More journalists making the connection. See this article by Sharon Goldman.

"Other AI experts have also pointed out, both publicly and privately, that they are concerned by the companies’ publicly-acknowledged ties to the EA community — which is supported by tarnished tech figures like FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried — as well as various TESCREAL movements such as longtermism and transhumanism. "

https://venturebeat.com/ai/doomer-advisor-joins-musks-xai-the-4th-top-research-lab-focused-on-ai-apocalypse/

Doomer AI advisor joins Musk’s xAI, the 4th top research lab focused on AI apocalypse

A quartet of the world's most famous AI labs — OpenAI, DeepMind, Anthropic and now xAI — are laser-focused on AI's existential risks.

VentureBeat
@timnitGebru
Serious question: why is transhumanism getting painted with the same brush as singularity folks?

@digifox Feel free to watch my talk and read the associated academic paper that will come out.

Doesn't thelp that transhumanism was developed by the chair of the british eugenics society, Julian Huxely?

Maybe the stated goals, and maybe what "modern" transhumanist like Bostrom have been writing openly for decades?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7XT4TWLzJw

SaTML 2023 - Timnit Gebru - Eugenics and the Promise of Utopia through AGI

Eugenics and the Promise of Utopia through Artificial General IntelligenceBased on work by Timnit Gebru & Émile P. Torres

YouTube

@digifox I mean not like they don't know: “since we as transhumans are seeking to attain the next level of human evolution, we run serious risks in having our ideas and programs branded by the popular media as neo-eugenics, racist, neo-nazi, etc.”

Its easy not to be a eugenicist rather than worrying about the branding.

@timnitGebru You don't need to be a eugenicist to want to augment the human form with technology and medicine and raise the baseline of human existence.

Cosmetic surgery, gender transition, fertility services, birth control, all represent providing humans with options above-and-beyond just repairing lost functionality or mitigating a disability. The fact that we shoehorn these things into "medicine" as traditionally studied and practiced represents a limited understanding.

After watching your talk through the Second-Wave Eugenics section, I think the "TESCREAL bundle" as you derisively describe it is being overly condemned here by examining its more ... ridiculous proponents. I feel like judging TESCREAL by Musk, Yudkowsky, Altman, Bostrom, etc is equivalent to judging Christianity, Islam, or Atheism by the worst examples of their adherents.

@digifox None of those advances were done under the guise of trans-humanism, nor needed to be.
@hackbod
No, but I don't see why transhumanism need be anything but the belief that destroying biological barriers is good and allows a broader range of human experience and expression. I fear backlash against it much like I fear degrowthers, pastoralism, and other reactionary tendencies that keep getting dressed up as progressive.
@hackbod
I respect and broadly agree with Dr Gebru's criticism of the current very specific cult surrounding "the Singularity" and the "promise of AGI" but ultimately can't help but feel it represents an overcorrection that technologists will come to regret supporting as we become mired in suspicion, over-regulation, and outright hostility.
@hackbod
Especially in light of the various attacks on individual and bodily autonomy happening in the US and across the globe.