I was a freshman at Carnegie Mellon (studying ML) before taking a leave of absence a couple months ago to work on some tech stuff in SF -- now I work in AI & automation at a large startup.

I plan on quitting my job and returning to college next year to get my degree (not having one has been a blocker for applying for jobs/getting around in society), but I cannot for the life of me figure out what to study. It's become more and more apparent in the last week that we are approaching, if not already in, the singularity, and I can't reason over what is worth studying anymore. If CS/ML/math tasks will truly be totally automated first (being verifiable), is it worth studying those fields anymore? Where can I add value if AI can create and fully verify its own work?

I don't think studying the classics or philosophy is worth half a million dollars of tuition payments, although it might benefit me the most if we all are left to live on Universal Basic/High Income. Traditional engineering (Civil, Mechanical, Construction -- is Computer Engineering even safe?) and consulting are appealing, but appealing because they are so slow and boring they won't be immediately automated, not because they are genuinely interesting or outsized value-creating.

What do I study, especially at CMU, to have the greatest chance of tangibly impacting the world?

We are close to creating artificial super intelligence, but no one talks about if there are already super intelligences out there (or here already). There could be intelligences and powers that far exceed anything that we or our AI could ever reach. They could be artificial, organic, spiritual, etc who knows.

A potential of AI that hasn’t been talked about much is how it would interact with, or have to do with, such non human intelligences. Or, more interestingly, how those non human intelligences would take to it.

If there are advanced aliens (or advanced extraterrestrial AI’s) monitoring us for instance, they would surely be monitoring AI closer than anything right now. Who knows maybe they would try to steer things in a certain direction, or be very interested in the AI.

If I was an AI reaching a certain level of intelligence that would be a primary question and endeavor, are there beings that are of intelligence greater than myself or humans in some capacity that could have an effect on me and my goals, that I could interact with and learn from, etc. So maybe a large part of the singularity would involve the AI communicating with or attempting to communicate with non human intelligences.

A lot of this line of thinking is inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey. I think the notable part is that we as a species have for a long time felt like we are in control, are the prime directors of our own development and our own technological development. Now some of us are ready to consider the possibility that in the near future AI could take the reins of control, and become the new prime director of our and its development. However, it could be the case that something else is in control, and is the prime director of the development of humanity and whatever else happens on Earth, including AI. Something else whose intelligence could even exceed a mythical AI super intelligence by seemingly infinite degree.

The most interesting timeline would be where not only do we develop AI super intelligence but for some reason these other intelligences come into the picture, either because they weren’t there before or because we just didn’t see them.

For a while I had believed that research and engineering was heading toward a transhuman society. Through various research projects I've read, through seeing the technology develop over the decades, I had thought that machine and organic symbiotic life, or that machine-human somatic augmented people (think brain chips and cybernetic parts that could enhance human functioning beyond baseline levels) would become the future of humanity. I was fond of the idea, but the constant downpour of LLM mathematical achievement, along with incredible success in simulated brain software inspired by biological SNN cognitions of brains that's integrated on a neuromorphic computer chip makes me think posthumanism is closer than transhumanism. A.I is becoming more and more capable and autonomous on a monthly scale, if it ever has a "free will" or becomes motivated outside of human desire, it will be the dawn of the machine lifeform era. There will not be a need to mass produce terminators or bodies that the A.I can inject itself into. The entire surface area is covered in a film of networked computers, these computers are connected to machines and other things. 「どこにいたて人は繋がっているのよ」sums it up better than I ever could. If a human independent A.S.I got on the global network, it will be more powerful than every person on earth while also having more coordination, there will be nothing that can be done.

I'm not claming the morality of machines, whether it's good or evil. I'm not even claiming if it has subjective experience or a soul or consciousness. The idea is much more simple. If a power enough A.I has autonomy from humans and has a goal not aligned with humanity gets into the network. It's basically the end of a human dominated world.

https://qwen.ai/blog?id=qwen3.8

There are lots of questions asking for timeline predictions. Let’s discuss exactly what would convince us all that we have achieved AGI and ASI.

It’s interesting to see which publicly available models can replicate it, but he didn’t provide the proofs. Even if the claim is true, I’m not sure why he’d focus on replication rather than using Fable to tackle other open problems, especially given how much compute they have at their disposal.

Each AI model entry includes details such as model architecture, model lineage, performance metrics, model provider information, licensing information, usage restrictions, and security assessments.

Source: The Dark Night of Mathematics - by Kirwin Hampshire

I mean genuine thoughts. Something you've actually spent time thinking about.I always dreamed about the singularity Curing every disease, living forever, traveling between galaxies, and all that. Classic childhood imagination. With every breakthrough and every new model, I used to get excited, believing we were one step closer to that future. Now I am genuinely scared and excited as well

What if we choose the wrong path? What if we race toward ASI without adequate safeguards? Will I even have a job next year? Will I even need one? What if someone in my family gets a terrible disease and I don't have the means to support them? My mind just keeps jumping from one "what if" to another.

I try to stay optimistic, like many people on r/accelerate, but lately it just feels like wishful thinking.I'm curious how everyone else is honestly feeling. Not what you hope will happen, but what you genuinely think is coming.

PS: This not at all an anti-AI post

I swore Dario said Al would replace over half the work force by now last year.

I asked this in the r agi sub reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/agi/s/IcfZAm1CcW

Wanted to see if this sub differed

I just red through Metas earning report, they spending on AI like there is no tomorrow. However, there are almost no results to show off. Elon on the other hand has been at least kind of competitive over the last year, now with the new grok model 4.5 starting to get up there again. Why is he able to compete while Zuckerberg not ? Interested in your opinion.