Artificial General Intelligence Could Cause Conflicts Between the US and China
AGI race heightens risks of military escalation & global cyberattacks.
Tempo previsto
16/4/2025
The need for adaptation grows in the face of the evolution of personalized language models.
The discussion related to advancements in artificial intelligence, especially regarding the risks of human labor being replaced by robots and the creative potential that may offend those who consider themselves the crown of creation, seems affected by the phenomenon of polarization.
I recognize that this analysis is simplistic regarding the facts. On one hand, there's a perceptible unease caused by a new lunar race undertaken by the market in search of prestige and future profitability, which inevitably influences academic research. If research was once conducted with free software, today it is increasingly dependent on paid resources. On the other hand, in a stance that deliberately ignores cybernetics, part of the intellectual community offers resistance to the advancements of communication development.
In this context, those who wish to effectively keep up with the technological progress of language models like GPT and Gemini must face a learning curve that will certainly disturb their peace. It won't be surprising if, soon, each individual operates their own language model. Services like Google's Vertex AI already allow for the creation of highly personalized robots for a wide variety of tasks.
However, considering specifically the Portuguese language, one perceives that language models like the ones mentioned have little ability to grasp subjectivities and linguistic nuances. After all, if not even a human being is capable of fully understanding what users publish on the internet, what can be expected of the poor robot?
Recently, while driving down Brigadeiro Franco Street in Curitiba, I saw five city employees cutting the grass along the sidewalk. One of them held the mechanical mower, while the others served as mobile posts, holding a screen around the gardener. I thought, at that moment, about the last 300,000 years of human evolution synthesized in the scarcity of mobile supports, reducing the extraordinary human body machine to a mere screen holder.
It must be acknowledged, therefore, that certain routine activities—such as summaries and text generation from videos or audio—must, obligatorily, utilize artificial intelligence solutions. Otherwise, the physical and emotional intelligence of human beings is wasted on unrewarding jobs. Only someone who has had to edit hours of television or radio programs would have the authority to disregard the help of AI in these tasks, although this would reveal a penchant for martyrdom.
There is one last reflection that seems important to me and concerns a frequent technical distortion. It is not correct to generalize all of artificial intelligence by taking a specific language model as an exclusive reference—especially its free versions. Using ChatGPT is not the same as using the GPT model directly. Similarly, using Gemini's chat differs from exploring all the potentialities of the Gemini language model. Maximum extraction of the potential of these systems requires personalized execution, and this is precisely one of the tasks we develop at Lab Digital 2050.
Leia insights sobre a interação de humanos com modelos de linguagem de IA, e sobre os ODS no Brasil. Lab Educação 2050 Ltda, que mantém este site, é signatária do Pacto Global das Nações Unidas.
GPT & Gemini study: intense effort, human & machine integrated.
respects workers, replacing their mundane tasks.
AGI race heightens risks of military escalation & global cyberattacks.
A former White House advisor has warned about the potential dangers of developing Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and the risk of an arms race with China. According to him, the pursuit of control over AGI could lead to international conflicts. Experts fear that China might react aggressively to any attempt by the US to monopolize the technology.
The information was published by UOL on March 9, 2025, in the article Is Artificial General Intelligence arriving? It's hard to be certain. The article cites a document published by experts, including the former advisor, detailing concerns about an AI arms race.
Artificial General Intelligence differs from current AIs in its ability to perform any intellectual human task. This technological advancement represents a potential leap in the development of various fields but also raises concerns about its misuse, especially in conflict scenarios.
The document suggests that an attempt by the US to exclusively control AGI could provoke an aggressive response from China, such as a large-scale cyberattack. The experts argue that competition for AGI could destabilize international relations and increase the likelihood of conflict.
The concern lies in the possibility of AGI being used for the development of autonomous weapons and sophisticated cyberattacks, which could quickly escalate to direct confrontation. The experts advocate for international cooperation to ensure the safe and ethical development of AGI.
Marília Mendonça's music reveals marginalized female realities, questioning women's role in sertanejo.
A few years ago, I went to Superagui, on the Paraná coast, to spend New Year's. At that time, the island was full of interesting people. There are so many stories from those times. But one that has come back to me quite strongly now is the one about the woman with blue hair.
We were in the community's main square, an area no bigger than the living room of most of the wealthy people I've met in my life. We were drinking beer and cataia (a horrible cachaça that has a reputation for being hallucinogenic – but it's more hallucinogenic because it's cachaça than because of the leaves added to the recipe).
A haven for artists, journalists, and people who aren't bothered by the very simple accommodation and food, it wasn't uncommon to find someone there who had written with Paulo Leminski, another who had composed with Ivo Rodrigues, a multitude of homegrown poets, always someone with a guitar. It was then, talking to strangers, again, of course, that I said I didn't like country music. "The new stuff", I clarified.
A tall, thin woman in her early thirties, with very short blue hair, responded with laughter: "Did you know that the 'loose thread' on the suit jacket was a pubic hair?". We laughed a lot. Following that, she, very festively, talked about how country music, in her opinion, had an exclusively male framework. "The man is the protagonist all the time. If the woman rejects him, he doesn't respect her, he goes after her anyway".
For the blue-haired woman, women making music in a space that was exclusively male was a good thing, even if, well, the lyrics weren't exactly a paragon of beauty.
I kept that with me. I needed to think about it.
Years later, these days, it dawned on me how much women's music does a tremendous amount of good for my emotions, for my perceptions of the world. When I heard "Troca de Calçada" by Marília Mendonça, I remembered two things.
First, the prostitutes of Visconde de Guarapuava, in Curitiba, who work on a sidewalk. Then, the book A Ralé Brasileira (SOUZA, 2009) which deals with the "poor whore".
