The Rise of AI U3: Trust, Manipulation, and Societal Fallout

I’m not a natural “doomsayer.” But unfortunately, part of my job as an AI safety researcher is to think about the more troubling scenarios.

I’m like a mechanic scrambling last-minute checks before Apollo 13 takes off. If you ask for my take on the situation, I won’t comment on the quality of the in-flight entertainment, or describe how beautiful the stars will appear from space.

I will tell you what could go wrong. That is what I intend to do in this story.

Now I should clarify what this is exactly. It's not a prediction. I don’t expect AI progress to be this fast or as untamable as I portray. It's not pure fantasy either.

It is my worst nightmare.

It's a sampling from the futures that are among the most devastating, and I believe, disturbingly plausible – the ones that most keep me up at night.

I’m [...]



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Outline:

(01:28) Ripples before waves

(04:05) Cloudy with a chance of hyperbolic growth

(09:36) Flip FLOP philosophers

(17:15) Statues and lightning

(20:48) A phantom in the data center

(26:25) Complaints from your very human author about the difficulty of writing superhuman characters

(28:48) Pandoras One Gigawatt Box

(37:19) A Moldy Loaf of Everything

(45:01) Missiles and Lies

(50:45) WMDs in the Dead of Night

(57:18) The Last Passengers

The original text contained 22 images which were described by AI.

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First published:
February 7th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/KFJ2LFogYqzfGB3uX/how-ai-takeover-might-happen-in-2-years

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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