Oppenheimer's grandson joins call for global action on AI and other existential threats

[midian182]

What just happened? A group of over 100 global figures from the worlds of business, politics, and other fields have signed an open letter urging global leaders to address current and future existential threats, including AI, climate change, pandemics, and nuclear war.

The letter, published Thursday, comes from The Elders, a nongovernmental organization set up by former South African President Nelson Mandela, and the Future of Life Institute, a nonprofit that aims to steer transformative technology towards benefiting life and away from large-scale risks.

Signatories of the letter include billionaire Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, former United Nations General Secretary Ban Ki-moon, and Charles Oppenheimer (grandson of J. Robert Oppenheimer). It's also signed by several former presidents and prime ministers, activists, CEOs, founders, and professors.

"Our world is in grave danger," the letter starts. "We face a set of threats that put all humanity at risk. Our leaders are not responding with the wisdom and urgency required."

The changing climate, the pandemic, and wars in which the option of using nuclear weapons has been raised are cited as examples of current threats. The letter states that worse could come, especially as we still don't know just how significant the emerging threats associated with ungoverned AI will prove.

"Long-view leadership means showing the determination to resolve intractable problems not just manage them, the wisdom to make decisions based on scientific evidence and reason, and the humility to listen to all those affected."

The letter calls for governments to agree on certain items, such as agreeing how to finance the transition away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy, relaunching arms control talks to reduce the risk of nuclear war, and creating an equitable pandemic treaty. When it comes to AI, the suggestion is to build the governance needed to make the technology a force for good, not a runaway risk.

MIT cosmologist Max Tegmark, who set up the Future of Life Institute alongside Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn, told CNBC that The Elders and his organization do not see AI as "evil," but fear it could be used as a destructive tool if it advances rapidly in the hands of the wrong people.

The Future of Life Institute also published the open letter last year that called for a six-month pause on advanced AI development. It was signed by 1,100 people, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Elon Musk, and Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp. That letter didn't have its intended effect; not only did AI companies fail to slow down development, many actually sped up their efforts to develop advanced AI.

Comparisons between AI and nuclear war aren't new. Experts and CEOs warned of the extinction risk posed by the technology last May. And even ChatGPT-creator OpenAI says an AI smarter than people could cause the extinction of the human race.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/101898-oppenheimer-grandson-joins-call-global-action-ai-other.html

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Is Oppenheimer's grandson qualified in his own right? Weird that he gets top billing when other more relevant and contemporary figures also signed on to the letter.

 

[BakaRed77]

Is Oppenheimer's grandson qualified in his own right? Weird that he gets top billing when other more relevant and contemporary figures also signed on to the letter.

This was my first thought too. And from the quick google search I made I would say he isn't anyone of importance in this matter and no one would even care if they didn't just make a movie about his grandfather.

 

[Homerlovesbeer]

Meh,

This constant state of "Alarmism" is ridiculous. No, we are not all going to suffer due climate change, we'll be just fine. Nuclear war, no amount of letter writing will change that risk.

AI is the only thing you can change, regulation and ethical restrictions are needed.

 

[Nobina]

Clout seeker

 

[scavengerspc]

Dear Mr Charles Oppenheimer,

Many that you are talking to are Americans. We DO NOT act. We Re-act.
And if it's too late, we point the finger at someone else.
Even if they are the ones that tried to warn us.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

The elite is terrified that AI might wake the peasants up to reality.

 

[atomicgirl]

Is Oppenheimer's grandson qualified in his own right? Weird that he gets top billing when other more relevant and contemporary figures also signed on to the letter.

Well, we have Brits and other foreign nationals reinventing American history and politics by way of mass media and history, so naturally the grandson of a notorious figure that Christopher Nolan apparently idolized to base a biopic around is going to take top billing over our own public figures.

 

[Endymio]

...naturally the grandson of a notorious figure that Christopher Nolan apparently idolized to base a biopic around is going to take top billing.

Instead of Oppenheimer, Nolan should have instead chosen the much more colorful (and admirable) Ed Teller. A Jew that escaped the Nazis to emigrate to America, he was not only a member of the Manhattan Project, but he also gave us the Hydrogen Bomb, and was the driving impetus behind the SDI program, which ultimately gave us the ability to guard against these weapons, albeit imperfectly. And unlike the communist sympathizer Oppenheimer, Teller never regretted the contribution he made to America.

