The Propaganda Machine behind AI Doomerism
Has anyone else noticed the well funded propaganda machine behind the AI safety 'movement' on youtube specifically? By AI safety here I'm talking about the Effective Altruism (Silicon Valley adjacent philosophical group) individuals who are apparently completely convinced that value alignment and the fantasy of creating skynet is somehow a more pressing concern than the AI Industry's environmental impact, AI induced psychosis, theft, corporate lies, etc. Anything that can in someway be actually measured and is actually happening is ignored in favor of this fantasy.
There are two Youtube accounts that I've found that have a lot of money going into their production process coming from Coefficient Giving and other groups in the EA sphere. The first, whose funding is easier to identify, is "AI in Context." 300k followers, with 4 proper videos and a few short form videos, all essentially outlining how AGI is right around the corner and how no one is ready for the rapture. Their first video is just a visualization of AI 2027, with the expected lack of critical thought, to give you an idea of the nonsense. Additionally there is a video about "If anyone builds it." They've been around for about 10 months, created under the video production arm of 80,000 hours, which according to their website is a organizations dedicated to helping people find new jobs when AI takes the one they have now in the near future. That group is in turn mostly funded by Coefficient Giving. 80,000 hours was able to raise 30 million pounds in 2024 from CG and others. Once again, this is all on their website so not hidden.
The second is Rational Animations. They produce pretty high quality animations in the same vein as AI In Context, but have been around for about 4 years and have more videos with 430k subs. Far less info on who is on the production team and who is funding them, but that doesn't really mean anything nefarious. If you google them one of the first hits is a Less Wrong forum where the founder is anonymously asking people for ideas for video topics related to EA. They state that the purpose of the account is to make videos about EA/rationality concepts and they had already received a grant from an EA org. 2 to 3 years ago they pivoted from this more generally to just spewing every AI apocalypse fantasy you've heard of already. Some of these videos are just animated biblical parables about AI, and I'm saying that with zero exaggeration. It all reads as religious material with a veneer of "scientific" consensus. Their website lists a few partners, including 80,000 hours. Not really clear the extent of this relationship as the page just lists them as "friends we've worked with."
Both of these accounts expectedly do not deal with any tangible impacts of AI or engage with critical analysis of the sources and studies they cite as gospel. I'm sure some of the people on these teams genuinely believe they are with a noble cause, but all this does is scare people and act as marketing for the executive class that AI is marketed towards.
Obviously the discussion about how this is essentially marketing/propaganda techniques for the AI industry is not new, but I haven't seen much discussion about accounts like these and the money that is going into them. I posted about this on sneerclub a while back but I wrote it pretty poorly and looking back it was difficult to understand what the hell I was talking about. I hope that is not the case here. If people are in fact talking about it, please let me know I'd love to read about it! Heard about the sub on youtube and thought this might a good place to ask.