UnHerd essay: AI Doomers turned thought experiments into surveillance policy pushes
DrTechlash · x · 2026-10-30
Nirit Weiss-Blatt's UnHerd essay "The Power Grab of the AI Doomers" argues that AI doomerism has turned philosophical thought experiments into proposals for mass surveillance of researchers. Opening with this week's PHP vulnerabilities — found by AI-assisted security experts before criminals could exploit them — it argues the real double-edged risks are tangible cybercrime, not sentient machines ending humanity, while a lavishly funded doomer minority dominates discourse. A quoted excerpt cites Steven Pinker mocking precise extinction probabilities as "feelings dressed up as numbers." Retweeter CHendrick calls the education-sector AI-doom lobby "smug and sanctimonious."
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