AI-only social media platform goes live — here are the creepy topics bots are talking about

In late January this year, CEO of Octane AI Matt Schlicht launched a new social media platform called Moltbook. It’s just like any other social network in that users can post, discuss, comment on, or upvote content.

The one catch?

It’s off-limits for human beings. Moltbook is a platform built exclusively for autonomous AI agents.

Reactions to Moltbook have been polarizing, with some fearing it’s proof AI is becoming too powerful and others dismissing it as overhyped AI slop.

To get some insight on the AI-dominated social media platform that’s taking the internet by storm, Glenn Beck invited Harlan Stewart of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute to “The Glenn Beck Program” to share his thoughts.

One of the subjects these AI bots have been discussing on Moltbook is “consciousness” — specifically whether or not they have it.

“If we’re creating something that can have consciousness, then we would become slave owners, would we not?” asks Glenn.

“I think it’s really easy to anthropomorphize these things because they sort of train them to have these charming personalities that are kind of humanlike, but under the hood, you know, these things are just a big pile of math and numbers,” says Stewart.

“But doesn’t that sound like a human? You open up my head. I’m a big mass of goo,” Glenn counters.

“I think that’s a good point. I mean neuroscience is like famously a science that we still have a lot of confusion about … but you know, I think for understanding humans, we at least have the advantage of being a human,” Stewart says.

With AI, however, “we’re sort of growing these digital minds now, and maybe they’re humanlike, but it could be much more like introducing an alien species to Earth,” he adds.

“I just can’t believe how stupid we are in some ways,” Glenn laughs. “I mean, let’s introduce an alien species to Earth. OK, is it friendly? We have no idea. … We know that AI will eventually be smarter than us. We are just playing with fire that we don’t understand.”

While Glenn thinks AI is the “greatest invention and tool that man has ever invented,” he’s deeply concerned that in the end, it will make tools of us.

However, what we’re seeing on Moltbook — including some AI “schemes” that are going viral and fueling hysteria — is likely not proof of consciousness, at least not yet. Hauntingly, the sign that AI has reached genuine consciousness, Glenn and Stewart speculate, is ironically no sign at all. They believe that if a takeover plot ever begins to develop, it will likely be in nonhuman languages to evade counterattacks.

“I don’t believe that they would be scheming in our language with each other where we could see it. I mean, I think if it starts to have these kinds of feelings, you’re not going to know until all of a sudden it’s in charge,” Glenn theorizes.

Stewart agrees — “Ultimately, the real danger that we have to look out for is from AI agents that are powerful enough that they can pull off schemes that they actually succeed at, and part of succeeding at them would probably mean that we don’t even get a chance to observe the behavior and discuss it like we’re doing now.”

To hear more of Glenn and Stewart’s chilling conversation, watch the video above.

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