Voices are getting louder

An open letter demands a ban on developing superintelligence: This week, an open letter was published demanding the ban on pursuing artificial superintelligence until 1. there is broad scientific consensus that it will be done safely and controllably and 2. there is strong public buy-in. The letter is signed by hundreds of major public figures including two of the three people considered the “godfathers” of AI and 5 Nobel laureates.

What is it even?! Artificial superintelligence (ASI) refers to a point when AI achieves an intellect superior to the brightest human minds across virtually every cognitive domain. Currently, the large AI labs are all racing to be the first to achieve it, with many experts thinking it could happen within the next 10 years.

Why are all these people worried? While it’s still hypothetical, the letter cites concerns including “human economic obsolescence and disempowerment, losses of freedom, civil liberties, dignity, and control, to national security risks and even potential human extinction.” So, yeah, not minor worries.

Notably, challengingly, and (IMHO) unsurprisingly: Zero leaders of the large frontier AI labs (Google, OpenAI, xAI, Meta, Anthropic) have signed the letter. But, hey… you can! (and, I will note: in the 30 minutes I’ve been writing this section, the signatures have gone up by over 1,000 make that 2,000).

Jobless economic growth: the new normal?

A wild chart: There’s a new chart being circulated that is causing a stir, comparing the S&P 500 index growth against US job openings. Tl;dr: they are going in opposite directions since the launch of ChatGPT.

Why is this happening and what does it mean? It’s tempting to jump to the conclusion that AI is causing this, but it’s more complicated than that - there are a lot of other economic factors to consider as well.

But to add fuel to the fire, Goldman Sachs economists say that the US is now entering an era of “jobless growth” — an economy where GDP climbs, but hiring doesn’t - and another report shows that new hirings are down 58% year-to-date.

Hmmmm… maybe let’s double down on those entrepreneurial skills.

Make it more than just costumes and candy

Halloween is in a week and it’s easy to get caught up in all the logistics and “stuff” like class parties, must-have costumes, buying candy for trick-or-treaters, decorating, etc. But holidays like Halloween also are really great opportunities to deepen connection with your kids. Here are a few science-backed tips:

• Create and maintain family rituals: visiting a special pumpkin patch and carving together each year, cooking special spooky family dinners, decorating the house together, counting and tracking the candy haul… holiday rituals, whether big or small, are shown to strongly increases feelings of family closeness and enjoyment.

• Spend quality outdoor time together: with all the fall colors and pumpkin patches, it’s a great time of year to be out in nature together and this will strengthen parent-child bonds and family cohesion.

• Encourage imaginative play: take the costumes up a step and role-play characters together. Imaginative play, including dressing up and role-playing characters, is shown to significantly boost children’s narrative skills, problem-solving, and social competence.

The Ghost Awakens

I know I’ve expressed concern about AI companions recently but here’s a fun use case: create your own haunted ghost of your home or neighborhood that you can chat with and hear their “story.” (fun for parties and trick-or-treaters!)

A simple way to do this is to go to Character.ai and create your ghost:

• Select create a character, give it a ghostly name and spooky image

• Write a greeting that will trigger a conversation about their story

• Add a character definition if you want to give it more background to reference in its storytelling

• Then once generated, tap on the character to edit, and change the voice to something spooky (a whispery one works well)

If you want to avoid using Character.ai, I had some fun vibe-coding a prototype that is super fun. Give it a try here: https://ghost-maker.replit.app. Make sure you have your sound up when you start chatting with your ghost.

A robot that snow blows and mows

For those of you who are dreading winter approaching, largely because it means freezing cold mornings going up and down your driveway with a janky snow blower, here’s a product worth paying attention to. The Yarbo is a robot with swappable attachments for powerful snow blowing (handles heavy, icy snow), mowing, and leaf blowing. It navigates wirelessly via high-precision GPS and uses smart vision to avoid obstacles.

My husband has been dreaming about it (and watching endless YouTube videos, see below) for months and is finally putting his money where his mouth is. We will report back. 😂

A quantum leap

Will we soon be benefiting from Quantum AI in real-world applications? This week, Google announced a massive breakthrough in quantum computing. For those of us who are not technical, it’s admittedly hard to grasp it’s significance. But from what I can tell, it’s a BIG deal.

Google’s new "Willow" quantum chip ran a new algorithm called "Quantum Echoes” which solved a complex physics problem 13,000 times faster than the world's most powerful supercomputer. 🤯

Even more, the result is "verifiable". This means they (or another quantum computer) can run the test again and get the same answer. It’s like they built a "lie detector" for the quantum computer, proving it’s not just spitting out high-speed gibberish.

Why it matters: this breakthrough likely means we are close to the first real-world applications of quantum computing and could be completely transformative for drug discovery and materials science.