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Juan P. Cadile's avatar

I agree with mostly everything. But worry about the conclusion. Sure one may write for people who aren’t informed and thus believe the hype. But it seems like not battling that is worse than staying on the sidelines watching it all pass by.

It also seems like the strongest parts of your argument would not apply if the funding agency is actually philosophical in nature and not accelerationist nor doom sayers

Maybe I’m wrong, happy to hear back from you!

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Eric Wilkinson's avatar

Thanks for reading, Juan! I think you're right, generally. Of course, someone can in principle receive funding to study AI that is not beholden to or the result of the hype-cycle, but much of the actual money for AI research in our present ecosystem can be traced to those forces. So, we have to be careful.

And I agree that entering the fray is better. We need more, better work on AI, the trouble is that the incentives are structured to encourage people to enter the fray on the side of the hype.

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