Cal Newport on Big AI “Doom Trolling”

Cal Newport wrote a New York Times op-ed calling on big AI companies to stop “doom trolling” and published a short summary of his argument on his personal website. He specifically criticizes some of the big AI companies for warning (or threatening?) that their technology could spiral out of control and put millions out of work or destroy society or humanity as we know it. His broad critiques are that the “doom trolling” is disingenuous and has a negative effect on people who read it. I agree with Mr. Newport regarding the existence of the “doom trolling” phenomenon, but I approach it from a different angle. One central reason the AI companies engage in “doom trolling” is because credulous journalists (both real and so-called) and social media types parrot whatever gobbledygook the big AI companies instruct their chatbots to spew. As I opined regarding Anthropic four weeks ago, “I respect Antrhopic’s ability to just post stuff that gets turned into free advertising my various news outlets.” “Respect” is of course the operative word there. We should never forget the human element in efforts to curb the doom trolling enthusiasm of big AI. Of course, another way to curb the doom trolling enthusiasm of big AI is to ensure that big AI sometimes receives what it pretends to ask for, see e.g., how Anthropic’s “doom trolling” combined with its arguably questionable security practices attracted the attention of a more powerful entity, the United States Department of Commerce.

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