What Are You Doing About Existential AI Risk?

We add ethics to your compliance and responsible AI efforts to protect you, your business, and our world.

Right now, someone in your organization is developing or using AI in a way that could lead to unintended negative consequences.

It’s a statistical fact.

There’s a >0% chance that something that seems harmless will play a part in some AI scheme that is harmful, perhaps existentially so.

Simply using AI is itself a risky behavior.

There’s no way governments can completely or consistently regulate the risk. No VC or financial market can accurately envision or price its cost. Compliance checklists and good intentions can’t remove the >0% chance that you’re building something that could damage your business and, one day, play a part in our destruction.

You can do something about it.

Applying CyberConsequentialism to your AI will help protect you, your business, and our world.

Events

Solving for a problem requires seeing it first.

Give us an hour or more and we’ll help your team see the reality of existential AI risk, why it should matter to them professionally and personally, and what they can (quite easily) do about it.

The approach — based on the ethics of CyberConsequentialism — establishes a data-driven recognition of the intersection between self-interest and the common good, and then provides a set of principles and rules that can be applied to any project or task.

Consulting

Mitigating AI risk is a real-time pursuit.

Incorporating a CyberConsequentialist perspective will help you make better informed decisions.

We do it by providing independent, unbiased analyses and feedback on elements of a plan that could be enhanced, discussed, or discarded. We’re a sounding board that comes from outside the echo chamber of your organization and your vendors.

That means we can tell you the truth.

Thought Leadership

Understanding AI risk means keeping current.

Our weekly essays prompt questions
that haven’t been asked, provide answers that should be considered, and give you a deeper perspective on AI risk and what you can do about it.

About

Jonathan Salem Baskin

I’ve spent 40 years helping companies communicate; the past 20 years working closely with top leadership at many of the world’s leading businesses behind the latest innovations in artificial intelligence (“AI”), autonomous cars, smart cities, and new uses for big data; and the last 10 years writing about tech’s implications for our work and lives.

I published a collection of my essays in 2019 in a book entitled A Cross of Silicon: Talking Truth to Technology. I’ve written 8 other books about business and society, and penned hundreds of essays for top business and technology publications.

I’ve given dozens of speeches and workshops around the world, and provided expert commentary to just about every media outlet that matters. I believe that my most important and useful work has been shared directly and privately with the CEOs, CTOs, and other business leaders with whom I work.

I created the applied ethics of CyberConsequentialsm to fill the need I saw between regulatory compliance and responsible AI efforts.

Privacy Policy

Effective Date: July 5th, 2023

At Spiritual Telegraph, we are committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of our visitors. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, and safeguard any personal information voluntarily provided by you when visiting our website.

  1. Information We Collect

We do not collect any personal information about you when you visit our website unless you voluntarily choose to provide it for specific purposes, such as downloading a white paper or scheduling a chat. The types of personal information we may collect include:

  • Name: We may collect your name when you voluntarily submit it through our website’s forms.
  • Email Address: We may collect your email address when you voluntarily provide it for the purpose of receiving a whitepaper or scheduling a chat.
  1. Use of Personal Information

Any personal information you provide to us will be used solely for the purpose for which it was voluntarily submitted, such as to fulfill your request for a whitepaper or to schedule a chat. We do not use your personal information for any other purpose and never share it with third parties.

  1. Security of Personal Information

We take the security of your personal information seriously and have implemented appropriate technical and organizational measures to safeguard it. We use industry-standard security protocols and practices to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, alteration, or destruction.

  1. Sharing of Personal Information

We do not share your personal information with third parties for any reason, ever. Your personal information will be kept strictly confidential, and it will not be sold, rented, or disclosed to any other organization or individuals unless required by law or with your explicit consent.

  1. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We may use cookies and other tracking technologies on our website to enhance your browsing experience and collect non-personal information about your visit. These technologies help us analyze website traffic, understand user preferences, and improve our website’s functionality. However, these cookies and tracking technologies do not collect any personal information.

  1. Links to External Websites

Our website may contain links to external websites that are not owned or controlled by us. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of these third-party websites. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any external websites you visit.

  1. Children’s Privacy

Our website is not intended for use by individuals under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child, please contact us immediately, and we will take appropriate steps to remove the information from our records.

  1. Your Rights

You have the right to access, correct, update, or delete your personal information that we hold. If you would like to exercise any of these rights or have any questions or concerns about our privacy practices, please contact us using the information provided at the end of this Privacy Policy.

  1. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to modify or update this Privacy Policy at any time. Any changes will be effective immediately upon posting the revised Privacy Policy on our website. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any updates.

  1. Contact Us

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us.

Do We Really Want AI That Thinks Like Us?
DeepSeek threw the marketplace into a tizzy last week with its low-cost LLM that works better than ChatGPT and its other competitors. But the company’s ultimate goal is the same as that of Open AI and the rest: build a machine that thinks like a
Where’s The Counterpoint To AI Propaganda?
Reid Hoffman’s recent paean to the miracle of AI in the New York Times is just another reminder that we’re not having a real discussion about it. The essay, which is behind a firewall, is entitled “AI Will Empower Humanity,” and argues that based on
AI That Thinks
The headline of a recent article at TechCrunch declared that an AI thinks in Chinese sometimes, though its coders can’t explain it. It was misleading, at best, and otherwise just wrong. The essay, “Open AI’s AI reasoning model ‘thinks’ in Chinese sometimes and no one
Insane AI
If AIs use data produced by other AIs, it degrades their ability to make meaningful observations or reach useful conclusions. In other words, they go insane. The problem is called “AI model collapse” and it occurs when AIs like LLMS (ChatGPT et al) create a
Your AI Shopping List At CES?
Many of the 4,500 exhibitors at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show will talk about AI, according to the annual event’s organizer. Only there won’t be any AI gizmos on display, since AI isn’t some “thing” we consumers can or will buy. AI isn’t a product,
Remembering The World Before AI
As we approach the end of 2024, I’m spending some time committing to memory what it was like to live without AI. Granted, it’s not possible, at least not completely, since AI is already present in our countertop and digital phone assistants, customer service interactions,