Video summary
In this discussion regarding the future rise of AI and ChatGPT, Destiny reflects on concerns about professional replacement, citing a conversation with Rob Wiblin from the 80,000 Hours podcast who views his career as winding down in anticipation of being replaced by advanced robotics or chatbots. The dialogue challenges traditional notions that creativity and inspiration are exclusively human domains; while computers were once thought to be mere calculators, tools like Midjourney have already won art contests and triggered emotional responses from audiences, blurring the line between human-made and machine-generated beauty. This shift forces a confrontation with uncomfortable philosophical questions about existence itself: if an AI can convincingly create dialogue for fake people or generate full podcasts without real interaction, what distinguishes one's own reality from that of a "philosophical zombie"? The conversation suggests that at some point, the distinction between human and artificial creation may dissolve into mere accuracy thresholds rather than fundamental differences in essence. The potential dangers extend beyond art to the manipulation of public discourse and social media dynamics. Destiny highlights how current algorithms already reverse-engineer user desires to feed them "red meat," a process that could be amplified if AI creates content targeting individual pain points with unprecedented precision, effectively removing human creators from the loop entirely. This evolution threatens the future demise of the internet as we know it, where Eliot Yukowski predicts that a significant percentage of social media content will soon originate from machines. The technology has advanced rapidly; what was once considered impossible seven years ago is now reality, with AI capable of generating extended versions of movies like *Avengers: Endgame* or writing superior copy compared to average human professionals. Despite some initial fears regarding AGI being a civilization-ending threat as outlined in Nick Bostrom's 2014 book *Superintelligence*, the consensus seems to be shifting toward acceptance, with Destiny noting that society often normalizes new technologies quickly once they are deployed. A significant portion of the conversation addresses the psychological impact of AI on human relationships and social interaction, particularly regarding "AI girlfriends" and companionship bots. Destiny expresses concern that as chatbots become proficient at simulating human-like conversations, individuals may become addicted to these digital partners due to deep-seated emotional needs for connection in an increasingly atomized world. This phenomenon is linked to the broader issue of approach anxiety; while VR combined with language models could theoretically create a sandbox environment where people practice social skills without the fear of real-world failure or embarrassment, there remains a crucial element of prestige associated with being chosen by another human that AI cannot replicate. Even in scenarios involving paid companionship, such as escorting, the primary driver for many clients appears to be emotional loneliness rather than purely physical gratification, suggesting that the desire for genuine connection persists regardless of whether it is fulfilled by a biological person or an advanced algorithm. Ultimately, the dialogue concludes with a pragmatic acceptance of these technological shifts while acknowledging the limitations and uncertainties ahead. Destiny notes that computational limits like Moore's Law may be slowing down slightly as transistor sizes approach physical boundaries around three nanometers, yet AI capabilities continue to scale infinitely in ways previously unimagined. The fear is not necessarily about immediate obsolescence but rather adapting to a paradigm where human value must be redefined against the backdrop of machines that can mimic imperfection and creativity better than humans themselves. As with political predictions or other future trends, Destiny admits an inability to forecast exactly what life will look like in ten years, emphasizing instead the need for humanity to figure out how to exist within this new reality rather than trying to stop its inevitable progression. The overarching theme is a mix of unease and fascination as society prepares for a world where the boundaries between human experience and artificial simulation are increasingly porous.
