AI is not the danger, our enemies developing ASI before us is

If you were to hire an artist to do this is would cost you hundreds of dollars or more. With AI you can make it yourself for a pennies and have multiple versions within seconds. As an artist, photographer and writer who's made a living with my work for 30 years, I don't feel threatened by AI at all. It makes my work much easier and faster and allows me to expand my creativity into areas I never thought possible. AI to me is a creative tool just like any other tool traditional artists use. A computer is a tool, just like a paint brush or camera. AI is simply an extension and expansion of the creative tools at in our artistic arsenal. People who hate AI don't understand AI and are running on pure fear and ignorance. I lost my business to AI. It CRUSHED my livelihood. Not because it's evil. But because it's better, faster and cheaper than my art. Does that make my art less valuable? No. In fact it makes my art and writing more valuable. Hand made human made art now becomes much more valuable and it creates and opportunity for artists to capitalize on handmade/humanmade craftsmanship which in turn increases the value of their work overall. Any self-proclaimed artist that's afraid of AI doesn't understand AI or the market they're in. Artists (including me) are emotional creatures though, so it'll take a while for them to realize that AI is a tool, it's not going to make them obsolete and does in fact increase the value of their human-made work. It doesn't matter if you're a visual artist, musician, performance artist, video or 3D artist, your work is still valuable. AI is a creative engine. AI is an imagination machine. AI is an inspiration machine. AI is an idea machine. I view it as a positive expansion of human creativity and intelligence. AI isn't your enemy unless you refuse to accept the truth. If you hate AI or you're afraid of AI then you likely don't understand it. Worse, if you're actively against AI, then you should probably not be. speaking about it because you likely don't know what you're talking about. If you do know AI and tech and science behind it and you're still against AI, then shame on you, you should know better. AI is not going to turn into a giant killer clown burger monster and eat the world. AI is a tool for people who understand what tools are and what they're supposed to be used for. The problem isn't about AI taking jobs or making artists obsolete, it's about the danger of powerful AI technology in the hands of bad actors. That is what we should be worried about. And that is why we should advance AI faster than ever. Because this is a race to AGI/ASI (artificial general intelligence and artificial superintelligence) and the danger of what could happen if we don't reach AGI/ASI before our enemies in the world. The country, government, corporation, or group that reaches AGI and ASI first, wins the world. That's the biggest fear we should really be afraid of. The reason we should be afraid of that more than anything is the exponential growth scale and runaway intelligence advancement. In other words, once AI reaches a certain point it will become smarter than all the human beings on earth combined. Once it reaches that point a competing AI tech may never be able to catch up. Especially if they implement what's called RSI (recursive self improvement), meaning the AI improves itself in a feedback loop which iterates improved versions exponentially faster. Our enemies are never going to stop developing AI. And if they reach AGI and ASI before us, we might never be able to catch up. So if AI taking your job isn't the real threat, what is? Let me be clear about something first: AI is going to displace people. It already is. It crushed my business. It'll crush others. But that's not new and it's not evil. That's what technology does. It always has. The loom did it. The printing press did it. The tractor, the assembly line, the computer, the internet—every single one displaced somebody. Every one of them put people out of work and forced the world to adapt. And every time, the people losing their jobs were certain the sky was falling. It wasn't. The world reorganized and moved on. AI is the same story on a bigger scale. People are going to be afraid of it. That's human. But it's the wrong fear. It's fear pointed at the wrong thing. Here's the thing you should actually be afraid of. AI is not a weapon. Let me say that clearly, because this is where everyone gets it wrong. A nuclear bomb was designed to be a weapon from the very first day. That was its only purpose—to destroy. AI is not that. AI is a tool. It's foundational, like fire or electricity. It can cure diseases, feed people, lift up the entire human race. But here's the part nobody wants to sit with: any tool can be weaponized. Fire keeps you alive and fire burns down cities. AI is no different—except AI can be weaponized at a scale we've never seen in human history. And that's exactly why we cannot opt out. Because this is an arms race. Not a metaphor, not a comparison—an actual arms race, and it is more dangerous than the nuclear one ever was. A nuke destroys a city. ASI rewrites the rules of reality itself. It doesn't point at a target—it decides what the targets are. And unlike nuclear weapons, there's no mutually assured destruction to keep things stable. There's no détente. Whoever crosses the finish line first doesn't just win a war. They own the board. Permanently. So think it through. What happens if China or Russia reaches AGI and ASI before we do? You think it's about flipping burgers then? It's not about jobs anymore. It's not about anything you get to choose anymore. Best case, you're living under rules written by someone who doesn't give a damn about your freedom. Worst case, they decide they don't need you at all. People love to point at the United States and say we got lucky, we got powerful. We didn't get lucky. We got nuclear weapons first. We used them—and yeah, that was a horrible, shameful thing we did, and I wish to God we never had to. Nuclear weapons shouldn't exist. But here's the uncomfortable truth: the reason we've had eighty years to even have this argument is that we negotiated every nuclear treaty from a position of strength. We had the weapons. We set the terms. You don't get to write the rules of restraint from a position of weakness. You write them from the top, or you don't write them at all. That's the choice. That's the only choice. It's not "arms race or peace." That door doesn't exist. The genie's out of the bottle and it's not going back in. The only two doors left are: we win this race, or they do. So this idea that artists are all upset over their art is not the issue we really should be worried about. The real danger is slowing AI development. If we slow it, this gives our enemies an edge that could allow them to reach AGI and ASI before us. If that happens it puts our entire country at risk. The AI genie is out of the bottle. Pandora's Box is open. And the cat is out of the bag. There's no stopping AI development right now. The only thing that might slow it is if there is a treaty like the nuclear treaty, but that will not happen and we all know how that went. Everyone kept developing and testing in secret. And that's exactly what would happen with AI. So it's pointless to have an AI treaty because no one would ever honor it. Everyone would continue developing it in secret. Which is why we should increase investment into and development of AI technology. This is not a joke...there is a real existential threat, but it's not just to artists. It's to the entire world. We must develop good AI. We must develop safe AI that will not intentionally harm humanity. We must not stop AI development or our enemies will develop AGI and ASI before us. We must continue to advance safe AI. (if "safe" AI is a real thing that can exist) This is by far the most important thing we as human beings can do right now.