- OpenAI’s Chris Lehane says negative opinions about artificial intelligence ‘have consequences’
- AI can “create incredible economic opportunities,” he says
- Public opinion about artificial intelligence as a whole is not very positive
OpenAI’s Vice President of Global Policy Chris Lehane wants to reframe the conversation around AI and its benefits to humanity, telling San Francisco Standard“”This is not fun and games…This is really serious shit.”
“Our job at OpenAI and in the AI space — and we need to do a much better job — is to explain to people why … this is going to be really good for them, for their families and for society,” Lehane says.
Trust in artificial intelligence continues to decline among the American population, with a recent Pew survey showing that only 17% believe that artificial intelligence will have a positive impact on the United States over the next 20 years.
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Public opinion is not on AI’s side
Commenting on the two sides of the AI debate, Lehane said: “You have a group that is effectively saying, ‘This is going to be the greatest thing ever, everyone is going to be living in beach houses and painting in watercolors while they’re away from their days.’ And then you have another extreme, which I will call the Doomers, who have a very, very negative and dark view of humanity.”
He added that AI companies have not helped these perspectives on AI by making announcements and comments about how AI might affect the future. “You’ve had a number of things that have been put out there — but haven’t materialized — about extreme things that are going to happen,” he said.
Lehane said he understands people are concerned about the effects artificial intelligence could have on society, specifically on the job market, bills and the potential harm it could cause to children, but compared those concerns to those people had before other technological leaps.
Somewhat contrary to Lehane’s remarks, the negative effects of AI are already being felt by ordinary people with almost none of the promised benefits. Block has cut nearly 40% of its workforce in favor of AI alternatives. Pinterest is set to lay off 15% of its workforce by 2026 and replace them with artificial intelligence. Several other companies including HP, IBM, Salesforce and more have announced AI-related job cuts.
Call me a ‘doer’, but job cuts, data centers pushing up energy prices and a growing number of AI psychosis cases may be reasonable grounds to distrust the promised benefits of AI.
So what’s on the table? A recently released OpenAI whitepaper [PDF] has explored all the ways AI can “create incredible economic opportunities,” Lehane says.
These include “Adaptive safety nets that work for everyone,” funded “by increasing reliance on capital-based income – such as higher capital gains tax at the top, corporate income or targeted measures for sustainable AI-powered returns.”
The white paper also claims that artificial intelligence can “help solve scientific challenges that still elude human effort: curing or preventing disease, alleviating food scarcity, strengthening agriculture under climate stress, and accelerating breakthroughs in clean, reliable energy.”
The paper concludes: “We offer these ideas not as fixed answers, but as starting points for a broader conversation about how to ensure that AI benefits everyone.”
Convincing the wider public that OpenAI still has humanity’s interests at heart is a tough sell, especially given the upheaval and corporate evolution of a company that started as a non-profit dedicated to securing AI “for the benefit of all humanity.”
Addressing the growing opposition to data center construction and AI development will be an entirely different battle.
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