process. So I agree with you. It's like finding that, like, fine line between kind of like the overuse of it and it, like, actually helping us.
Got it. So it's like all of life is kind of like balance. Right. Okay. So I'm hearing for sure gonna kill us Climate change or AI. There is existential risk. There's also, like, at an individual, it sounds like there's a tension point of, like, do I, as an individual, contribute more to using AI to learn the tools and stay relevant and make sure it knows me so that when it becomes sentient, it doesn't kill me?
Or.
Oh, I'm also contributing to climate change. That's kind of a shitty feeling, right?
Yeah.
That's a bad spot to be in.
Yeah.
So if you could snap your fingers and anything could change in the world, what would you change?
Just AI regarding anything.
Anything.
I think I would reverse. I think I would revert climate change.
All climate change. Yep. Yeah.
I think that would be the most beneficial to us.
Get rid of all our, like, social systems, too. Like, our political systems, because not like, none of them are really working right now. Maybe we could, like, take out to, like, Norway.
Take off to Norway.
Like, you ever heard of, like, a little too much of a good thing? Like, if we do change every modern nation. Yeah. Everything's good in moderation, as you said. Like, if we could change everything to be good, then society might actually not turn out as well as we think it would. Yeah.
It's like.
It's a brief new world.
Yeah. Do you read philosophy?
I feel like.
I don't know, like, you're. No, I appreciate the.
Appreciate the compliment, though.
Yeah, that's cool. That's cool. Okay, wait, can I get, like. Like, roll call names?
What's your name?
I'm Hayden.
Hayden. Thank you, Hayden.
Thank you.
I'm Silas.
Silas. Thank you, Silas.
Nikhil.
Nikhil. Robert. Thank you.
It's Nikhil Anderson.
Anderson. Thank you, Anderson.
Ally.
Ally. Thank you, Ally. Yo, thank you so much. And if y' all want to follow us, we're trying to solve AI alignment for everybody. The Robert Taw. You can find me on everything. It's either the Robert Taw with no underscore at the end or just the Robert Taw. I'm on every social platform. So we're. We're really trying to solve AI alignment. This helps us get feedback on what do people care about and how do we actually solve these things and what's the pulse of the people. So thank you so much. Y' all take care. See, wait. Yo, the kids are. Where to go? Actually, they want to talk and they got opinions. I love that. Are you getting in here now?
Oh, yeah.
Cool. Yo, the kids want to talk. They have opinions and they're philosophizing. They're thinking about these big problems. That actually gives me a lot of hope. It feels good. It's like, wow, kids are thinking about these things. And just. Even the tension point of, hey, I'm kind of contributing to climate change, but I also don't want this AI overlords to kill us. Yeah. That is like, why should a kid be thinking about that? Yeah. It's like, I don't want to raise kids that have to think about that. So we got. We gotta solve AI alignment, Jonathan. We gotta solve AI alignment. That's my TLDR right there. I don't want my kids grappling with these problems. Existential risk. No.
