Unfiltered AI Talk: Why Invent AI When We Have What We Need? | Episode [34]

Can you do me a favor? Can you go behind the camera and then tell me if on the top left, it's red and it's rolling. Cool. All right, come back over and stand here to my right. Perfect. So what's your name?

I'm Barrett.

Barrett, cool. And how do you spend your days, Barrett?

I just started going to college at Berkeley.

What do you study there?

Comparative literature.

Cool. Very cool. Okay. So do you think AI is going to kill us all or take our jobs? Thoughts?

I think mostly I'm concerned about the spiritual dimension of it.

Tell me about that. Tell me about that.

Just creating. I mean, the potential to create another, like, consciousness that exists within, like, this entire realm that we've built. Like, I feel like so much of, like, the benefit of being a human is, like, in our groundedness in this, like, reality, you know? And I feel like there's a lot still here to explore before we start building other ones, you know?

Got it.

Is that crazy?

No, I don't think so. I think that's actually a great line of thinking. So on that line of thinking, do you think AI will ever have a soul? The way things are going, I think.

I think there's a lot of words. There's a lot of words like consciousness and soul. Like, are those the same thing to you?

Are they?

I wouldn't say.

So what makes consciousness, then?

Well, maybe it does. I don't know.

Actually, all neuroscientists and philosophers cannot agree on this.

Yeah.

So it is hard. So I'd say expect.

I think that's the question. Question that AI could, like, possibly answer if we did it, like, very carefully and very intentionally. But I feel like everything is just happening so fast and so recklessly, and I feel like at this rate, it's going to do a lot of harm to humanity before we are able to answer these, like, more metaphysical questions that we ask of ourselves by using this model, you know?

I see. Okay. Interesting. Do you use AI at all?

No. No.

Okay. And you mentioned reckless and fast. What. What makes you say that?

I don't know. I just don't hear a lot of, like, policy being formed around it.

Okay.

And I hear, like, people's voices being stolen and their image being manipulated without their consent.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay. So if you had one thing to say to, like, Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, what would you say?

I don't know who Sam Altman is.

Oh, he's running OpenAI ChatGPT, the most popular AI tool on the planet.

Yeah.

What'd you say to him?

I don't think it should be done for money.

Okay.

I think it should be used to benefit the human race.

Got it. But we do live in capitalism, so that's a really hard thing to do after.

Yeah, like we could dismantle capitalism and then we could start on AI.

How do we do that? How do we dismantle capitalism?

I don't know. Growing food, making art, supporting each other.

Quick question on this side note. Have you read how to be an Anti capitalist in the 21st century?

No.

I think based on what you're saying, you might enjoy that it gives actual strategies on how we as people could actually dismantle capitalism. And dismantling is one strategy. There's other strategies. But anyway, just side note, I think you would like that book.

Okay.

Okay. So would you. Let's say you get to the end of your life. Would you rather upload your brain into AI or. Or die of natural causes?

I would rather die of natural causes.

Okay. Okay, cool. Got some more questions for you. What's one thing humans will always do better than AI?

Make art.

Make art.

Grow food. Support each other.

Okay, yeah. Support each other. Like how? Emotionally?

Everything. Everything.

Everything. Yeah, like it takes a village kind of.

Yeah.

Got it. Okay. No, this is really great. A few more questions. AI boyfriend, AI girlfriend. Would you ever date an AI?

No. No?

No. Okay.

It's all about human connection for me. Like, that's the foundation that everything is built on. And that's what we need to invest in to make the world a better place.

Got it. Okay.

We don't need to start investing in this other made up shit.

I love it. I love it. No, this is so good. Thank you so much. I love this perspective. So let's say on that line of thinking, let's say, are you dating anybody?

No.

Let's say you were and then they cheated on you with an AI. Would that be better or.

I would not start dating someone who would do that in the first place. Thank you very much.

Okay, let's say it happened. No cut off. Oh, so no. Like, you're not even gonna entertain that reality? No. No. Okay.

All right.

So do you want kids in future?

Yeah.

Let's say you saw your kids date AI thoughts on that?

That scares me. Yeah, that scares me.

Me too.

I would not. I'll never come around to that because again, what I said about human connection.

Got it. Okay. That's fair. So do you trust AI more than you trust politicians?

Are they made by the politicians? What's it made by?

What's it modeled After. Yeah, that's a good question. So it's like, if you found that there's politicians that are funding the AI, then it would say. You'd say it's neutral.

No, I would not trust either of them.

Not trust. Okay, don't trust either.

Yeah.

Okay, so your current take is you don't trust politicians. Yeah, all politicians.

Anyone motivated by money who's reached the level to become a politician.

Got it.

You got to be pretty. Pretty nasty.

Gotta have a certain type.

Okay, yeah.

Thoughts on AI President vs Current President? I don't know.

It depends on what it's modeled after. Like, if I made the AI President. Yeah.

Then you'd go for it.

No.

Still no.

No?

No. Okay, so that's a. So no you would trust current president over AI President?

Well, no, I'm not saying that either. I would prefer neither.

Prefer neither. So no president. So then what does it look like then?

A vast forest.

Okay. I like that answer. That's really. You have great answers. Okay, if AI does become conscious, do you think it should have rights?

Yeah.

Like the right to vote?

I think they could have their own president. AI president for the AI people. Human president for the human people. And did the president each other?

Do the presidents work together or.

Sure.

Okay.

All right.

So that's kind of the view, though, is like, AI president for the AI Peeps. Human president for the human peeps.

Great.

I love it. Okay. If AI could feel pain and we could prove it, would turning it off be murder?

I don't know. No, because you could just take away. What, like, how they feel pain? Because that's not intrinsic to the function of AI.

The on, off switch.

Yeah. Yeah. That's like, separate.

I see.

That's like. I don't know. Well, I don't know.

No. Okay. Okay. Okay. Interesting. No. Yeah. All these. There's no right answer. Yeah, right for those. Especially the metaphysical ones. Okay, couple more. If AI took over, what job would you want in the robot apocalypse?

I would want to be a farmer.

Oh, hell yeah. What would you farm?

Vegetables.

Vegetables. Yeah. Like you've already. Have you envisioned this?

I've already done it.

You've done it?

Yeah.

Let's go. What?

That's great. That's what I want to keep doing.

Oh, that's so cool. So that's what you're feeding into your own garden?

Yeah.

Literally, that.

Yeah.

That's so cool. Okay, last one. Give me one word to describe how you feel about AI.

Bad.

Bad. Elaborate on that.

I just don't think it's the solution for anything. And I think we need to invest in what's already here and among us. And I feel like we already have the solution, so we don't need to start inventing more.

What do you mean by the solution?

Like the solution to all the problems we face. I feel like AI just, like, makes it infinitely more complicated.

Got it. So do you think in 10 years, will AI make the world better or worse?

Worse. Worse. At this rate.

At this rate, yeah. Okay. Got it.

Okay, I see my bus. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, yeah. Take care. Yo, this is great. If you want to look me up. The Robert Ta.

The Robert Taw.

And happy to talk philosophy at any time. I actually think that's great. I think more people should think about that. I think technology evolves when philosophy learns to ask the right questions. Right now, technology is evolving too fast, and I'm working on existential risk, and I really want to eliminate that so that when I bring kids in the world, I'm not worried about AI alignment. So I'm trying to solve that. I'm building in public, building open source. So if you want to follow me, give me a follow DM me, and then I'll make sure my social media team tags you when to put this out.

Okay?

Thank you. Have a great day. Hi, bud.

Here, here.

Come on. Yeah. Who's your baby? Who's the baby? All right, we're going to go. That was really good.