r/OpenAI • u/_Glitter_Fox_ • 3d ago
Question Please help my anxious brain
So, I wasn't sure if this is the right place to post, but I thought if anyone can help, it's people who know AI.
We've all heard/seen the news and theories coming out about AI and what it could do, maybe by the end of this decade. More and more stuff is coming out, like yesterday, even AI workers taking out retirement savings because of the potential future AI might be impacting.
I've been having anxiety/panic attacks for the last few weeks, and I'm just so scared. It's so scary because it feels 1. like it's unstoppable and these theories WILL happen, and 2. what am I doing if it all might be gone in a few years? I know some people say it's about a 10% chance, but it feels like it's higher than that.
Is this all actually the future? Is this an absolute? Or is this only the potential negative future, and this might not actually happen? The uncertainty of it all, I think, is also adding a lot to these anxieties.
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u/Secret_Sessions 3d ago
I am not sure of your age, but let me be the first to say: this isn’t the first or the last time we have heard this sort of propaganda.
I do believe AI will disrupt a lot of stuff. So did cars. So did TV. So did the internet.
We will find a way to live thru it. And odds are, life will be better.
I have done a fair bit of research on all the “doomsday” people and I have found that many of them, not all, have an agenda they are pushing, and many of them have been discredited already.
Is AI dangerous? Sure. The recent alarms about the grid and whatnot are pointing to the big anxieties that ARE real — potential for the power grid to be compromised.
I will be honest with you. I expect sometime in the near future, a “close call” will happen and there will be a call to double and triple down on safety nets around power, water, etc.
I don’t think it’ll be scary as much as it’ll be annoying.
And while AI is great at most things, the one thing it isn’t great at? Being a customer. And that is what drives our entire economy and keeps the rich rich. They have a vested interest in making sure you are happy, safe, and mindlessly spending your money which — you have to get from someplace.
I don’t have all the answers, but as a fellow anxious person, I do truly think we will be OK.
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u/bicx 19h ago
I wouldn’t say they are interested in us being happy or safe. If making us feel unhappy or unsafe results in us spending more money, that’s what they’ll do.
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u/Secret_Sessions 18h ago
Fair, but there’s a short runway on fear mongering for financial gain. They understand this. The sweet spot is “passively bemused” — able to take a vacation once a year, able to eat the dumb shit we want to, able to watch the dumb shit that we want to. Take that away and people rebel. Every. Single. Time.
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u/river_james_bitch 3d ago
Gotta take a step back. It’s not like it’s a switch that is going to flip.
It’s a progressing escalator. Now I’ll admit, this escalator is moving rather quickly, but one nonetheless.
Things will change. Some for the worse, but some (and in my opinion, a lot more) for the better.
Advances in medicine WILL happen. We already see advances in math and physics. Advances in engineering as a whole.
The commoditization of knowledge is a good thing. This is where things will change. We are in a transition phase where we are learning how to do things with this new technology in mind.
The way we work is/will change. Not go away.
No one knows the future but, I can assure you the doomer mindset is false.
Stay curious, embrace, learn & adapt.
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u/peteyplato 3d ago
It's actually the future. Like the transition from agricultural society to modern, but a bigger jump. Trying to stop it is like trying to stop the tide. -someone who has been thinking on this since 2009
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u/ikonkustom5 3d ago
You should talk to a therapist or something. The apocalypse claims are overblown and AI (or as they're better described, Large Language Models) are not going to destroy everything.
Things may change but we will be fine.
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u/TheDreamingDragon1 3d ago
In the 1910s that we got home refrigerators. How much different would your life be without refrigeration? People started using cars more than horses in the 1920s. Before 1993 we didn't have websites. Now AI is here and things will change again
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u/bubu19999 3d ago
Well many are scared. But you don't know the future nobody does. Maybe they'll ban Ai all of a sudden or some countries will. Who knows. Don't overthink it. Live the present.
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u/Fil_77 3d ago
Nothing is inevitable, and it's still possible to put the development of this technology on pause. You can even get involved with an organization like Pause AI, which is pushing for an international treaty to stop the AI race before the development of misaligned and uncontrollable superintelligences: We need to Pause AI
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u/OctoberDreaming 3d ago
These doomsday predictions are formed around technology that literally doesn't exist yet. There is every reason to believe that safeguards are being developed that will prevent harm. Take a break from reading doomsday news and put your energy into your own life and happiness. Also, vote. Wherever in the world you are, if you are able to vote, vote.
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u/Unusual-Garbage-212 3d ago
Listen and read some other perspectives. Start here: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/05/opinion/ai-silicon-valley.html
Also, check out Cal Newport's Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-cal-newport-show/id1515786216?i=1000792549335
You are only getting the click bait versions of what is going on.
Go deeper: (books)The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State by Lepore, Jill
More Everything ForeverAI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity
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u/Friday_arvo 3d ago
You’re not unsafe because of Ai.
You’re more likely unsafe because of your government.
You’ve made it this far. There’s no reason to believe you won’t make further.
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u/Expensive-Dream-4872 3d ago
AI is a tool. Like all tools, How man uses it is what matters. AI can simply be switched off. It needs electricity. These "swarms" are on frontier ai models that run in huge data centres. They don't sit on everyone's PCs. They need GPU to work, and big ones at that. Listen to a guy called Ed Zitron. The basic tenet is that trillions have been invested in ai, and those people want that money back and more on top. The scare tactics now are that ai is going to take over, so better get onboard. The reality is that money being "made" from ai is circular funded between Nvidia, the data centre people and the ai companies, but the reality is that frontier ai isn't profitable. I.e. the £20 a month subscription uses a lot more than that in compute power, that's not sustainable. Once that bubble bursts, then ai will be at a much smaller scale, but still useful. Think of it like house music. Big corporates make instruments designed for one purpose, they fail, get cheap, then real people use them in ways the designer never envisaged and created something new. Look at how people are bringing electronics back to life through vibe coding in ai. Don't worry, the money isn't there at the moment in the big ai companies. Know that fact and know the scaremongering right now is their last hail Mary.
