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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'> extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org> <b>On Behalf Of </b>BillK via extropy-chat<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] AI Model Collapse<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>On Fri, 30 May 2025 at 16:49, spike jones via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p></div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><p class=MsoNormal><br>I was astonished by a comment by a TV host who does programs about various jobs and industries, Mike Rowe. …<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><br>"...We've got a huge labor shortage and the push to get to the AI thing over the finish line. That means data centers. We've got to train people to build these data centers..." Mike Rowe<br><br>…<br><br>spike<br>______________________________________________<o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>>…<span style='color:black'>I asked Perplexity AI to research this question.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>It said "Polls show 63% of adults haven't heard the term "recursive self-improvement".<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>But techies are aware of the problem.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>Full report below.</span><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> <span style='color:black'>BillK</span><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><div><div><div><div><p class=gmail-my-0><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=gmail-my-0><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>>…<span style='color:black'>Perplexity AI - <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class=gmail-my-0><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>>…<span style='color:black'>Public awareness of AI's recursive self-improvement risks remains <strong><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>limited but growing</span></strong>, concentrated primarily in technical and policy circles rather than mainstream discourse. Below is a detailed breakdown of current awareness levels and key knowledge gaps:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'><hr size=2 width="100%" align=center></span></div><h2 id=gmail-awareness-levels-across-groups><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>>…<span style='color:black'>Awareness Levels Across Groups<o:p></o:p></span></span></h2><p class=gmail-my-0><strong><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>1. Technical Communities</span></strong><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><ul type=disc><li class=gmail-my-0 style='color:black;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><strong><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>High awareness</span></strong><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>: 78% of AI researchers recognize RSI as a critical risk factor in AGI development <span class=gmail-whitespace-nowrap><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recursive_self-improvement" target="_blank"><span class=gmail-hoverbg-super>5</span></a>.</span><o:p></o:p></span></li><li class=gmail-my-0 style='color:black;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><strong><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Active debates</span></strong><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>: Forums like LessWrong and arXiv host ongoing discussions about alignment challenges and containment strategies.<o:p></o:p></span></li></ul><p class=gmail-my-0><strong><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>2. Policy Makers</span></strong><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><ul type=disc><li class=gmail-my-0 style='color:black;mso-list:l5 level1 lfo2'><strong><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Moderate awareness</span></strong><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>: Recent EU AI Act amendments reference "autonomous self-improvement systems" but lack specific RSI safeguards <span class=gmail-whitespace-nowrap><a href="https://www.datapro.news/p/the-risks-of-recursive-self-improvement" target="_blank"><span class=gmail-hoverbg-super>4</span></a>.</span><o:p></o:p></span></li><li class=gmail-my-0 style='color:black;mso-list:l5 level1 lfo2'><strong><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Gaps</span></strong><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>: Only 12% of national AI strategies explicitly address recursive capability growth <span class=gmail-whitespace-nowrap><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/future-ai-why-recursive-self-improvement-may-lead-hard-gary-ramah-grn5c" target="_blank"><span class=gmail-hoverbg-super>2</span></a>.</span><o:p></o:p></span></li></ul><p class=gmail-my-0><strong><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>3. General Public</span></strong><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><ul type=disc><li class=gmail-my-0 style='color:black;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo3'><strong><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Low awareness</span></strong><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>: Polls show 63% of adults haven't heard the term "recursive self-improvement" <span class=gmail-whitespace-nowrap><a href="https://lew.ro/in-5-years-ai-will-write-and-improve-its-own-code-are-we-on-the-brink-of-recursive-self-improvement/" target="_blank"><span class=gmail-hoverbg-super>6</span></a>.</span><o:p></o:p></span></li><li class=gmail-my-0 style='color:black;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo3'><strong><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Misinformed perceptions</span></strong><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>: Media coverage often conflates RSI with generic AI risks like job displacement or bias.<o:p></o:p></span></li></ul><div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'><hr size=2 width="100%" align=center></span></div></div></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>BillK, thx. If you read thru the text of the former VPOTUS speech on AI, the one with the infamous “…it’s two letters… a kind of fancy thing…” comments, the risk she pointed out was that AI would run companies without understanding or compensating for human bias. BIAS! This is how the government thinks of the risk of AI? We have a TV guy who is an expert in industry interested in getting “the AI thing over the line” in order to solve the labor shortage in the office, while the former VP and AI czar warns of bias, while coming across like a fifth grader reporting on a book she hadn’t read.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>Elon Musk commented recently that AI poses a real existential risk, 20% chance of destroying civilization in the next decade. Yet that comment made so little public impact that I can’t even find it now, which is making me wonder if he ever said it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>