Generative A.I - We Aren’t Ready.
Summary
TLDRThe video explores the concept of the 'Dark Forest Internet,' where the proliferation of generative AI has made it increasingly difficult to discern genuine human interactions and content online. Drawing parallels to the three-body problem in Chinese sci-fi, it argues that the internet is becoming a hostile environment where human users are forced to retreat into private spaces to avoid digital predators like bots, trolls, and synthetic content. The video warns that without robust verification systems, the internet risks being overrun by AI-generated misinformation and manipulation, challenging our ability to pass a 'reverse Turing test' and prove our humanity in an increasingly synthetic digital world.
Takeaways
- 👽 The Dark Forest theory suggests that intelligent civilizations remain silent to avoid being preyed upon by more advanced ones, similar to how real users on the internet hide from digital predators.
- 🌳 The internet is becoming a 'Dark Forest' due to the rise of bots, AI, misinformation, and other digital threats, making it harder to discern authentic human interactions.
- 🤖 Generative AI, like ChatGPT, is rapidly generating synthetic content at an unprecedented scale, accelerating the 'darkening' of the internet.
- 🕵️♀️ The Turing test, which measures a machine's ability to exhibit human-like behavior, has been effectively passed by large language models like ChatGPT.
- ⚖️ A 'Reverse Turing Test' is emerging, where AI systems must prove they are human to distinguish themselves from synthetic content.
- 🚨 Without robust verification systems, the internet risks being overrun by AI-generated spam, scams, and misinformation.
- 👥 Meeting in person, institutional verification, triangulating objective reality through communication, and embracing algorithmic incoherence are proposed ways for humans to signal their authenticity online.
- 🎭 Creating unique internet culture, such as memes and slang, could help humans stay ahead of AI and maintain a distinct online presence.
- ⚡ While AI promises amazing outcomes like improved education and medical breakthroughs, it also poses significant risks, such as voice cloning scams, if not approached cautiously.
- 🔮 The script warns that humanity is not ready for the rapid proliferation of AI and urges careful consideration of the next steps to avoid getting lost in the 'Dark Forest' of the internet.
Q & A
What is the 'Dark Forest' theory presented in the script?
-The 'Dark Forest' theory refers to the idea that intelligent civilizations intentionally hide their presence and remain silent in the cosmos to avoid being preyed upon by more advanced civilizations. The script draws a parallel between this theory and the current state of the internet, where real human users are increasingly retreating into private spaces to avoid digital predators like bots, advertisers, and misinformation.
How is generative AI contributing to the 'Dark Forest' internet?
-According to the script, generative AI models like ChatGPT are flooding the internet with synthetic content at an unprecedented scale. Companies and bad actors can easily create thousands of AI-generated accounts, websites, articles, and social media posts, making it increasingly difficult to discern real human-generated content from synthetic content.
What is the 'reverse Turing test' mentioned in the script?
-The 'reverse Turing test' refers to a modification of Alan Turing's original imitation game, where the objective is reversed. Instead of machines trying to prove they are human, technologies and language models will be tasked with identifying real human-generated content amidst the growing synthetic content on the internet.
What are some practical advice given in the script for humans to signal their humanity online?
-The script suggests several tactics, including: 1) Meeting people in real life ('meat space'), 2) Institutional verification of one's identity, 3) Triangulating objective reality by communicating with others, 4) Becoming 'algorithmically incoherent' by using internet-specific language and memes that AI models cannot keep up with.
Why does the script mention the potential need for institutional verification of one's identity?
-The script suggests that institutional verification of one's identity, although dystopian, may become unavoidable in an age of generative AI. This could involve having to verify one's identity in person before registering a website, writing an article, or even posting on social media to ensure that the content is human-generated and not synthetic.
How does the script describe the potential negative outcomes of generative AI proliferation?
