Super interesting read, thanks for writing this! I have been thinking a bit about the US and China in an AI race and was wondering whether I could get your thoughts on two things I have been unsure about:
1) Can we expect the US to remain a liberal democracy once it develops AGI? (I think I first saw this point brought up in a comment here), especially given recent concerns around democratic backsliding? (And if we can’t, would AGI under the US still be better?)
2) On animal welfare specifically, I’m wondering whether the very pragmatic, techno-optimistic, efficiency stance of China could make a pivot to alternative proteins (assuming they are an ultimately more efficient product) more likely than in the US, where alt-proteins might be more of a politically charged topic?
I don’t have strong opinions on either, but these two points first nudged me to be significantly less confident in my prior preference for the US in this discussion.
Great points, I agree both of those are concerns, and don’t have much to add. I think the risk of further democratic backsliding in the U.S. is very real, and could be AI-exacerbated. But I suppose a risk of backsliding is better than China already being autocratic.
And interesting re alt proteins, yes that seems quite plausible to me! If this ends up being hte crux it would probably be worth foing more surveys and social science work to understand this better.
Super interesting read, thanks for writing this! I have been thinking a bit about the US and China in an AI race and was wondering whether I could get your thoughts on two things I have been unsure about:
1) Can we expect the US to remain a liberal democracy once it develops AGI? (I think I first saw this point brought up in a comment here), especially given recent concerns around democratic backsliding? (And if we can’t, would AGI under the US still be better?)
2) On animal welfare specifically, I’m wondering whether the very pragmatic, techno-optimistic, efficiency stance of China could make a pivot to alternative proteins (assuming they are an ultimately more efficient product) more likely than in the US, where alt-proteins might be more of a politically charged topic?
I don’t have strong opinions on either, but these two points first nudged me to be significantly less confident in my prior preference for the US in this discussion.
Great points, I agree both of those are concerns, and don’t have much to add. I think the risk of further democratic backsliding in the U.S. is very real, and could be AI-exacerbated. But I suppose a risk of backsliding is better than China already being autocratic.
And interesting re alt proteins, yes that seems quite plausible to me! If this ends up being hte crux it would probably be worth foing more surveys and social science work to understand this better.