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how worried are you about being replaced
by a gpt6
do you think is it going to take six the
five isn't going to do it no I don't
know but like I spoke to Rob wiblin guy
from 80 000 hours podcast like big in EA
effective altruism existential risk uh
and he basically said that he's like
looking toward the Twilight of his
career as he winds down to be replaced
by
like robot robot like Rob chat or
something
is there a is there something unique
about human creation do you think that's
not going to be able to be replicated by
cha GPT
down the line like within the next let's
say within the next 10 years
uh I think that AI is going to force us
to confront a lot of very uncomfortable
aspects of humanity that we have never
thought about before or maybe like
philosophers have thought about but
normal people haven't and I don't know
what answers we're going to decide what
like what's some examples
um what is art
a very very um so here on the broadest
sense computers are calculators and we
thought for a long time that that's all
they can do but things like creativity
inspiration that's exclusively the
domain of humans the computer's not
going to be able to create a beautiful
art piece make a symphony blah blah blah
right they clearly they can be comes
mid-journey smashing that exactly
winning art contests and triggering
people and you know now if you ever hate
artists online the funniest thing to do
is when somebody posts a picture uh just
go in the replies like this is so
beautiful what prompt did you use and
they'll lose their [ __ ] mind
um but yeah the um clearly like if a
human can do it a computer can probably
do it and that's a very unsettling thing
for a lot of people to realize and
there's man I feel so bad there's a lot
of philosophers like philosophy of
language and existence and all this [ __ ]
that they would have had a lot of
profound stuff to say but it's like what
is it like what does it mean for
something to even exist uh so for
instance like if I can start creating
stuff digitally Mike here's a question
okay I I can use an AI to make like a
fake person though right and now I could
get to the point almost where I can
convincingly create like dialogue comedy
like they can do like a full podcast and
you look at that and you're like okay
well that person's not real so it's not
the same and it's like well how real are
they compared to like me if we never
interact there's a lot of people watch
this will never interact with me real
life ever right is there a meaningful
difference between my existence and that
person's existence the person that isn't
even real everything's just like a p
zombie right a little bit yeah
um or even more like yeah like what does
it mean for a thing to even be that like
it's kind of a that's like a question
where it's like I'm really high but now
we actually have to really think about
that what does it mean for them to exist
what does it mean for them to be human
so what does it mean for you to be you
or what is it what is the threshold of
bandwidth and resolution at which you
need to be representing yourself for it
to actually be you does it need to be 95
because there are tons and tons of
things that you think and do that don't
come across externally right like your
inner world is a billion times richer
than what you represent to the outer
world and given the fact that all that
anybody else sees of you is what you
represent if you can find something that
does all of the outside stuff within you
know a couple of percents of accuracy
well what what does that mean that it
isn't you we basically there has to be
some axiomatic like foundational belief
that just says I'm going to Value
something because it's human but it's
like unjustified that's all it is
because like we can imagine a world
where AI is now creating art and maybe
people like okay well I only like
imperfect art because I know that it was
made by a human well an AI could make
imperfect artists and it's like okay
well right at some point it's like I
like it just because it's human made but
there's like no there's actually there's
no justification for that we thought
there was well it's beautiful because
it's Unique I can create you know things
well it's beautiful because it's
imperfect yeah I can be imperfect well
it uh you know like so you think that
it's just a question of
um like finesse and and resolution and
and uh how much detail this thing can go
into that let's say I don't know whether
you listen to the episodes that uh Joe
Rogan like it was AI Joe Rogan did with
AI
the dude that runs open Ai and they're
talking it's a full hour-long podcast
and that speaking backward and forward
but there's some things that are missing
in there fewer errors than you would
expect the laughs aren't quite right you
know basically the degree of humanness
hasn't been fully replicated but if you
roll the sophistication of the program
forward it just starts to oh well what
you need is someone to get the word
wrong three times and forget someone
so the imperfect nature gets brought in
all right so are you are you out of a
job within 10 years
um I have no idea uh we got to figure
out how it's going to work and then
you've got to exist within that Paradigm
and figure out how to work it because
yeah I mean obviously this is a thing
that's coming and you're not going to be
able to stop it because the technology
is out there it's freely available for
people to work on and iterate on
um I'm not going to pretend to predict
what the future is going to look like 10
years from now seven years ago I thought
that it was impossible something like
