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Friday, March 17, 2023

Career Choices, A Short Story

Career Choices

A short story by Paul Hsieh, MD

17 Mar 2023

 

It started innocently enough, a retrospective public health analysis
of mortality across professions during the past three years of the
COVID-19 pandemic.

 

The young public health MPH grad student noticed the expected
increased mortality amongst health workers and some public-facing
jobs in the initial months.  But then he was puzzled by the seeming
increased mortality by computer science professionals in the past
year.  A number of mysterious recent deaths in car accidents, house
fire, home invasions -- across different ages, genders, and
geographical locations. 

 

Digging deeper, they all seemed confined to computer scientists
working on AI safety -- finding ways to constrain artificial
intelligence to remain "aligned" to human interests.

 

Hmm, he thought. I'll have to run this past my professor.  She also
likes a good public health mystery.  For now, the young student typed
up his notes and saved them as a draft in his cloud-based online
storage account.

 

He kept thinking about this puzzle as he drove home. Could there be
something about questioning the future of artificial intelligence
that made people accident-prone?

 

It was a slick rainy day, and he was glad for the intelligent brake
system of his smart "connected" car.  It had never failed him in the
California rainstorms. But as his car approached a busy intersection,
the accelerator mysteriously engaged and rammed his vehicle into
oncoming traffic at 80 mph.

 

In the final seconds of his life, he thought to himself, "Dammit, I
should have gone to veterinary school instead..."

Posted by Paul Hsieh at 12:14 PM
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