It's not clear whether that will mean the end of humanity in the sense of the systems we've created destroying us.
Douglas Hofstadter
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Indiana University cognitive science professor
In a 2023 podcast interview, Douglas Hofstadter said it was conceivable, though unclear, that AI systems could destroy humanity.
Professor of Cognitive Science and Comparative Literature, Indiana UniversityPublished June 29, 2023 · date of remarks not establishedGetting2Alpha via Buzzsprout
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Surrounding words
So, completely caught me off guard. Not only myself, but many, many people. that, there is a certain kind of terror of an oncoming tsunami that is going to catch all of humanity off guard. It's not clear whether that will mean the end of humanity in the sense of the systems we've created destroying us. It's not clear if that's the case, but it's certainly conceivable if not, [00:34:00] it's also, it, it just renders humanity. A small, a very small phenomenon compared to something else that is far more intelligent.
What this quote does not say
- The page dates the episode June 29, 2023 but does not state when the interview was recorded, so that date is retained only as the publication date.
- The publisher-hosted transcript contains apparent automated-transcription errors elsewhere, but the selected complete sentence is coherent, is labeled as Doug's speech, and contains no apparent recognition error; the audio was not independently audited.
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