In Harlan Ellison’s disturbing 1967 quick story “I Have No Mouth, and I Should Scream,” a sentient superintelligence named AM has taken over the earth’s sources and exterminated humanity after combining the powers of three US, Soviet, and Chinese language supercomputers into one. A small group of survivors has been saved alive for AM’s amusement, compelled to roam the supercomputer’s countless digital innards.
It is a grim setting, however evidently one which billionaire tech tycoon and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt imagines for the way forward for humanity, if his feedback to the Home Committee on Power and Commerce are any indication.
“What we’d like from you,” Schmidt informed lawmakers, “is we’d like the vitality in all types, renewable, non-renewable, no matter. It must be there, and it must be there rapidly.”
The wannabe tech overlord was showing in entrance of the federal government panel to speak AI — particularly, what the longer term holds for it.
“Many individuals mission demand for our business will go from 3 p.c to 99 p.c of whole era… an extra 29 gigawatts by 2027 and 67 extra gigawatts by 2030,” he asserted. “If [China] involves superintelligence first, it modifications the dynamic of energy globally, in ways in which now we have no means of understanding or predicting,” Schmidt mentioned, even echoing the backstory of Ellison’s cautionary story.
Schmidt’s American exceptionalism — the concept that the US is superior to all different international pursuits — is nothing new, and neither is his wild-eyed model of AI hype. In 2023, CNN reported that “42 p.c of CEOs say AI might destroy humanity in 5 to 10 years.” But if right now’s tech is any indication, AI has an extended trek via the slop earlier than it will possibly even suppose of destroying humanity, not to mention siphoning 99 p.c of the earth’s vitality.
What’s new is Schmidt’s insistence to Congress that Chinese language “superintelligence” is coming to get us, a declare Power committee chair Brett Guthrie referred to as a “sober evaluation.”
That is a troubling response, on condition that many AI researchers consider that kind of pc intelligence is very unlikely to hit anytime quickly.
So why inform lawmakers the alternative?
Like many different tech billionaires, Schmidt has a private curiosity not solely in rising the AI business, but additionally in scaring lawmakers into handing over the keys to the dominion. It is a technique often called “company seize,” and it has been a very efficient transfer for Silicon Valley giants like Uber, which has been given virtually full authority to put in writing its personal guidelines.
With regards to AI, tech tycoons are notably anxious about vitality, as the info facilities powering their soon-to-be-superintelligent algorithms eat megawatts for breakfast. Because the race to develop essentially the most superior AI mannequin heats up, corporations like Elon Musk’s xAI are resorting to less-than-legal means to keep away from ready for pesky EPA rulings and bothersome energy grid assessments.
Late final yr, Schmidt was caught hiding direct investments in AI startups all through his tenure as chairman of the Nationwide Safety Fee on Synthetic Intelligence — little doubt an enormous battle of curiosity, however “technically authorized,” in response to ethics consultants.
Eat your coronary heart out, Ellison.
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