Comment by areoform
7 hours ago
How would it be lethal? Please specify. What would that theoretical entity be able to do that hasn't been done many, many times before?
7 hours ago
How would it be lethal? Please specify. What would that theoretical entity be able to do that hasn't been done many, many times before?
I was writing a long reply about how even meat bags have amassed enough money and power to rival elected governments. I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility to think an AI could do that.
Couple that with mass unemployment in an incredibly vast, diverse population of individuals with individual moral boundaries willing to do whatever for money.
And then.. figured that you must be aware because it's been explored constantly in sci-fi for many, many years.
Let's hope for the culture at least.
Before we discussed how important security was, we got insurance, we made libraries and products, we used compliance software, etc. Except how honest were we about all that stuff? How much risk was actually in the air, and what was keeping us accountable on security in either direction of over or under-investment?
Now a reckoning is here. The potential to be attacked might actually translate to being attacked.
People have died due to ransomware attacks on hospitals. Powerplants have been attacked. Stuxnet and industrial control malware exists.
What will the AI do that hasn't been tried before?
Quite correct with that question.
I believe the universal answer is: incompetent malicious actors are now capable too. Which implies the pool from which to draw the intersection between capable and malicious has grown. (That's my reading)
Design a novel virus which is far more lethal than COVID-19 (Ebola, smallpox, take your pick) and can evade existing vaccines.
How?
What would the AI do that mutating viruses, which try every possible viable combination on their own --- eventually, can't?
Everything is trying to kill humans constantly. There are around 200 epidemic events or so per year that could turn into pandemics, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49620521
They do not try every viable combination on their own. That's why GoF is a bad idea.
Viruses evolve in a highly locally-optimal way and simply do cannot add new functional proteins wholescale. It's too many steps, natural selection has to allow survival at each intermediate step.
Humans, however, can do this for them.