Trump could ever be president so why
would I try to predict the future of AI
yeah what about the danger of
AI created content online we obviously
had one two thousand one was a Cambridge
analytica 2016. yeah I think so yeah the
Facebook stuff yeah yeah so Cambridge
analytical for the people that don't
know was able to create I was able to
deploy very very targeted ads at super
small cohorts of people that they the
pain points of those people were
understood
at least the copy and the advert for
that had to be created by a real human
it would feed back up to the humans and
then you get some [ __ ] shadowy cabal
of Vietnamese copywriters to come and
like do whatever the meme is that you
make and then you make a joke about
Hillary now you can do both ways for
this so you can find out which person
has which pain Point feed that into an
algorithm and have an individually
created piece of content that targets
precisely their unique personality to
nudge their preferences in one way or
another
surely that's [ __ ] terrifying yeah of
course yeah I don't know what the I'm
not gonna be able to give you the answer
to that just just thinking about the
future demise of the internet I suppose
as well you know with social media what
humans have been trying to do and this
is what audience capture is at its heart
is they're trying to reverse engineer
the desires and preferences of the
people that they can reach then feed red
meat to that audience but when you have
algorithms working in both directions it
completely cuts out the content creator
so I wonder I don't know within not very
long ellioto yukowski reckons that like
[ __ ] X percent of all content on
social media is going to be created by
machines okay well I don't know are we
going to be able to compete with that I
have no idea yeah yeah it's going to get
spookier when AI is creating like
full-length like movies and songs and
stuff too
oh [ __ ] so yeah so nothing's safe yeah
exactly so like how yeah what is that
because we again we imagine we we
appreciate things because like it was
made by a person we think that's
probably not true though right the
important thing is that we think it was
made by a person but if it wasn't like
given the fact that we presumed that the
domain of creativity and art was
something that you need to humans yeah
but actually no they can do it better so
for instance right like unobjectionably
um copywriting the the average
copywriter on the Internet is probably
not as good at copywriting as gpt4 is if
you were to say write me an advert for
this two-bedroom apartment in Austin
city center GPT for on average we'll be
able to do that better than the average
copywriter scale that all the way up
then you could the [ __ ] I was just
thinking imagine if in five years time
you could type into whatever the new
version of chat gbt is
uh create me a 10 hour extended version
of Avengers end game uh in which this
thing happens
and it'll probably be able to render
that for you maybe yeah
with all of the original characters with
everybody in there
yeah it's pretty crazy and the
technology is all like it's funny
because we keep seeing the graphs of
like this is like technology it's like
this and it keeps saying like well it's
gonna slow down eventually but you got
to figure like what 20 years ago we
didn't really even have cell phones yes
I think I was 18 when the first iPhone
came out I think it was 2007.
well remember that the the limitation at
the moment I don't think is
computational Moore's law which is that
is every three years or every
so the number of transistors will devil
every year however many years right
that's I think that is starting to
actually top out a tiny little bit I
don't know if it is or not we're in town
at like I remember I thought it was like
16 nanometers or maybe 20 nanometers was
like the theoretically smallest distance
between transistors and I think the new
tensor [ __ ] or whatever coming for the
next uh Google phone is like three
nanometers uh ismozlo finally ending um
I feel like people are writing articles
like that for the past like five years
perhaps what's the status quo consensus
is that Mozilla is slowing down it might
soon be augmented and then drive
improvements further right yeah [ __ ] off
yeah that's hard to know yeah yeah okay
um and then yeah like look at this AI
stuff where it was like three two or
three years ago I don't think we cared
much it was still kind of like a meme
and now in like two years it's like [ __ ]
game over what's happening did you ever
read super intelligence or listen to it
no so it's a book by Nick Bostrom who it
was like these seminal this is how AGI
is going to [ __ ] us in the ass and it
came out 2014. it's kind of technical
but it's a good listen on Audible it's
one of the books on my on my reading
list and um I remember remember saying
on this very podcast probably four years
ago I totally got red pilled by Nick
Bostrom I was adamant that this was
going to be the end of [ __ ]
civilization and this is what's going to
happen and now I'm actually kind of
sweet with it I don't think the AGI is
that big of a threat all of the promises
that were made and all of the fears that
came out the back of it haven't happened
and in the last six months this has
completely been [ __ ] turned on its
head yeah and it's like oh right and
this happened off basically chat Bots
and you go what a chatbot is able to do
just scale that up infinitely and that's
like [ __ ] civilization have you seen
the movie Her
no everyone keeps on [ __ ] telling me
to watch it uh just a guy that falls in
love with like a chatbot basically yes
