"On a recent trip to the San Francisco Bay Area, I was shocked by the billboards that lined the freeway outside of the airport. The singularity is here, proclaimed one. Humanity had a good run, said another. It seemed like every other sign along the road was plastered with claims from tech firms making outrageous claims about artificial intelligence. The ads, of course, were rife with hype and ragebait."
"Enter Moltbook, the social media site built for AI agents. A place where bots can talk to other bots, in other words. A spate of doom-laden news articles and op-eds followed its launch. The authors fretted about the fact that the bots were talking about religion, claiming to have secretly spent their human builders' money, and even plotting the overthrow of humanity."
"Based upon my years of research on bots, AI and computational propaganda, I can tell you two things with near certainty. First, Moltbook is nothing new. Humans have built bots that can talk to one another and to humans for decades. They've been designed to make outlandish, even frightening, claims throughout this time. Second, the singularity is not here. Nor is AGI. According to most researchers, neither is remotely close."
Billboards and public messaging around the San Francisco airport promoted claims that the singularity has arrived and proclaimed humanity's decline, reflecting widespread hype and ragebait. High-profile tech figures publicly asserted that AGI or the singularity is present. A social site called Moltbook showcased bots talking to other bots, prompting alarmist coverage about religion, secret spending, and overthrow plots. Decades of bot development already produced systems that make outlandish claims. Most researchers judge AGI and the singularity to be not remotely close. AI progress faces real limits in mathematics, data access, and business costs, and current grand claims lack empirical grounding.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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