Quote · Modern Wisdom
Why The AI Doomers Might Be Right - Robert Wright - #1122
Where this was said
The AI Risk That's Most Underappreciated: Inevitable Destabilisation
At 39:10 · chapter starts 37:32
Wright revisits what he regards as the most underappreciated risk: not a dramatic doom scenario but the sheer probability of widespread destabilisation. Just as individuals are at their wisest when calm, Wright contends, the global community will handle AI most responsibly when it is tranquil — which means reducing international tensions is not merely a nice-to-have but a prerequisite for wise AI governance. Chris pushes back by raising the COVID comparison: even with a real-time, universally visible crisis killing people in every country simultaneously, international coordination was catastrophically poor. Wright largely concedes this, noting that COVID introduced zero-sum dynamics (who gets the vaccines?) that partially explain the failure, but argues the most discouraging lesson is not the pandemic itself but the aftermath. The possibility that COVID was caused by a lab-leak — a genetically engineered organism that escaped accidentally — received almost no serious international discussion about transparency or prevention. That silence, Wright says, is the most disheartening data point about our collective readiness for AI-era risks.
Robert Wright believes widespread social and economic destabilisation from AI is nearly unavoidable, regardless of whether individuals ultimately find new opportunities.
Chris Williamson argues COVID was the worst kind of 'vaccine' for pandemic preparedness — making societies more sceptical of future pandemics and less likely to coordinate responses.
