Another optimistic take on AI

Disclaimers

The current discussion in Debian aroun the AI GR is very heated, and I won’t add to that, however, I am very confused about some of the viewpoints there. But, I had no idea how to even try to write this, so did shut up, until I saw Aigars’ excellent Optimistic take on AI, which motivated me to try, at least. For the record, I fully subscribe to the post, and to the voting suggestions (and I just voted).

Also, for full disclosure, I don’t think I did any contribution to Debian until now using AI, neither packaging, nor emails, nor bug reports. And this blog post specifically is 100% hand written.

With that out of the way… there are two points I want to make in this post.

AI is useful, even if it has risks

First is, that even if we could put the genie back in the metaphorical bottle, we should not. We do need to continue working towards safe AI, and efficient AI (less environmental impact), but we should not work towards removing the usage of AI. There are already significant advancements in sciences and technology thanks to the use of AI, so desiring AI to not exist (assuming we had a magical wand) is the wrong approach.

Sure, AI has significant risks — and I can see ways in which AI can do significant damage to society — but I don’t think we can go from Kardashev I to II without the use of AI, and definitely not to III. And I think, that should be the goal.

A few simple examples: Do we want to rollback all the 20 years old security issues that AI found? Do we want to rollback the recent Moderna cancer findings? Do we want to rollback the concept of “extremely large scalle pattern matchings”, just because it runs on chips and no longer in one person’s head?

Reading Debian lists

The second point is, lately I found less and less enjoyment in reading Debian lists. Even with that already being the case, I feel soo disconnected from many of the opinions being voiced in this discussion.

On one hand, it’s normal and healthy that people have different opinions, disagree, and move foward.

On the other hand, looking at one of the proposed options:

• “Moderators and disciplinary teams may make narrow and tailored exceptions to rule 4, and decide on interpretation”.
• “Violations of these requirements should be treated as violations of the relevant Code of Conduct and should result in swift and proportionate disciplinary action”.

I already knew Debian, and some large parts of the OSS world, is left leaning. But those phrasings, to me, are too close to socialism/communmism. As someone who grew up under communism, this is a much more slippery slope (disciplinary teams? really?) than AI usage. Ask me in person for more details.

So, it is possible that Debian continues to evolve in such a way that I don’t find myself in any way close to its ongoing culture. I will be sad at that point, but it will be what it is.

Where to?

I think that, until such a time that an AI bubble bursts, what any organisation should do is try to logically see where and if AI can help. And in an organisation that is about computer software, I see hundreds of places that are subject to very large scale pattern matching… so the half of the discussion is, to me, mind-boggling.

To be clear, it’s not about “if you can’t beat them, join them”. As I wrote above, I think AI is useful, so the point is how to use it effectively.

Well, will see what Debian votes. I am half curious, half sad alreay.