[ExI] Is AI about to take off fast?

[Stuart LaForge]

On 2025-05-27 16:48, spike jones via extropy-chat wrote:
> …> On Behalf Of Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat
> 
>> …People keep promising massive civil unrest.  Now that conditions
> are here which should generate it, I'm seeing a lot of nothing on that
> front.  …
> 
> The protest signs would be incomprehensible:
> 
> Stop the Singularity
> 
> No AI in Our Schools
> 
> Carbon Based Intelligence Only
> 
> Rage Against the MACHINE
> 
> What do we want?  We don’t really know!  When do we want it?  We
> don’t know that either!

Give it time. The layoffs have already begun. Take into account that 
most states offer 26 weeks of unemployment benefits, and then the shit 
will start hitting the fan.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2025/05/10/big-layoffs-are-hitting-these-sectors-the-hardest/

> Before civil unrest can possibly mean anything, it needs focus.  We
> have had over 3 decades, and we don’t know what is the focus either.
>  Imagine how puzzling this is to people who learned about AI for the
> first time from then VPOTUS and AI czar, who made a speech on it in
> July 2023:
> 
> “I think the first part of this issue that should be articulated is
> AI is kind of a fancy thing  First of all, it’s two letters. It
> means artificial intelligence, but ultimately what it is, is it’s
> about machine learning.  And so, the machine is taught — and part of
> the issue here is what information is going into the machine that will
> then determine — and we can predict then, if we think about what
> information is going in, what then will be produced in terms of
> decisions and opinions that may be made through that process.”
> 
> OK.  Suppose a civil restless refers to that speech, knowing nothing
> else about AI.  What will she put on her protest sign?  How about;
> 
> No Fancy Things
> 
> More than Two Letters!
> 
> Teach Machines the TRUTH
> 
> Well, what then?

Alfred Henry Lewis once wrote “There are only nine meals between mankind 
and anarchy”. Hunger has been the focus of many instances of historical 
civil unrest such as the French Revolution. While every CEO loves the 
idea being able to use AI to cut the costs to produce their goods and 
services, if every company and government lays off enough of their 
employees, then there will be fewer and fewer people who can afford to 
buy their goods and services. At that point the rich will either have to 
live in fortresses protected by private armies while civilization 
collapses around them, or they will have to pay the taxes necessary to 
fund a Universal Basic Income program. Never in history have a large 
percentage of the population meekly starved to death for the sake of the 
ruling class.

Stuart LaForge