I am increasingly worried about the current AI hype cycle taking down all of computer science with it. The more I think about it, the field is on the verge of a legitimacy crisis from several root-causes.
I've seen some AI/ML people (Timnit, etc) talk about the need for an anti-AGI movement. I think that applies to #CS generally. If the public at large comes to equate CS with AGI, it will kill the whole field for a decade when AGI implodes.
How I see this happening:
* AGI gets falsely presented as a real thing. The singularitists amplify this.
* Snake-oil vendors pop up, offering supposedly AGI-based solutions for replacing whole swaths of jobs. Mid-2000s style outsourcing comes back in vogue.
* These fail utterly or get revealed as theranos-type scams backed by offshore labor.
* Public opinion turns sharply against CS generally, resulting in deep funding cuts, bad legislation, etc.
To be clear, I'm not advocating any kind of ludditism. Ludditism and primitivism need to die of fucking Ebola.
CS and particularly the industry needs to get back to basics: solving problems and enabling people.
We need to get *a lot* better at calling out kooks, crackpots, and snake-oil. We absolutely have our own analogues of anti-vaxxers, homeopathy, and flat-earthers. We've done a shit job of policing that, and we've allowed it to grow unchecked.
[note that there is somewhat widespread (in certain tech crit circles) 'reclamation' of luddism as a position opposing/calling out the unequal distribution of the benefits of automation (& furthermore the unequalizing higher-order effects of wealth concentration, &c) and the ways that tech boosterism (which also helps create opportunities for snake oil) can less-than-critically launder it]
[i suspect that worrying that crackpots, scammers, & overambitious VCs will discredit an entire field/industry (or engineer general bearishness to protect their prospects/reputation as investments fail to pan out? i'm reminded of big SVB depositors predicting/promoting/hoping for market implosion to try & get fedgov to step in & save their balances) to the detriment of those who actually use the products/services/technology would not be viewed unsympathetically in modern lud circles]
Eric McCorkle
wren