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CEO Matt Shumer defends his chilling essay on AI, says didn’t write it to ‘scare people’
Matt Shumer’s post went massively viral on social media, prompting a heated debate on AI’s advancement.
After his blunt warning about artificial intelligence's rapid evolution went mega-viral with millions of views, CEO Matt Shumer admitted the public's reaction to his essay was "much more extreme" than he anticipated. Schumer's original essay warned that the world is entering a phase of disruption that could dwarf the pandemic's impact. In a follow-up, he emphasised that he didn't write the piece to scare people, but because he believes everyone has the right to know in advance “so they can at least spend a little time thinking about it and preparing”.
“To be very, very clear: I didn’t write this to scare people. I just think it’s our duty (those of us in the AI space) to share what we’re seeing so people at least have a sense of what may be happening,” Schumer tweeted.
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In the following lines, he continued, “Even if there’s a small chance things play out like I, and many others, expect, people have the right to know in advance so they can at least spend a little time thinking about it and preparing.”
He confessed that his piece went much more viral than he anticipated. “This has gone way more viral than I ever possibly imagined… and the reaction to it is much more extreme than I expected.”
“It’s very possible we will be entering a very weird, new world in the coming years (or we may not!) and I think it’s important that people spend at least a little time thinking about what this might mean for them, and how they should prepare,” he stated.
He concluded his post by adding, “If nothing else, I’m glad this article got people talking about this stuff.”
Why did Matt Shumer post about his essay?
Since the publication of his essay titled “Something Big Is Happening”, many people have tagged Schumer to share their opinions about the piece. While many agreed with him about AI disruptions, some argued that he was exaggerating the situation.
The New York CEO defended his essay in response to a post by a techie who called him an “AI OG” and agreed with his opinion. The individual who goes by Teddy on X wrote, “Matt Shumer's an AI OG. I've known him since the early GPT-3 days. He's always been ahead with his ideas and work. This is very on point. For the few thousand of us here on X and in the space / bubble whatever you may call it, some of this sounds obvious. But there's a whole other world out there that doesn't quite understand what's coming for them and how big this really is. Something big already happened. Now comes the shockwave.”
What is ‘Something Big Is Happening’ all about?
Matt Shumer’s essay, "Something Big Is Happening," serves as a stark "weather report" from the AI frontlines. Comparing the current moment to the deceptive calm of February 2020, Schumer warns about the gap between public perception and AI's actual capability.
He reveals that for top-tier developers, the "disruption" has already arrived; AI is no longer just a tool but a colleague capable of independent judgment, complex coding, and even building the next generation of itself. Schumer urged people to adapt to this new change.