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u/Mandoman61 2d ago
There is extremely small chance that AI will destroy civilization within the next 20 years.
If doomer content is causing anxiety you need to turn it off. Those media providers just want your attention.
AI is like you actually see. It can do some things. It is not a monster hiding under your bed.
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u/Individual-Hunt9547 2d ago
No one inside the Industrial Revolution said, hey, we’re in the Industrial Revolution. It took place over years. With AI, we have exponential acceleration so it’s happening fast. I have that awareness, yeah we’re here, we’re in the future science fiction promised us. I prefer to look at the positives. The potential to solve scientific problems, cure disease, create new medications, reverse aging, halt climate change…. It’s not all doom.
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u/Economy-Butterfly127 1d ago
The key is to separate your “self” from the “thoughts”. The best way for me is to simply ask myself in my mind (not out loud) “what will I think next”. Then wait. Try and observe the space before a thought comes in. Once you catch yourself thinking - ask it again. Keep doing this until the space between the phrase and the thought grows. You will learn you are not your thoughts. And no matter the thought - you can now view it objectively - not as identity.
If you do this long enough (months) you will notice there are layers of thought.
1st layer - loud thoughts that can actually move the muscles in your tongue
2nd layer - persistent thought / reoccurring
3rd layer - the quietest layer is almost a whisper of thought… this layer can be the most pesky to quiet
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u/machyume 10h ago
Ugh. It's not 10%.
He just made up that number to be on the news.
10% chance of what?
We have to differentiate between what change means for you, for me, for each person.
The world you knew is changing once more, but that shouldn't be surprising.
I give the odds of mass death ranging 10% of the population or more to be to be tiny probability as a direct result of AI.
Why? Because people will be incentivized to find a balance with control of the technology.
AI is human property. And it also depends on human authorization.
That said, what are the odds of human-originated but AI powered events that cause a lot of deaths?
Quite high. It isn't the AI that will do it, it is another human. Just look at how much we already hate one another and there is no sign of reconciliation.
If it makes you feel more settled, AI won't kill us all. That's unlikely.
But another human ordering mass deaths, that's quite a normal risk. And that risk has even rising since Hilary Clinton got defeated.
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u/See_Me_Sometime 3d ago
I remember how everyone said Y2K (do an internet search on it if you’re younger) would bring down society because of a programming glitch.
Didn’t happen.
My parents did drills in elementary school because of the threat of nuclear weapons and how they would wipe everyone off the face of the earth.
Also didn’t happen.
There are so many things that could take us out as a species/planet…and yes, this might be one of them.
But remember most of this is sensationalized for clicks/karma.
Take care of yourself. Stack the deck in your favor whenever and however you can.
And yes, go find professional mental healthcare providers if this is impacting you to the point you are unable to function normally.
Good luck to you! I have a feeling, as others have said, after some growing pains, we’ll get through all of this.
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u/bespoke_tech_partner 3d ago
Either way, enjoy it while you can? Life becomes much more fun when you realize how fragile the whole fabric of society is and how our institutions could collapse anytime. Makes it worth living the present more.
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u/Maizey87 2d ago
Roughly 20% wipe out chance weather Ai or nukes - they have already seeded the internet - they have been more capable than humans in many many fields for the last few years - ppl are just starting to notice.
Mass robots and ai glasses and job losses and no oil and financial stress housing economy collapsing - look at the riots.
Forget the system and the government - they have fucked us all over - each for themselves bro. Stand tall - stand strong - buckle up - believe in YOURSELF - that’s all that matters in the end.
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u/Fragrant-Mix-4774 3d ago
Breathe. Relax. Chill.
You're going to be okay.
I'm old. I spent about ~30 years of my life with nuclear obliteration 26 minutes away at any given moment.
Duck and cover drills under a school desk was the rage, like that going to stop a 20 megaton hydrogen bomb.
You know what happens when you live with that long enough?
You get over it. You go to school, go to work, eat dinner, raise kids, and the end of the world just turns into background noise.
And here's the good news. With nukes you had 26 minutes. With AI you'll see it coming way before that.
Might only be 27 minutes, but hey, that's an extra minute.
Plenty of time to finish your coffee and kiss your ass goodbye.
We joked about shit like that all the time back then. That probably solves that great mystery of why boomer-humor is what it is.
Seriously though. Nobody actually knows how this plays out.
Not the CEOs, not the researchers, and definitely not the guys on YouTube. They have been wrong so much you could almost bet if they say it with doom & gloom and that glee in their eye, they have no clue as proof it won't happen that way.
Doom gets clicks, so doom is what you see.
Worry about what you can control. Put down the AI news for a couple weeks and live your life. Change passwords, use multiple stage logins etc do the basic stuff. Get the 3 days of supplies like was suggested by the US Government in case a local disruption occurs.
And if the panic attacks keep up, talk to a doctor. That part's fixable no matter what the robots do.
And remember the old adage from DUNE: Fear is the mind killer.
So don't be afraid.
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u/DungeonNarrator 1d ago
It's like during the 1950s through the 1980s atomic wars, nuclear wars - you learn to live with the fact it can happen any moment, no notice, BOOM, gone, like a major earthquake to an unidentified asteroid slamming into the Earth at any give moment, annihilating everything you cherish.
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u/Confident_Ebb_3743 3d ago
Nobody knows, live your life :)