Hi,
I had a different episode ready for you this week. Then a researcher walked out of Anthropic saying the people building AI believe it could kill us all by the end of the decade, four chief executives said the industry should slow down, the President of the United States said it shouldn’t, and Sheryl Crow told Instagram to pay attention.
So that episode has moved to next week, because this one needed answering first. The question I’ve been asked most since, in the corridor, the car park and by email:
How could AI actually kill us all?
Should I be worried?
And what am I supposed to do about it from my desk?
In this episode
This episode is my answer, and it’s the middle way. Not doomer, not accelerationist. Using our judgement before handing things to AI.
What actually happened, in three minutes, without the hype.
The three facts that make the worried, worried: AI learns as a crowd while we learn in silos, it improves itself, and it doesn’t follow rules slavishly, so tell it not to use the door and it may use the window.
Why the labs can’t just add another rule, and why it looks a lot like a prescription drug cascade.
The evidence on the other side, which is stronger than the headlines let on.
Who should be in the room before you say anything to your staff, and whether gut feel is worth anything when the experts admit their numbers are a wild guess.
Six things you can do this month, none of which needs you to be an AI expert and none of which you do alone.
Download the companion
30 minutes, no jargon. In the show notes there’s a free companion download, called “Quite a lot, actually”: the six actions you can take - with action points and getting started tips for each one.
Download the guide to this episode here…
Are you going in circles with your AI plans?
And if you’re the HR leader who’s been handed AI, I’m running a free 45-minute webinar on Wednesday 30 September at midday, “How HR leaders get to an AI plan the CEO will sign” and I’m delighted to say that it’s only been announced today and it’s already filling up. Link below.
Here’s a question for you to think about:
When the AI headline reaches your organisation, who gets asked first about it, and is it the right person or just the nearest one?
Register for the webinar here…
[How HR leaders get to an AI plan the CEO will sign, Wednesday 30 September, 12:00]
Stay Sovereign,
