Extraordinary statements deserve scrutiny, especially when they carry significant consequences. A claim that AGI has arrived requires a definition and evidence. A claim that AI could cause human extinction by the end of the decade requires a basis and evidence. A call for someone to step down requires a basis and evidence.
In each case, the question should not be who makes the claim, but what supports it. The standard should not change depending on whose side we are on. A claim is not strengthened merely by the confidence with which it is stated. A label is not evidence, and an accusation is not a finding.
Even faith calls us to discernment. Belief does not remove our responsibility to examine what we are told.
More and more, we substitute assertion for justification. But the more consequential the statement, the more important the basis.