-The script warns of potential harmful outcomes, such as phone scammers using synthesized voices to scam people, deepfakes of public figures causing chaos, and the inability of platforms like Twitter to sort synthetic content from real content. The author expresses concerns that humanity is not ready for the rapid advancement of generative AI.
What is the author's perspective on the future of human culture online in the age of generative AI?
-The author suggests that human culture, such as internet-specific language, memes, and in-group dialects, may be one aspect that could outpace AI culture and help signal one's humanity online. However, the overall tone is one of concern and a warning about the potential dangers of generative AI proliferation if not properly addressed.
How does the script connect the 'Dark Forest' theory to the current internet landscape?
-The script draws a parallel between the 'Dark Forest' theory in which intelligent civilizations hide their presence to avoid predators, and the current state of the internet where real human users are retreating into private spaces and curated communities to avoid digital predators like bots, misinformation, and synthetic content.
What is the significance of the 'capture' example given in the script?
-The 'capture' example is used to illustrate a form of reverse Turing test, where systems like websites need to determine if the user is a real human or a bot. The script suggests that as generative AI proliferates, such systems will become increasingly important to protect online spaces from being overrun by synthetic content and spam.
How does the script characterize the potential positive outcomes of generative AI?
-While the script primarily focuses on the potential negative consequences of generative AI, it acknowledges that the technology could lead to amazing outcomes, such as providing free world-class education to every child and potentially finding a cure for cancer through the use of large intelligent systems.
Outlines
🌐 The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet
This paragraph introduces the Dark Forest Theory of the Internet, as proposed by Yansy Strickler. It explains that just like the Dark Forest Theory in the sci-fi novel 'The Three-Body Problem' where civilizations hide from each other to avoid being preyed upon, human users on the internet are increasingly retreating to private spaces to avoid digital predators like bots, advertisers, and trolls. The declining realness of the web is attributed to this phenomenon.
🤖 The Rise of Generative AI and Its Impact
This paragraph discusses the rapid advancement of generative AI technology, which can create new text, images, videos, and sounds from training data. It highlights how generative AI is exacerbating the Dark Forest Internet by enabling the creation of synthetic content at an unprecedented scale. The example of an SEO Heist, where AI was used to generate 1,800 articles to divert web traffic, is cited as an indication of what's to come. The paragraph emphasizes the need to address this challenge before the internet becomes overwhelmed with misinformation and synthetic content.
🧠 Passing the Reverse Turing Test
This paragraph explores the concept of the Reverse Turing Test, where the objective is for machines to prove that they are human. It contrasts with the original Turing Test, where the goal was for machines to pass as thinking entities. The paragraph discusses practical advice from cultural anthropologist Maggie Appleton on how humans can signal their humanity online in the age of generative AI. Strategies include meeting in person, institutional verification, triangulating objective reality, and becoming algorithmically incoherent by using internet-specific language and memes.
🚨 A Cautionary Conclusion
The final paragraph serves as a cautionary conclusion. While acknowledging the potential benefits of AI in areas like education and healthcare, it expresses concern about the harmful outcomes that could arise if the proliferation of generative AI is not carefully managed. The paragraph warns that society is not ready for the challenges posed by this technology and emphasizes the need for thoughtful consideration of the next steps to prevent getting lost in the darkness of the Dark Forest Internet.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Three-Body Problem
💡Dark Forest Theory
💡Generative AI
💡Turing Test
💡Reverse Turing Test
💡SEO Heist
💡Human Signaling
💡Algorithmically Incoherent
💡Dark Forest Internet
💡Misinformation
Highlights
In the three-body problem Chinese sci-fi, author Leu Sushin offers a solution to the famous Fermi Paradox - the universe is a 'dark forest' where intelligent life is hidden and hostile, as broadcasting one's presence invites predation from advanced civilizations.
Yansy Strickler's 'Dark Forest theory of the internet' explains the declining realness of the web, where real human users are hiding in private spaces to avoid digital predators like bots, advertisers, and trolls.
