(Ahem)
I’m curious whether:
Anyone is aware of a database/spreadsheet of popular media related to AI, including works such as the Terminator series, Bostrom’s Superintelligence, Tom Scott’s short Earworm video, Rob Miles’ “10 Reasons to Ignore AI Safety”, (maybe: “When the Yogurt Took Over”,) etc.
People think that it would potentially be useful to create (or expand) such a database, probably including basic, semi-objective details like “when was this published” and “how many views does it have / how many copies has it sold” and perhaps including some coding of details like “genre” and “plot points” (e.g., AI evil vs. AI benevolent vs. other, fast-takeoff vs. slow-takeoff)?
I’ve just thought that it might be helpful to have this basic data in case later researchers would like to make claims regarding, e.g., the impact of such media on public awareness, temporal or conceptual trends in AI fiction.
In case skill constraints are a concern, I think this very likely could be done as part of a research project that utilized interns who don’t have better alternatives. (And, as I hinted in that post, I think that even if the research findings are not significantly beneficial on balance, the experience/opportunity may be valuable for early-career career capital or networking)
For fiction, AI Impacts has an incomplete list here sorted by what kind of failure modes they’re about and how useful AI Impacts thinks they are for thinking about the alignment problem.
Thanks for sharing this, it seems like a good start on what I had in mind!