[ExI] that ai video

[spike at rainier66.com]

From: John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> 
Subject: Re: [ExI] that ai video

 

On Wed, Jan 21, 2026 at 8:18 AM spike jones via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org <mailto:extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> > wrote:

 

> All of my AI predictions have been wrong: we got there on all of it before I expected it.

 

A lot of people over-estimated the difficulty of achieving AI because they looked at the incredible complexity of biology …John K Clark

 

 

Ja.  In my own case I may have been overly influenced by how long it took from the first chess software until it could beat nearly everyone: about 40 years.  The progress was steady in that area.  But it isn’t in AI.  ChatGPT was a true breakthrough.

 

In chess, it was very clear that the use of software greatly improved human play, for the best talent could get a good game always.  In my own misspent youth, a talented player could only get a good game at the club, once a week, and even then if a kid can beat the adults, he stops advancing.  Chess software solved that.

 

OK then, carrying the lessons over, I am interested in AI as a teaching tool.  I have seen what it can do, or at least a little of what it can do.  It will cause humans to be much better educated, right up until the time it kills everybody.

 

Oh, on that note… I had an early appointment this morning, and I tuned into talk radio.  The hosts of that show are not tech hipsters, just a coupla guys.  They spoke of the singularity, without feeling the need to define it.  Exactly four weeks ago today I was on a similar early run and listened to the same two guys.  That was the first time I ever heard the term singularity on mainstream radio.  Today was the second.  The hosts were going over stuff we have been pondering on this forum for 30 years, the fear, the possibilities of unimaginable wealth if it decides it likes us and wants to help us, the possibility that the singularity will create unimaginable wealth but one guy owns all of it, etc.  These concerns are mainstream.  We are no longer hipsters.  We live in remarkable times.

 

spike

 

 

 

  

 

 

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