This is a linkpost for https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/S3bpZvLWta7wbkJi4/widening-overton-window-open-thread
Major news outlets have published articles about the Future of Life Institute's Open Letter. Time Magazine published an opinion piece by Elizer Yudkowsky. Lex Friedman featured EY on his podcast. Several US Members of Congress have spoken about the risks of AI. And a Fox News reporter asked a what the US President is doing to combat AI x-risk at a White House Press Conference.
Starting an Open Thread to discuss this, and how best to capitalize on this sudden attention.
Links:
WH Press Conference: https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1641526864626720774
Time Magazine: https://time.com/6266923/ai-eliezer-yudkowsky-open-letter-not-enough/
FLI Letter: https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/
I'm currently thinking that if there are any political or PR resources available to orgs (AI-related or EA) now is the time to use them. Public interest is fickle, and currently most people don't seem to know what to think, and are looking for serious-seeming people to tell them whether or not to see this as a threat. If we fail to act, someone else will likely hijack the narrative, and push it in a useless or even negative direction. I don't know how far we can go, or how likely it is, but we can't assume we'll get another chance before the public falls back asleep or gets distracted (the US has an election next year, so most discourse will then likely become poisoned). This is especially important for those in the community who are viewed as "serious people" or "serious organizations" (lots of academic credentials, etc.)