The TESCREAL Bundle
BigTech companies are throwing money at artificial general intelligence (AGI), with CEOs telling us that it will come, bringing with it utopia, any day now (for the measly price of SEVEN TRILLION DOLLARS according to Sam Altman). How did AGI come to be a dominant goal in AI? What motivates the drive to attempt to build it? This page is dedicated to answering this question, starting with our paper, the TESCREAL Bundle: Eugenics and the Promise of Utopia through Artificial General Intelligence, which you can read on First Monday. Image is Clarote & AI4Media / Better Images of AI / Power/Profit / CC-BY 4.0
Watch Timnit’s talk
Timnit gave a 40 minute talk summarizing some of our findings. You can watch it on YouTube
Read Émile’s Article
Émile writes about the TESCREAL bundle for Truthdig. Find the article on Truthdig.
What is effective accelerationism?
Read Émile’s article, “‘Effective Accelerationism’ and the Pursuit of Cosmic Utopia,” on Truthdig.
Does AGI really threaten the survival of the species?
"When someone talks about the 'existential risk' posed by artificial general intelligence, look under the hood." Read Émile’s take on Truthdig.
Doomers vs. accelerationists
Read this Prospect Magazine article. Ethan Zuckerman writes about the TESCREAL bundle of ideologies.
"We need to examine the beliefs of today’s tech luminaries"
A short description of the TESCREAL bundle in the Financial Times.
Effective altruism's role
Read Timnit’s op-ed in Wired, “Effective Altruism Is Pushing a Dangerous Brand of ‘AI Safety'"
The Future of Life’s $665 million TESCREAL donation
"A young nonprofit pushing for strict safety rules on artificial intelligence recently landed more than a half-billion dollars from a single cryptocurrency tycoon — a gift that starkly illuminates the rising financial power of AI-focused organizations."
How eugenics shaped statistics
"In early 2018, officials at University College London were shocked to learn that meetings organized by 'race scientists' and neo-Nazis, called the London Conference on Intelligence, had been held at the college the previous four years." Read Aubrey Clayton’s article.
TESCREAL 101
Timnit and Émile discussed the TESCREAL bundle on the Dave Troy Presents podcast in Understanding TESCREAL with Dr. Timnit Gebru and Émile Torres.
Read Émile’s article on longtermism and existential risk
Émile writes about the "disturbing secular religion" of longtermism and why, while it claims to address humanity's deepest problems, "actually justifies pursuing the social preferences of elites."