philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Fear of super intelligent AI is driving Harvard and MIT students to drop out

When Alice Blair enrolled in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a freshman in 2023, she was excited to take computer science courses and meet other people who cared about making sure artificial intelligence is developed in a way that’s good for humanity.

Now she’s taking a permanent leave of absence, terrified that the emergence of “artificial general intelligence,” a hypothetical AI that can perform a variety of tasks as well as people, could doom the human race. ...

She’s lined up a contract gig as a technical writer at the Center for AI Safety, a nonprofit focused on AI safety research, where she helps with newsletters and research papers. Blair doesn’t plan to head back to MIT. “I predict that my future lies out in the real world,” she said. ...

Other students are terrified of AGI, but less because it could destroy the human race and more because it could wreck their career before it’s even begun. Half of 326 Harvard students surveyed by the school’s undergraduate association and AI safety club were worried about AI’s impact on their job prospects. ...

Even the cofounder of Y Combinator, a startup accelerator known for funding young founders who have dropped out, thinks students should stay in school. “Don’t drop out of college to start or work for a startup,” Paul Graham posted on X in July. “There will be other (and probably better) startup opportunities, but you can’t get your college years back.” ...

See the full story here: https://www.forbes.com.au/news/innovation/agi-fears-is-driving-harvard-and-mit-students-to-drop-out/