Generative AI's rapid spread is making the internet's 'dark forest' even darker and more dangerous, as it becomes harder to distinguish real human content from synthetic AI-generated content.
Misinformation expert Nahschik estimates that the majority of online content will be synthetic within the next year, driven by the exponential growth of tools like ChatGPT.
Companies are already using AI to rapidly generate content at scale, outpacing human capabilities, as demonstrated by an 'SEO Heist' that stole web traffic from a competitor.
Passing the famous Turing test, where a machine convincingly imitates human intelligence, is no longer the primary challenge - instead, humans now face a 'reverse Turing test' of proving their own humanity amidst the AI-generated content.
As AI proliferates, non-human systems will increasingly be tasked with identifying genuine human content through 'reverse imitation games', such as CAPTCHA tests currently used to filter out bots.
Without reliable systems to distinguish synthetic from human-generated content, the internet risks becoming a cacophony of AI-driven noise and misinformation.
Maggie Appleton offers practical advice for 'human signaling' online: meet people in the physical world, pursue institutional verification of identity, triangulate objective reality through communication, and create 'algorithmically incoherent' internet culture like memes and slang that outpaces AI models.
Showing up in the physical world and meeting people face-to-face may be the quickest way to prove one's humanity to others in an AI-driven online environment.
Institutional verification of identity, potentially through in-person checks before posting online, may become a necessary if dystopian solution to combat AI-generated misinformation.
Communicating grounded experiences that reflect unique human traits like sensory perception and community belonging can help distinguish humans from current AI models trained on limited datasets.
Creating 'algorithmically incoherent' internet culture through memes, slang, and evolving language could signal one's humanity by outpacing the generalization tendencies of language models.
While AI promises amazing outcomes like widespread education and medical breakthroughs, we are not ready for the potential harms like voice cloning scams and misinformation, necessitating careful consideration of next steps.
The rapid proliferation of generative AI risks plunging us into an online 'dark forest' where it becomes difficult to discern reality from AI-generated content, requiring new strategies to preserve human authenticity and signal our humanity.
Transcripts
in the three-body problem Chinese sci-fi
author Leu Sushin offers a solution to
the famous firm Paradox the universe is
not empty of life rather the universe he
writes is a dark Forest there is life
throughout it but it's both hidden and
hostile why because any intelligent life
foolish enough to broadcast its presence
to the cosmos is immediately prayed upon
by other more advanced civilizations
patience and so the fmy Paradox isn't
one life is out there but it's
intentionally
silent as sci-fi as the theory sounds
you're more familiar with the idea than
you think every day we live more and
more of our lives on the internet in the
digital and every day that space is
flooding more and more with Bots
advertisers trolls data scrapers
clickbait influencers and Mindless
social media mobs looking for today's
main
character the internet feels steadily
more lifeless but that's because like
those alien civilizations the real human
users are hiding in private apps servers
and RSS feeds lest they be beset by
these digital
Predators this is yansy strickler's Dark
Forest theory of the internet something
to explain the declining realness of the
web and I know you feel it it's hard not
to when most photos are shopped
influence is bought engagement is a
meaningless number and every article
reads worse than a high schooler's first
essay unfortunately with the now
Unstoppable spread of generative AI the
forest is about to get a lot darker and
a lot more
dangerous when you and I last spoke
about generative AI or AI that can
generate new text images videos sounds
from training data I was merely
speculating on how this new technology
might change your digital life but you
know it already is don't you when's the
last time you clicked on anything
believed any headline or any social
media post not wanting to go through the
time and effort to check whether or not
it's ground truth whether or not it has
the right context whether or not it's
made by an actual person how could you
not feel overwhelmed in an increasingly
lifeless and dangerous
internet the Dark Forest internet and
generative AI is probably why you've
retreated to the places you still get
provably human interactions with people
you might even know private spaces like
text messages emails discords and slacks
there have always been advantages to
these more curated spaces of course but
as cultural Anthropologist Maggie
Appleton points out generative Ai and
large language models like chat GPT are
