Some AI Sanity

There is, to me, and absurd amount of AI doomsday nonsense. I've been addressing some of it, but this recent article by Marc Andreessen summarizes my thoughts. Here is one excerpt regarding AI somehow exterminating humanity:

AI is not a living being that has been primed by billions of years of evolution to participate in the battle for the survival of the fittest, as animals are, and as we are. It is math – code – computers, built by people, owned by people, used by people, controlled by people. The idea that it will at some point develop a mind of its own and decide that it has motivations that lead it to try to kill us is a superstitious handwave.

In short, AI doesn’t want, it doesn’t have goals, it doesn’t want to kill you, because it’s not alive. And AI is a machine – is not going to come alive any more than your toaster will.

Read the whole thing and ... RELAX!

Why All The Increased Homelessness?

 While the reasons for homelessness are numerous, here's one more from Minimum Wages and Homelessness:

...minimum wage increases lead to increased point-in-time homeless population counts. Further analysis suggests disemployment and rental housing prices, but not migration, as mechanisms. Scholars and policymakers who aim to understand and combat homelessness should consider labor market opportunities.

There are always winners AND losers with every policy change. All else being equal, those who had minimum wage jobs and were able to keep those jobs, are winners (at least in the short term) when the minimum wage is increased. Unfortunately, a side effect seems to be homelessness, and those who are homeless are really big losers from increasing the minimum wage.