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When they shifted their focus toward products that they could develop and sell, computer games first seemed the obvious top choice. Prometheus could rapidly bec
by dqpb 9y ago
When they shifted their focus toward products that they could develop and sell, computer games first seemed the obvious top choice. Prometheus could rapidly become extremely skilled at designing appealing games, easily handling the coding, graphic design, ray tracing of images, and all other tasks needed to produce a final ready-to-ship product. Moreover, after digesting all the web’s data on people’s preferences, it would know exactly what each category of gamer liked, and could develop a superhuman ability to optimize a game for sales revenue.
I'll bet $20 this is the stage that brings down human civilization. We don't need full AGI to realize a dystopia, we just need something optimized to indefinitely hold our attention.
- 21 9y agoThat's one theorized explanation for the Fermi paradox, that highly advanced civilizations upload into their Matrix where they live a life of bliss. I wondered many times if an AI could invent something more viral than "cats", something maybe so viral that it causes your mind to melt (ie, you go insane by the cuteness or whatever)
- frankhorrigan 9y agoInfinite Jest deals with this. Though I feel like it's a spoiler to say any more than that.
- crooked-v 9y agoWell, there are any number of real-life historical cases of mass hysteria (in the literal sense), though we still don't reliably know what caused or causes the most absurd examples. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_Plague_of_1518 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_Plague_of_1518
- sundaysailor 9y agoChristopher Cherniak, The Riddle of the Universe and Its Solution (1978), http://themindi.blogspot.in/2007/02/chapter-17-riddle-of-universe-and-its.html http://themindi.blogspot.in/2007/02/chapter-17-riddle-of-uni...
- panic 9y agoHere's a question: how can an AI tell whether you liked the game it made? You can't just measure engagement: you'll end up with something addictive, but not necessarily something you'd enjoy playing long-term. Asking the person directly might work, but it's easy for people to lie if there's anything actually at stake (e.g., the tactical way some Steam users give low ratings to "punish" developers). Here's another question: what distinguishes an AI optimizing engagement from a corporation optimizing engagement? Doesn't Facebook already embody an engagement-optimizing process?
- chrisco255 9y agoWell AI in the hands of Facebook might just make their optimization process that much more powerful. Maybe the AI will see patterns that humans are too biased to see?