Quick Intro: My name is Strad and I am a new grad working in tech wanting to learn and write more about AI safety and how tech will effect our future. I'm trying to challenge myself to write a short article a day to get back into writing. Would love any feedback on the article and any advice on writing in this field!
I was already nervous about AI and the future. As a student I saw how LLMs changed education and as an employee I saw how they changed work. Yet, there I was, scrolling on Instagram a few months ago, when I came across a post highlighting the new “agent mode” in OpenAI’s, ChatGPT. The post demonstrated how chat could now scour the internet to help execute tasks such as ordering your groceries or finding hotels and flights for your next vacation.
While not the full artificial general intelligence tech giants keep promising, this was enough to bring my AGI-induced anxiety to the surface. Each new milestone reached by AI reminds me of the potential AI doomsday scenarios we could be heading towards; mass job loss, extreme wealth inequality, AI misalignment. Sure, many people have arguments for why these scenarios won’t happen. Or they argue that these scenarios are in the distant future. But the uncertainty about these outcomes is enough to keep me stressing.
If you follow my work, you know that I am very interested in AI’s effect on the future of society and how we can positively influence it. One reason I write about these topics is because I genuinely find the questions involved interesting and think finding answers can have a significant, positive impact on society.
But if I am being honest, working on this stuff also helps ease my anxiety about a future with AGI. Learning about potential strategies to create a positive future with AGI gives me hope that these doomsday scenarios can be avoided. Working on these questions also gives me a sense of control over my own future which can be comforting at times.
Despite this, working on these articles can only do so much to ease the anxiety. Luckily for me, through experiencing this anxiety related to AI, I have gained some insights on how I think, along with a tool to help live a less stressful life.
One day, when I was real deep in thought about AI and job loss, I tried to ease my worries by searching for skills that I can learn to stay competitive in a future with advance AI. However, I found it hard to ignore the nihilistic mindset that my brain was adopting. With each skill I saw I thought, “What’s the point? Why should I take the time to learn this if AI will be able to do it eventually?”
In this moment, I realized this was not the first time I thought in this way. In fact, I had a very similar mindset pop up when thinking about building my new life in San Francisco, the city I recently moved to for work.
Working in tech, I have become increasingly aware about the risk of being laid off. In working on building my new life, I kept thinking about how at any moment I could potentially get laid off. This scenario would force me to leave the city making all my efforts feel pointless.
I started seeing how this pattern of thinking shows up a lot in my life. When hanging with my roommates at our new place, I sometimes remember how our lease will be over in a year and that we might not live together anymore. Or when trying to enjoy my active hobbies such as biking or climbing, I think about how I could get injured which would force me to stop these activities. These type of thoughts can be distracting and make it hard to enjoy these experiences in the moment.
I then thought about how all aspects of my life can change in more sudden and drastic ways at any moment. I could get in a life changing accident, someone close to me could get sick, a new world war could start, an asteroid could hit earth. I thought, “surely not everything is pointless because these events could potentially occur, right?”
In this moment of chaotic thinking about potential futures I made a realization. My anxiety around AI is a symptom of a greater discomfort I have with impermanence. I frequently think about how I can prevent the good things in my life from changing or how I can prolong the status quo when it is going well. While this definitely has its benefits, it can also be a taxing mental state when overdone.
Impermanence is an inherent part of life. It has always existed, and AI is just a potent example that has forced me to come to terms with it. If I wanted to live a more fulfilling life, I had to find a way to accept impermanence and learn to ease my anxieties around it.
I know that the idea of being present is not new. Many people ranging from self help gurus to ancient philosophers have touted the benefits of being present. One of these benefits is its ability to combat the fear of impermanence. Presence is especially useful against the growing anxiety people are experiencing about the rise of AGI.
Once you understand and accept that life is always going to change and that good things don’t last forever, you can truly start to feel the finite nature of experience. It doesn’t matter if AGI or some other factor causes the change, your life will change at some point. Left with this knowledge, the idea of prioritizing your ability to enjoy what you have in life while you have it seems all the more important.
This is not to say that thinking and preparing for the future should not be done. We should try to create a positive future. We should try to make our next day better than the last. We should try to create safe AI. But we should not let these goals become anxiety-fueled obsessions that force us to sacrifice our present experience.
There are many ways to practice being more present. Implementing a meditation routine helps a lot. I try to do a 20 minute session everyday but even 5 minutes can be beneficial. However, a simpler practice of just reminding yourself to be present more often is already enough to gain more peace in life.
Next time you find yourself stressing about the future, take a second to truly experience the moment you are in. Focus on what you are doing. What you see. What you hear. How you feel. Really utilize all your senses to become fully immersed in the present. After taking a moment to be present, you can still decide to entertain whatever future scenario caused you stressed. But now you can do it from a place of clearer thinking and less anxiety.
Now, instead of worrying about a potential layoff, I try to remember that I still have a job and live in San Francisco, so I should focus on enjoying that privilege. When I hang out with my roommates, I try to focus on the conversations we’re having rather than thinking about what we will do after our lease ends. I now feel more motivated when looking for new skills to learn, cause even if AI does eventually do everything better than us, it currently can not. I might as well learn something in the mean time while I still can.
AI will continue to improve and change our lives. But remember that impermanence is inevitable. Let’s continue to work towards a positive future. But don’t forget to create a positive present as well cause, in the end, it is all we really have.
