不想住在人工智能数据中心附近，理由正变得越来越多了。其中一些数据中心会持续发出刺耳的尖叫声，根本无法掩盖。另一些则依赖巨大的柴油发电机，向社区排放烟雾，向大气释放温室气体。如果你特别倒霉，由于新数据中心在附近设立，你的电费账单也可能随之上涨。
There are a growing list of reasons not to want to live near an AI data center. Some of them emit constant screeching noises that are impossible to drown out. Others rely on massive diesel generators that spew smog into the community and greenhouse emissions into the atmosphere. If you get particularly unlucky, your electricity bill could also go up as a result of a new data center setting up shop in your neighborhood.
而且，如果最近由那个名字颇具戏剧性的得克萨斯州倡导组织“崩溃生存研究所”发布的报告可信，那么住在数据中心附近甚至可能关乎生死。
And, if a recent report by the colorfully-named Texas-based advocacy group Collapse Survival Institute is anything to go by, living near a data center could be a matter of life and death as well.
这份报告由退役空军上校德鲁·米勒整理，其中引用了前Anthropic研究员雅各布·科森的观点。科森今年早些时候离开了这家人工智能公司。他曾提出，人工智能终结人类文明的可能性超过百分之十，这一言论引发了广泛关注，也激起了人们对类似灾难性奇点事件爆发的普遍担忧。
The report, which was put together by retired Air Force colonel Drew Miller, quotes former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who left his post at the AI company earlier this year. Coxon drew widespread media attention for arguing that there was a greater than ten percent chance of AI ending humanity — incendiary comments that prompted widespread fears of a catastrophic singularity-like event.
在这份带有“末日准备者”色彩的报告中，米勒认为，如果恶意或“偏离正轨”的人工智能某天失控并突破限制，数据中心本身可能成为灾难的震中。他警告称：“居住在人工智能数据中心附近的人可能会成为人类控制与抵抗的代行者而遭到攻击。”
In the prepper-inflected report, Miller argued that the data centers themselves may become the ground zero if a malicious — or “misaligned” — AI were to ever go rogue and break out, warning that “people living near AI data centers may be targeted as proxies for human control and resistance.”
报告担忧，“失控的通用人工智能威胁是真实存在的”，并且“人工智能并非我们能够控制的程序”。
The report frets that the “rogue [artificial general intelligence] threat is very real” and that “AI is not a program we control.”
报告总结道：“这并非科幻小说，而是对人工智能现有能力或未经监管的人工智能公司正争相实现的能力的简单推演——多位资深人工智能研究人员如今也承认，他们无法可靠地控制这些能力。”
“This is not science fiction,” it concluded. “It is the straightforward extrapolation of capabilities that AI already has or unregulated AI companies are racing to achieve — and that multiple senior AI researchers now acknowledge they cannot reliably control.”
因此，米勒呼吁国会“暂停新建人工智能数据中心”，强制要求“所有前沿人工智能系统必须具备‘关闭开关’基础设施”，并实施“对前沿人工智能实验室的全面透明度要求”。
Therefore, Miller is calling on Congress to place a “moratorium on the construction of new AI data centers,” mandate “mandatory ‘kill switch’ infrastructure requirements for all frontier AI systems,” and implement “full transparency requirements for frontier AI labs.”
该研究所指出，如果“失控的通用人工智能”被释放到人类社会中，不仅居住在地数据中心附近的人可能面临灭顶之灾，就连“居住在大型发电厂或为数据中心供电的输电线路附近的人也会面临类似风险”，因为“失控的通用人工智能会试图保护和控制其电力供应”。要判断这一警告应被多严肃地看待，确实很难。报告所警告的一切都深深植根于未来——但过去几年人工智能的进步已经设定了一条令人不安的轨迹，甚至让科森（Coxon）这类前沿实验室的研究人员感到警觉。
If a “rogue AGI” is let loose on humanity, it’s not just people who live near data centers that could be doomed, according to the Institute. Even people “living near major power plants or transmission lines that feed data centers face similar risk,” since “rogue AGI will seek to protect and control its power supply.”It’s hard to contextualize how seriously to take the warning. Everything it’s warning about is firmly rooted in the future — but the past few years of AI progress have set a course that’s already alarming people at frontier labs like Coxon.
崩溃生存研究所（The Collapse Survival Institute）在其网站上还提供了许多其他色彩鲜明的“崩溃诱因”，从“军事入侵”美国、 “纳米技术灾难”，到“来自太空的入侵”。根据其模型估算，“每年发生崩溃”的可能性高达57%——这个比例，姑且说句心里话，似乎有点过高了。
The Collapse Survival Institute also offers plenty of other colorful “collapse triggers” on its website, from “military invasions” of the US and a “nanotechnology disaster,” to invasions “from space.”According to its model estimates, there’s an up to 57 percent “annual chance of a collapse” — which, just to spitball, feels a bit high.
报告指出，数据中心附近居民面临的另一项危险是：世界大国可能会发动“先发制人打击”，以“摧毁构成即时威胁的人工智能系统”。报告还提出，由美国、中国、俄罗斯、英国及其他国家领导的“军事联盟”将是一项有效的应对措施。
Another hazard to those living near data centers, per the report: “prompt strikes” by world powers “to destroy AI systems that pose an immediate risk,” per the report, which suggests a “military alliance led by US, China, Russia, UK, and other countries” would be a meaningful countermeasure.
米勒在“末日准备者”圈子中似乎是一位知名人物，他经常出现在“Fortitude Ranch Survival Community”等YouTube频道上，讨论“外星人入侵”的可能性。该群体主张人们应“远离人工智能的重要资产，坚守自己的土地从事农业和畜牧业，不对失控的人工智能系统构成威胁”；同时，农村居民应配备“射程更远的十号霰弹枪”，以便“摧毁人工智能系统可能部署的无人机和机器人”。米勒在其报告附带的新闻稿中如此写道。
Miller appears to be a well-known figure in prepper circles, making appearances on YouTube channels like the “Fortitude Ranch Survival Community” to discuss the chance of an “alien invasion.”The prepper community advocates staying “far from AI valued assets, staying put on their property farming and ranching, posing no threat to rogue AI systems,” while rural residents should arm themselves with “longer-range ten-gauge shotguns” so they can “destroy the drones and robots an AI system may deploy,” as Miller notes in an accompanying press release to his report.
与此同时，当一些最顶尖的智识界人士都呼吁在应对可能威胁人类生存的风险时采取更谨慎的态度之际，这位前上校的警告或许并非毫无根据。更何况，如果人工智能被人类有意用作武器，其威胁可能比我们想象的更近。
At the same time, in a moment when even some of the brightest minds are calling for a more careful approach in light of a potentially existential threat to humanity, the former colonel’s warnings may not be entirely misplaced. Besides, if intentionally weaponized by humans, the threat of AI could be closer than we might think.
即便没有因失控人工智能而导致的文明系统性崩溃，米勒也乐于指出，不居住在数据中心附近仍有诸多其他理由——这一不幸的现实已在美国推动了日益壮大的跨党派运动。
Even in the absence of a systemic collapse of civilization brought on by a rogue AI, there are plenty of other reasons not to live near a data center, as Miller is happy to point out — an unfortunate reality that has mobilized a growing bipartisan movement across the United States.