I think one reason AGI discourse is more prominent in the US is due to contingent founder effects. The rationalist community has been very influential on US tech culture in particular, and it was founded by one of the original AI doomers. I believe Jasmine Sun has said that AGI discourse also isn't very prominent in China in her reporting, so I think the anglosphere is more of the exception here than Europe.
This might potentially fall under your suggestion that Americans are more willing to entertain speculative questions, but I think the reason for the difference is that Americans are much more optimistic about the transformative potential of technology. By this, I don’t necessarily mean that they think technology is always a force for good. Although I do think that this attitude is strongly correlated with having some positive feelings towards technology. Instead, I mean that Americans are much more optimistic about how impactful technology will be independent of whether that impact will be good or bad, whereas I think Europeans tend to be much more sceptical of technology. I also do think this is related to my sense that Americans have comparatively more of a positive attitude towards technology when compared with Europe at least among the elite. Of course, I could be wrong about all of this, and this just begs the question of why attitude towards technology would be so different on the two sides of the Atlantic.
There is also the obvious fact that silicon valley is in the United States, which gives rise to the greatest concentration of people working in technology being in America especially as it is a magnet for people interested in the topic, including to some extent, people in other countries who can immigrate. I don’t just mean people working on AI are mostly in America. I also think selection effects mean that these people in Silicon Valley will tend to be a disproportionately large share of the people who believe in the transformative potential of technology. They will also be unusually high status. Members of the group of people who believe in this potential, which means their voice will be heard much more than the voice of random people in Europe as they have an independent source of prestige and an easy audience of fellow people concentrated in Silicon Valley. Also, don’t underestimate the effects of having all these people believing in the power of technology being concentrated in one geographical area. You’re obviously just going to see much more exploration of ideas relating to technology in such a community and it’s not surprising this leads to people being more, AGI pilled.
I think one reason AGI discourse is more prominent in the US is due to contingent founder effects. The rationalist community has been very influential on US tech culture in particular, and it was founded by one of the original AI doomers. I believe Jasmine Sun has said that AGI discourse also isn't very prominent in China in her reporting, so I think the anglosphere is more of the exception here than Europe.
I wouldn't mind an edition of The Update that strips out the AI news.
This might potentially fall under your suggestion that Americans are more willing to entertain speculative questions, but I think the reason for the difference is that Americans are much more optimistic about the transformative potential of technology. By this, I don’t necessarily mean that they think technology is always a force for good. Although I do think that this attitude is strongly correlated with having some positive feelings towards technology. Instead, I mean that Americans are much more optimistic about how impactful technology will be independent of whether that impact will be good or bad, whereas I think Europeans tend to be much more sceptical of technology. I also do think this is related to my sense that Americans have comparatively more of a positive attitude towards technology when compared with Europe at least among the elite. Of course, I could be wrong about all of this, and this just begs the question of why attitude towards technology would be so different on the two sides of the Atlantic.
There is also the obvious fact that silicon valley is in the United States, which gives rise to the greatest concentration of people working in technology being in America especially as it is a magnet for people interested in the topic, including to some extent, people in other countries who can immigrate. I don’t just mean people working on AI are mostly in America. I also think selection effects mean that these people in Silicon Valley will tend to be a disproportionately large share of the people who believe in the transformative potential of technology. They will also be unusually high status. Members of the group of people who believe in this potential, which means their voice will be heard much more than the voice of random people in Europe as they have an independent source of prestige and an easy audience of fellow people concentrated in Silicon Valley. Also, don’t underestimate the effects of having all these people believing in the power of technology being concentrated in one geographical area. You’re obviously just going to see much more exploration of ideas relating to technology in such a community and it’s not surprising this leads to people being more, AGI pilled.