going to force us further into our
digital bunkers and impenetrable silos
echoey though they may be because the
Dark Forest internet is exponentially
expanding misinformation expert nah
schik estimates that the majority of
online content will be synthetic within
the next year case in point chat gbt and
its users are currently generating more
text than has ever appeared in every
physical book ever written every two
weeks so by now um language models have
turned uh into lots of very easy to use
products right you don't really need any
technical skills to use them so these
are a bunch of like very popular
copywriting apps that are out there in
the world here's just one of the
examples of what's coming from
Appleton's talk the expanding Dark
Forest and generative AI the reason I'm
making this video imagine that some
political lobbyists spin up 1,000
decently intelligent AIS that can
generate text and video and then they
tell each of them to go be influencers
the Bots then instantaneously make
accounts on most social media platforms
they generate their own websites they
publish independent books with
synthesized voices they make many
documentaries on YouTube they host each
other on podcasts individually they all
appear to make a reasonable human amount
of content but taken together these
human lobbyists have created an
automated content ring of lifeless
engagement at a scope and scale that
would take any one human a lifetime to
create and
curate this is all possible with the
technology that we have right now and it
appeared almost out of nowhere in just a
few months um but the point is that this
is incredibly easy to do at this point
with with no technical skills Appleton's
example isn't just hypothetical
companies are doing this right now in
the November of 2023 Elon musk's mistake
user Jake Ward tweeted this we pulled
off an SEO Heist that stole 3.6 million
total traffic from a competitor AI
allowed Ward to quickly and easily
export a competitor's sitemap turn their
list of URLs into article titles and
then in a matter of just hours create
1,800 articles from those titles that
directed web traffic away from that
competitor now imagine this kind of
strategy for every single corner of the
internet every business every chatbot
every influencer pulled off faster and
more efficiently than any human could
even
conceptualize this is what's
coming the Dark Forest
expands just over a year ago we weren't
sure any technology or indeed chatbot
could pass the famous Turing test but
now faster than we were ready for and
without our consent humanity is faced
with maybe a more interesting question
how how will we humans out here in the
dark looking for light pass the reverse
Turing
test Alan turing's seminal 1950 paper
Computing machinery and intelligence
opens with a simple question can
machines think turns out thinking is
pretty hard to Define so instead he
proposed a simple test an imitation game
he called it imagine that you're an
interrogator of two entities your job is
to determine through written text alone
which is the human and which is the
computer if a computer can fool you into
thinking it is the human then that
machine will have passed what came to be
known as the Turing test since touring
his test was the popularly understood
Benchmark for thinking machines and for
those of us outside the wired walls of
computer science the Turing test never
really seemed passable it was like The
Uncanny Valley problem for graphics
technology computers are always getting
closer and closer to rendering
believable humans but you can always
tell something is off turns out primate
brains naturally selected over millions
of years are pretty good at recognizing
faces but everything changed with chat
GPT suddenly hundreds of millions of
people around the world realized that
the Turing test had been passed
the large language model you can learn
exactly how it works in another video
now rates higher than human doctors on
bedside Manor scores better than 90% of
lawyers on the bar and 99% of graduate
students on the gr unsurprisingly every
sector of human endeavor that trades in
on human intelligence which is all of
them is now rushing to incorporate this
technology in some way I've said that
because of Technology like chat GPT
everything is about to change
but I don't just mean humans losing
their jobs or falling in love with
chatbots I mean that turing's
fundamental assumption in his imitation
game that a human will have to decide
what passes for human is no longer valid
in all cases a reverse Turing test is a
modification of the original where the
objective of one or more of the roles
has been reversed as AI proliferates
into every corner of the Dark Forest
internet other non-human machines will
increase inas inly be tasked with a
reverse imitation game where language
models and other technologies will try
to prove that they're human capture is
an example of a reverse Turing test it
may soon not be the case but right now
there are still no systems sophisticated
enough to reliably read and reproduce
distorted images of text and so the