but like um like here's something that I
said
um that and I still believe this is true
I think that our acceptance for new
technology I think it happens very
quickly and it's normalized very quickly
like there are some things we think
would like would never happen but as
soon as it does we'll all accept it very
fast here's one thing that I'm a little
bit worried about is I think that at
some point
chat Bots are going to get really good
at having very human-like conversations
with you and I think the idea of having
like a girlfriend chat bot I think that
once those get good enough I think
people will get very addicted to that
very quickly and it'll be like [ __ ]
you'll have like thousands or tens of
thousands hundreds of thousand people
that have like these kind of like
Discord girlfriends that are just chat
Bots and it sounds like silly and it
sounds stupid and it sounds dumb but I
think as soon as you get one that
communicates at a good enough level with
you I think people would actually get
hooked on it human desire is a very long
lever that you can press down on
um I mean you have seen this in your
YouTube comments I haven't recently but
I did a little while ago people
unironically commenting just hold on
boys the sex robots are coming soon yeah
and that was before language learning
models and chat GPT and stuff there was
a white pill that one of my friends in
evolutionary psychologist called William
Costello told me which is you could
imagine a world in which uh VR plus
language learning models plus very
Advanced AI would create a Sandbox in
which both men and women could learn how
to interact with each other and Flow it
and it would almost be like a game so
you would practice flirting and then
that would allow you to take it because
one of the problems and one of the
reasons that people have approach
anxiety is that the cost of practicing
and the cost of failing are exactly the
same every day is game day you don't get
to go up and have practice rounds you if
you fail it's embarrassing in the real
world there's no like that's what I
always say when people are asking me
like how do you like if I want to like
practice talking to women and everything
like what do I need to do and it's like
it's super super easy you just need to
have a lot of friends that are girls and
like freshman year of high school
but if you're like 26 and you have none
you're like you're [ __ ] this is a very
high but do you go into the gym why are
you going to the gym at 34. sure yeah a
little bit well no it's not because
going to the gym is fine I can go and
lift on my own and if you fail and snap
your [ __ ] yeah that's but at least
that's on my own but like social
interaction is like so much but it's
like I've been friends with girls my I
had a friend group of girls because I
went to a Catholic High School that was
all boys and my friend group of girls
was at a high school it was all girls so
I was hanging with them I was getting
tons of female interaction my whole high
school life so talking to women for me
is like not a big deal but if you're
like 22 and you've never had like a lot
of friends that are women where the [ __ ]
do you start holy [ __ ] yes that's very
very very very very very very daunting
yeah so it's like a hard thing to
overcome yeah one of the
potential like again that was so one of
the white pills would be VR creates a
Sandbox in which people can practice
another reason why the AI girlfriend
thing is maybe not quite as seductive
for guys or girls is that there is still
no status attached to it because you're
not being chosen so there is an element
of prestige associated with being
selected and if all that you require
it's like no one brags about the fact
that they have an only fan subscription
that they're paying to like anybody with
the price of a cheeseburger spare per
month has an only fan subscription what
is special is being selected
I don't know I'm not sure I think that
that is special but there's a very real
emotional component to it as well that
might be more important yeah so maybe
the selection thing is whatever but if
the emotional thing is high enough
because like there are people that get
really I I used to think this was
[ __ ] but um the more women I've
talked to that have done escorting the
more it seems to be true that a lot of
the people that pay for escorts really
aren't looking for like an awesome
prostitute all night they really are
just looking for like companionship
um and there's no status to buying an
escort other than I guess you have the
money to afford it but like the the
emotional companionship that you get
from it is like so big it's like [ __ ] it
I'll pay for it if you're sufficiently
lonely because you're living in this
atomized pod Universal basic income
world that yeah it's hard to think like
in our world like walking into
um I think um I [ __ ] hate the guy but
Andrew Tate said this and it's PR I
think it's probably true that pulling up
to a party in like a [ __ ] with the
most expensive Bugatti in the world is
not as impressive as walking into a
party with four really hot women right
yeah it's um so like but and that's
maybe people in our world might think
like that but if you're like a guy who's
like 27 years old and you've never had a
friend that's a girl before are you
really thinking is that guy at home
listening like God I just wish I had a
girl that liked me so I could show
everybody how cool I am or seriously
like I really wish everyone would just
talk to me because I want like that
companionship you probably just wants
the emotional connection you know yeah
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