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Comment by RALaBarge

19 hours ago

Regardless of the imagination quandary, this second, RIGHT NOW is the worst these systems will ever be. They are only going to get better.

I don't know if he's right, but Peter Zeihan thinks the breakdown in globalization will negatively affect the ability to continue to improve the chips that AI depends on[0]. Too many steps in the supply chain, too widespread, too vulnerable to deglobalization.

0: https://zeihan.com/the-ai-race-to-regression/

  • An invasion of Taiwan would definitely slow progress but it wouldn’t stop it.

    We already have sufficient hardware that algorithmic (software) improvements alone should get us to GPT 7 / Greek Reference 6 even if not a single new chip is delivered to an AI data center ever again, starting today.

Maybe, maybe not. It's not unreasonable that these systems cap out at some point, or perhaps fizzle away entirely.

The businesses that create these systems are not profitable and run at a massive historical and go-forward loss.

New data centers required to operate these systems are facing increasing pushback at local levels. New construction is not guaranteed. Energy and power grid constraints exist as well.

Government regulation is way behind. What happens when (if) mass layoffs due to AI occur? How does the population react? Theoretically AI can be regulated out of significant progress, or outright existence for many purposes. At the end of the day, US and other prominent governments make the calls, not corporations.

  • For better or for worse, this technology isn't going away any more than search engines, smartphones, or social media have gone away.

    • These inventions all stopped disrupting the world and just became a part of it. The question is whether LLMs are going to just take their quiet place, or profoundly change (or eliminate) humanity in a self-feeding frenzy towards singularity.

  • > It's not unreasonable that these systems cap out at some point, or perhaps fizzle away entirely.

    Yeah, like computers and mobile phones did. Things that have utility, even if not immediate or initially obvious, don't fizzle out.

Those nuclear powered flying cars envisioned in the 50s were also inevitable progress of the automobile.