Longreads + Debates
During the summer break, we present curated collections of controversial longreads and podcasts. In this edition, it's all about the AI wave and the potential impact on jobs, economy, society.
Longreads
AI and the automation of work by Ben Evans: Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) have the potential to revolutionize software capabilities and automation. While their impact on jobs is uncertain, historical evidence suggests that new jobs are created with each wave of automation. However, concerns arise due to the rapid adoption of LLMs. Will this wave be different? The article explores the "Lump of Labour" fallacy, the Jevons Paradox, and the potential for LLMs to reshape industries.
Hallucinations in AI by John Luttig: The author compares the early stages of the internet and crypto to the current state of AI. While previous technologies saw few participants initially, resulting in substantial profits for those involved, AI is different. After the launch of ChatGPT, there has been a surge of interest from researchers, developers, VCs, and startups. However, the author suggests that in the deployment era of advanced language models (LLMs), only a few players may emerge as winners. They argue that the AI revolution is unevenly distributed, leaving much of the technology industry uninformed and biased. The author encourages skepticism and critical thinking when encountering AI narratives, emphasizing the importance of seeking firsthand information and experiences.
Why transformative AI is really, really hard to achieve by Arjun Ramani, “A collection of the best technical, social, and economic arguments”: The potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionize society and drive economic growth is widely debated. However, this blog challenges the notion that AI will drastically exceed the growth rates achieved by previous transformative technologies. The authors outline three key hurdles: the constraints of AI's hardest problems, the remaining technical challenges, and the social and economic barriers to widespread AI adoption.
Why AI Will Save The World by Marc Andreessen: This is the very popular piece by the a16z-Founder Marc Andressen about why AI isn’t a killer software and robots that will spring to life and decide to murder the human race or otherwise ruin everything, like you see in the movies.
Yet open: A deep dive into xAI, Elon Musk’s announced intent to create Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) to understand the true nature of the universe:
Podcasts
The Lex Friedmann-Episode with George Hotz is just brilliant. A three-hour conversation about the danger of (human) intelligance, using David Foster Wallace “Infinite Jest”-Video Tape as analogy to the new AI-Tiktok, why Meta is the company to bet on, how to become fully independent with a tinybox and much more. A brilliant young mind.
A special “Moment of Zen”-episode with Marc Andresseen and Anton Troynikov on Why AI Will Save the Word. This conversation originally took place on Twitter Spaces, where Anton and Marc talked about Marc’s recent provocative essay (see longread above).
Enjoy reading and listening!
-Felix