(The New Atlantis) – We’re worrying about the wrong arms race with China.

A curious feature of the last few years of anxieties about AI has been how they favor some dystopian fears over others. Right now, because of ChatGPT’s disarmingly natural conversation skills, we see the domination of worries about AIs becoming new, alien minds. Will AI models become conscious? Will we lose control of them? Will they outcompete humanity in the struggle for existence? But these fears remain abstract and indistinct.

Meanwhile, a more concrete dystopian future is coming into focus, although it does not receive nearly as much attention: widespread genetic engineering. It is quite possible that the most immediate threat AI poses to humanity is not that its superhuman intelligence will beat us in the game of natural selection, but that it will unleash the power of artificial selection to the advantage of some people over others. (Read More)