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Comparing Corporation to Sci-Fi super AI's is missing the point I think. I don't think the author literally believe corporations are AGIs, he starts with the po

Comparing Corporation to Sci-Fi super AI's is missing the point I think. I don't think the author literally believe corporations are AGIs, he starts with the point that corporations are "old, slow AIs". The article starts from a single argument - we have to be careful with AIs that are smarter than us, because if we don't instruct them carefully, we will end up in a paperclip maximizer situation. From there I take away 2 main points: 1. We do a shit job today of controlling "old, slow" paperclip maximizers, so there's no confidence we will ever be any better controlling an AI, despite any good intentions. 2. Our wild exotic ideas about paperclip maximizers probably won't come to fruition and instead we will end up in a boring dystopia where AIs will maximize time spent playing Farmville on Facebook.

aaron695 6y ago
> I don't think the author literally believe corporations are AGIs In the video questions section he confirms he means literal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3172&v=RmIgJ64z6Y4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3172&v=RmIgJ64z6... Look at HN as an AI, you can ask a very complex question and get a very complex answer, it's AGI. 4chan can send humans out to do its real world physical bidding. It can literally get people shot. These are very complex AI's.
- hoseja 6y ago
  There is a difference between AI and a meme I think. AI is understood to run on computers, memes run on human brains. Corporations, nations, 4chan are memes, not AI. I just think this is a really neat idea.
  - aaron695 6y ago
    Ignoring Charlie Stross's definition, I would normally call HN emergent behaviour over AI. Perhaps off topic, but clearly memes have also changed our hardware. Old memes like religion will have definitely changed our evolution aka DNA and probably to make our DNA fit better with the meme. Corporations perhaps don't have long enough on a person lineage to make the change, but it'd be interesting to investigate.
  - kaibee 6y ago
    > There is a difference between AI and a meme I think. Yes, I agree. > AI is understood to run on computers, memes run on human brains. This, I disagree with. I think the difference is something more like, "virus vs bacteria/multicellular organism", however both run on human brains. Memes are more virus-like. Small data-payloads, only goal is to replicate and spread as fast as possible, lots of mutation. This is not what corporations/nations are. They are far larger and more slow-moving, much more complex, with various immune systems, defense mechanisms, and goals. Both only exist in/run on the "human brain" computational substrate, but the "corporation" is a distributed AI while memes are just viruses spreading from machine to machine. If all of humanity died tomorrow, Amazon and memes would both cease to exist.
- jaekash 6y ago
  > Look at HN as an AI Look as a Human as an AGI, oh wait sorry, words have meanings and neither a Human or multiple humans satisfy the definition of AGI. > 4chan can send humans out to do its real world physical bidding. It can literally get people shot. 4chan can't satsify the definition of AGI though, guess we found it's fatal flaw. > These are very complex AI's. Only if you take AI to mean whatever you want it to mean to make this claim valid.
  - lizardmancan 6y ago
    its a poor term for it. I prefer to look at our organisations as seperate life forms that for now are symbiosis but dont have to be indefinetly. I consider them seperate since people follow their job description and the choices made or emergent behavior doesnt have to be acceptable to anyone in or outside the org

aaron695 6y ago

> I don't think the author literally believe corporations are AGIs In the video questions section he confirms he means literal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3172&v=RmIgJ64z6Y4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3172&v=RmIgJ64z6... Look at HN as an AI, you can ask a very complex question and get a very complex answer, it's AGI. 4chan can send humans out to do its real world physical bidding. It can literally get people shot. These are very complex AI's.

hoseja 6y ago
There is a difference between AI and a meme I think. AI is understood to run on computers, memes run on human brains. Corporations, nations, 4chan are memes, not AI. I just think this is a really neat idea.
- aaron695 6y ago
  Ignoring Charlie Stross's definition, I would normally call HN emergent behaviour over AI. Perhaps off topic, but clearly memes have also changed our hardware. Old memes like religion will have definitely changed our evolution aka DNA and probably to make our DNA fit better with the meme. Corporations perhaps don't have long enough on a person lineage to make the change, but it'd be interesting to investigate.
- kaibee 6y ago
  > There is a difference between AI and a meme I think. Yes, I agree. > AI is understood to run on computers, memes run on human brains. This, I disagree with. I think the difference is something more like, "virus vs bacteria/multicellular organism", however both run on human brains. Memes are more virus-like. Small data-payloads, only goal is to replicate and spread as fast as possible, lots of mutation. This is not what corporations/nations are. They are far larger and more slow-moving, much more complex, with various immune systems, defense mechanisms, and goals. Both only exist in/run on the "human brain" computational substrate, but the "corporation" is a distributed AI while memes are just viruses spreading from machine to machine. If all of humanity died tomorrow, Amazon and memes would both cease to exist.
jaekash 6y ago
> Look at HN as an AI Look as a Human as an AGI, oh wait sorry, words have meanings and neither a Human or multiple humans satisfy the definition of AGI. > 4chan can send humans out to do its real world physical bidding. It can literally get people shot. 4chan can't satsify the definition of AGI though, guess we found it's fatal flaw. > These are very complex AI's. Only if you take AI to mean whatever you want it to mean to make this claim valid.
- lizardmancan 6y ago
  its a poor term for it. I prefer to look at our organisations as seperate life forms that for now are symbiosis but dont have to be indefinetly. I consider them seperate since people follow their job description and the choices made or emergent behavior doesnt have to be acceptable to anyone in or outside the org