Machine Metaphysics and the Cult of Techno-Transcendentalism - Untethered in the Platonic Realm

Yann LeCun is one of the "godfathers of AI." He must be wicked smart, because he won the Turing Prize in 2018 (together with the other two "godfathers," Yoshua Bengio and Geoffrey Hinton). The prize is named after polymath Alan Turing. It is sometimes called the Nobel Prize for computer scientists. Like many other AI researchers, LeCun is rich because he works for Meta (formerly Facebook) and has a big financial stake in the latest AI technology being pushed on humanity as broadly and quickly as possible. But that's ok, because he knows he is doing what is best for the rest of us, even if we sometimes fail to recognize it. LeCun is a techno-optimist -- an amazingly fervent one, in fact. He believes that AI will bring about a new Renaissance, and a new phase of the Enlightenment, both at the same time. Sadly, LeCun is feeling misunderstood. In particular, he is upset with the unwashed masses who are unappreciative and ignorant (as he can't stop pointing out). Imagine: these luddites want to regulate AI research before it has actually killed anyone (or everyone, but we'll come to that). Worse, his critics' "AI doom" is "causing a new form of medieval obscurantism." Nay, people critical of AI are "indistinguishable from an apocalyptic religion." A witch hunt for AI nerds is on! The situation is dire for silicon-valley millionaires. The new renaissance and the new enlightenment are both at stake. The interesting thing is: LeCun is not entirely wrong. There is a lot of very overblown rhetoric and, more specifically, there is a rather medieval-looking cult here. But LeCun is deliberately indistinct about where that cult comes from. His chosen tactic is to put a lot of very different people in the same "obscurantist" basket. First off: it is not those who want to regulate AI who are the cultists. In fact, these people are amazingly reasonable: you should go and read their stuff. Go and do it, right now! Instead, the cult manifests among people who completely hyperbolize the potential of AI, and who tend to greatly overestimate the power of technology in general. Let's give this cult a name.