capture computer decides that any
successful deciphering must be done by a
human a test like this is important
because without it you can imagine
websites being overrun by spam scams and
Bots but it seems inevitable now that
they will be the specific phrase that
llms use to identify themselves as an AI
language model has started to show up in
Amazon reviews Yelp reviews tweets and
Linkedin posts everywhere specifically
because we don't have the capture
equivalent protecting those spaces
to these systems the AI may as well be
human the time is coming and coming very
soon when we will need captal likee
systems in place socially politically
commercially to determine what is
actually human generated content lest
everything you see online just add to
the cacophony of a dead internet we
don't have these systems yet and if and
when we do they are likely to lag
dangerously behind what massively
incentivized generative AI will be able
to do by that point do you really think
a platform like Twitter will be able to
sort the synthetic from the Simeon and
make the Right Moves here when it's
basically just posting its way
through the
apocalypse so how do you tell other
humans and thinking machines that you
are in fact human on a dark Forest
internet
Maggie Appleton has some practical
advice for human signaling online in an
age of generative Ai and the first is
Right Here show up in meat space meet
other people go outside and actually
touch grass something no doubt was lost
when our digital lives became more
important than our physical ones so
let's go out there and reclaim it this
is not as fun or as accessible as the
internet before it went dark but it's
probably the quickest and easiest way to
prove that you are a human to other
humans the institutional verification of
your humanness feels the most dystopian
idea but it may be the most unavoidable
it would have to be something that goes
beyond a blue check mark that you pay a
rich man Bay before maybe before
registering a website writing an article
or even posting to social media you have
to show up in person somewhere and
verify that you are in fact you and not
just an image or voice that could be
easily
generated internet culture grew up
around hating this idea in principle but
it may be impossible to avoid when any
bad actor for free can fool millions of
people into thinking that the pope has
drip or deep fake of President declaring
nuclear
war the last two tactics Appleton offers
takes advantage of the fact that current
AI models are indeed machines machines
trained on certain data sets from
certain places and at certain times
knowing this we can come together online
and triangulate objective reality with
each other to prove our Humanity our
brains are constantly producing models
of the world and check those models
against sensory input current AI models
cannot do this they don't know any facts
people or world events that came into
being after their most recent round of
training and they don't feel the world
like you do they don't belong to
communities they don't reflect on
themselves and their history or enjoy
the richness of sensory experience by
communicating with each other online in
a way that reflects the aspects of
humanity apart from intelligence we can
simultaneously have more grounded
interactions and be sure that a human is
on the other side of the screen finally
we can distinguish ourselves in the dark
Forest by becoming what Appleton calls
algorithmically
incoherent large language models like
chat GPT only work by sequencing words
that are the most statistically likely
to go together in response to a prompt
based on vast amounts of training data
because of this these models hedge and
generalize in other words they basic
this gives real humans an opportunity to
reclaim one aspect of Internet culture
that is still the most fun creating
internet specific culture no language
model will be able to keep up with the
pace of weird internet lingo and memes
Appleton writes using jargon euphemistic
Emoji unusual phrases ingroup dialects
and memes of the moment will help signal
your Humanity end quote it's possible
that human culture could continue to
outpace AI culture like teenager culture
outpaces their parents Maybe Riz and Gat
will end up saving something uniquely
human online I wish I was able to end
this warning on a happier note I really
do and make no mistake I am 100% certain
that Ai and its proliferation will lead
to some amazing outcomes I think it
could provide free worldclass education
to every child in the world and it would
just be on their phone I think if
anything is going to find a cure for
cancer it's going to be one of these
large intelligent systems but for me it
is much easier to think of many more
much more harmful outcomes phone
scammers using your synthesized voice to
scam your parents
from a single
photo we are not ready for what's coming
and we need to think about our next
steps very carefully lest we all get
lost in the
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Darkness
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