I've been thinking a lot about the AI doomsday scenario - obviously it has been a bit in our face with the gentleman from Anthropic coming forward saying there is a 10% chance it kills everyone. What I don't understand is why this one seems to be getting more attention than previous whistleblowers.
This isn't the first person to come out and say this and some have put the numbers higher. Sure, you always have the conspiracy theorists, but other seemingly reputable people from Google, OpenAI have already said similar things. Heck, Elon leaving OpenAI was rumored to be over "trust" issues that stem from the same sentiment.
The first question that came to my mind was why now? He wasn't the first, he really didn't say anything new that I've seen, so why now is this one a big deal? Quickly realizing this could go in a lot of different directions, that frankly, are beyond my control or influence, led me to the more important question.
What can I do about it?
Throwing my hands up, screaming into the void, disappearing into the wilderness are options. And bow hunting season is now open in Wisconsin, so there is that. But these don't move the needle… no matter how hard I try to justify more time in the woods.
Seriously though, what can be done? It seems the Catholic Church and Pope Leo XIV have already answered this question with the Magnifica Humanitas. An encyclical on safeguarding the human person.
Regardless of your beliefs and how you may live those out, I think there are some moral operating principles in here that map out what each of us can do. First of which is that human dignity can not be replaced by technology. The contrast is profound and simple.
If we are using AI to serve our own pride and sacrificing human dignity to achieve our ends, we know - and are training AI in real time - that humans can be disposable.
If we are using AI rightly to serve others, to free our capacity to do the more meaningful work serving relationships we know - and training AI in real time - that we build each other up.
The technology is genuinely cool. It is easy to geek out on, and it opens up more than I could have imagined. But at the end of the day, how we put it to work is what makes the difference. The technology has to serve the person, not replace them.