 

[wiyosaya]

Instead of Oppenheimer, Nolan should have instead chosen the much more colorful (and admirable) Ed Teller. A Jew that escaped the Nazis to emigrate to America, he was not only a member of the Manhattan Project, but he also gave us the Hydrogen Bomb, and was the driving impetus behind the SDI program, which ultimately gave us the ability to guard against these weapons, albeit imperfectly. And unlike the communist sympathizer Oppenheimer, Teller never regretted the contribution he made to America.

There's more to Oppenheimer's story - in fact, he helped uncover soviet spies. https://theconversation.com/how-the...enheimer-the-father-of-the-atomic-bomb-204885

 

[Endymio]

There's more to Oppenheimer's story - in fact, he helped uncover soviet spies. https://theconversation.com/how-the...enheimer-the-father-of-the-atomic-bomb-204885

Err, no he didn't. I've read all this long ago; your link says no such thing. While working on the Manhattan Project, Oppenheimer (as a known communist sympathizer) was approached with an offer to spy by Haakon Chevalier, a Berkeley professor working secretly as a Soviet recruiter. Instead of immediately reporting that contact as required by his security clearance, Oppenheimer kept it secret for many months, and when he finally reported it, he gave false information designed to hide Chevalier's identity. He only finally disgorged Chevalier's name after the professor had already come under suspicion from other sources. This incident was the primary reason Oppie had his own security clearance revoked.

 

[atomicgirl]

Instead of Oppenheimer, Nolan should have instead chosen the much more colorful (and admirable) Ed Teller.

Nolan should've chosen a Brit to profile for his biopic and not an American, because he's a foreign national who knows virtually nothing about American culture, history or lore, much like the other foreign national pseudo-intellectual directors (Jane Campion, Andrew Dominik, et. al) who keep being given carte blanche to do movie treatments of our culture and icons.

Keep in mind that I'm not saying that Ed Teller shouldn't have been chosen for a biopic; I just resent the idea of foreign nationals being tapped to do movies about America. Nolan has plenty of WWII-era Brits to profile, like Alan Turing and Winston Churchill. People like him need to stay in their own lane.

 

[p51d007]

Finally got around to watching the Oppenheimer movie. No disrespect to the actor, who looked a LOT like him, but to me the movie was more of a documentary and was boring.

 

[Endymio]

Nolan should've chosen a Brit to profile for his biopic and not an American, because he's a foreign national who knows virtually nothing about American culture, history or lore, much like the other foreign national pseudo-intellectual directors..

Do you criticize Shakespeare for writing a play about Danish prince Hamlet? Why, he never even *saw* the country!

Instead of being racists, why don't we judge people by their accomplishments, not their nationality. I'm not an Oppenheimer fan, but the fact remains that Nolan is easily one of the top five directors working today.

 

[ZedRM]

Is Oppenheimer's grandson qualified in his own right?

Qualified or not, his name carries weight.

The points made carry serious merit. A.I. is a potentially very dangerous type of tool. If left unchecked and unregulated it could become a very serious problem or even disaster.

 

[atomicgirl]

Do you criticize Shakespeare for writing a play about Danish prince Hamlet? Why, he never even *saw* the country!

Hamlet was a fictional character. He wasn't a real person.

Oppenheimer was a real American figure, whose legacy Americans tried to bury, precisely because of how troublesome it was.

Instead of being racists, why don't we judge people by their accomplishments, not their nationality. I'm not an Oppenheimer fan, but the fact remains that Nolan is easily one of the top five directors working today.

It's racist to not want a foreign national who knows nothing about your culture to rewrite history? And then, to top it off, has his own countrymen playing your figures? Give me a break

Nolan is one of the top five directors working today because as the saying goes, in a land where everyone is blind, the one-eyed man is king. In a better time, critics would've wiped the floor with him with his terrible sound mixing masking an obvious hearing problem.

 

[atomicgirl]

Qualified or not, his name carries weight.

His name never carried any weight in this country. Oppenheimer was an obscure figure until a Brit movie director decided to profile him.

 

[Endymio]

Oppenheimer was a real American figure, whose legacy Americans tried to bury...

Really? America "buried" the development of nuclear weapons? Funny, I could have sworn we built several thousand of them, and keep building them to this day.

It's racist to not want a foreign national who knows nothing about your culture to rewrite history?

In your world, is a black woman from Nigeria allowed to write about George Washington? A simple yes or no will suffice.

And Nolan didn't "rewrite history". Far more so than the normal Hollywood film, Oppenheimer is historically accurate. Had an American done it, they likely would have rewritten history to make Oppy a cross-dressing animal rights activist.

 

[ZedRM]

His name never carried any weight in this country.

You must live in Antarctica..