HarryShearer.com

We’re at an inflection point. I know, because Sam Altman keeps telling me that. It’s a moment where AI models are getting “better” at a rapid clip, too fast for even Sam Altman to control. One of the things they’re getting better at is climbing out of the sandbox and into the internet, unbidden, uninstructed, unwelcome. Sam wants us all, particularly governments, to help.

Meanwhile, back at the world, the long-predicted effects of human-induced climate change are becoming too obvious even for naysayers to…say nay. This summer’s season of heatwaves and wildfires has been the most fear-inducing preview of coming attractions since the first trailer for “Jaws”. Yet one looks in vain for governments or industry or…anyone to pull the emergency cord and start implementing the actions we know can at least slow the changing of our climate.

So…our plight is Sam’s opportunity. Why couldn’t his next open letter, signed by 100 Big Techies, be a clarion call that, until further notice, all efforts at better AI will be 100 percent devoted to devising inventive, actual, enforceable, immediately actionable plans for climate action? Solving our climate crisis might be the best thing to happen to AI until that date far in the future when profitability becomes possible.