Seen so much squawking out there in the world about the nebulous concept known as “AI Risk.” But I’m not worried about AI risk. I’m worried about people being assholes to people. And it’s not just a risk, it’s a certainty.

I remember Ran quoting somebody on r/psychonaut not long ago, I think about what are the best things you can do to prepare for a psychedelic trip: and the answer was something to the effect of all the same good things you can do during ordinary states of consciousness. And I think AI Risk/Safety as a topic is basically the same thing: all the bad things people can do without AI, they will also do them with AI, plus a few exceptionally shitty new ones that AI specifically enables.

There’s not a whole lot more interesting stuff to say on the issue these days, with everything else going on. More than enough evil in the world without trying to invent hypothetical future ones…