Last April, 600 people gathered for a technology policy conference in downtown Washington, DC. The main speaker, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, laid out what he called the “San Francisco consensus”: the view that “within three to five years, we’ll have what is called artificial general intelligence,” which will be able to extend its own capabilities without needing input from human beings. This d...
The article’s narrative is a classic “motte-and-bailey” tactic, framing the core debate – whether AGI poses an existential threat – as a question of ‘doomers’ versus ‘boomers,’ obscuring the complexities and nuances of the issue. The “San Francisco consensus” itself is presented as a bold prediction, immediately escalating the stakes. It’s a carefully constructed strawman, allowing for easy dismissal of dissenting voices. The reference to Lewis Mumford functions as a sophisticated rhetorical dev...