Contrary to the Artificial Intelligence apocalypse fears brought back into the conversation by AI researchers warning that the technology could pose a serious threat to humanity, attendees at Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference in San Francisco had other things on their minds.
People at the conference were still worried about AI. Still, according to a Business Insider report, their concerns were less about an AI-driven extinction and more about its impact on jobs, mental health, the environment, privacy, and how deeply the technology is becoming part of everyday life.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, speaking at Dreamforce, has said that “some degree of accidents are unavoidable with new technology.” He added, however, that what matters to him is having “a great culture of accident reporting and learning.”
David Adubiina
AI taking over the world is not the immediate worry
Dean Levita, a local tech worker attending Dreamforce, said he was mostly unconcerned about AI causing human extinction.
Instead, he compared the discussion around catastrophic AI risks to earthquake warnings in the Bay Area. People can understand that a major earthquake could happen without believing that one is about to happen.
“It’s cautionary, it’s not imminent,” he said.
That view was also reflected in the response from Henry Sandles, who was attending Dreamforce with Sara Jamison to learn more about Salesforce because they regularly use the software at their nonprofit, which preserves a historic railroad.
When asked about fears of AI causing human extinction, Sandles responded, “We’ve been here before.”
He said he trusted that people would be able to shut down AI before it caused serious harm.
“I just can’t see computers being smarter than humans,” Sandles said.
For Jamison, however, there was another AI concern that felt much more real.
Data centers are another AI concern
Jamison said she was more concerned about the environmental impact of the data centers being built to support AI.
She was happy about AI being used to automate boring work, but did not want the technology being used for art.
Ashleigh Kaye, another attendee visiting from Oklahoma, also raised concerns about data centers, particularly their impact on electricity prices.
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