When policymakers buy the hype, the public pays for it

 --- Eryk Salvaggio, in Most Researchers Do Not Believe AGI Is Imminent. Why Do Policymakers Act Otherwise?, Tech Policy Press, 19 Mar 2025

In context

Around the world, policymakers appear increasingly eager to satisfy the interests of tech firms that claim they can deliver AGI. Perhaps it’s natural—if you were a politician or a head of state confronted with a complex, interconnected set of problems with no immediate solution, you might crave the answer these companies are selling. And you might be more than a little hungry for the type of transformation that such technology might create under your leadership.

However, there is danger in making AI policy goals just as invested in the promise of AGI as are the tech sector's leaders. When policymakers buy the hype, the public pays for it.

ne vous faites pas si petit, vous n’etes pas si grand” (Don't make yourself so small, you’re not that big)

---C Scot Hicks and David V Hicks, translators of Plutarch, The Lawgivers: The parallel lives of Numa Pompilius and Lycurgus of Sparta, Circe (2019)

p. 49, Footnote on p. 49

Love of honor: The celebrated Greek philotimia (love of honor). For the Greeks, a false modesty (eironia, from which the English word “irony” derives), as seen in Theophrastus’ character sketches, is a vice. This character is often translated into English as The Hypocrite. As the French say, “ne vous faites pas si petit, vous n’etes pas si grand” (Don't make yourself so small, you’re not that big).

Plutarch's text, p. 48

The girls might even taunt a boy by name with an apt comment when catching him in a mistake, or in their songs they might single out someone for praise and thereby inspire a great love of honor and a competitive spirit in the young men.