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AI risk research feels like a cop-out to me. Honest research takes the risk of being boring or unnecessary. Astronomy is honest. Take a bunch of pictures of sta
by sdwr 4y ago
AI risk research feels like a cop-out to me. Honest research takes the risk of being boring or unnecessary. Astronomy is honest. Take a bunch of pictures of stars. Maybe you find something interesting. Maybe no one cares. AI development is honest. Make a robot that can pick up cans of Coke from a table. Will it ever be useful? Maybe, maybe not. But AI risk research feels like a cross between volcano insurance and a protection racket. Pay us to investigate and design safeguards against something that doesn't exist, may never exist, and if it did exist would change the world in ways we can't predict!
- obscur 4y agoSurely this cannot be an argument for whether something is a legitimate field. Surely there are some scientists somewhere studying the risks of a very risky viruses. At least prima facie, such research would neither be boring or unnecessary.
- sdwr 4y agoI'm just trying to say I don't respect AI risk research. It smells too much like people trying to be important. If there ends up being a real AI threat down the road, it's going to be handled by the people who kept their heads down and ground out practical stuff, not the theorists with their heads up their ass (speaking as someone who loves theory).