3 ms·

I read/skimmed what you wrote. Solid. I agree with most of it, unfortunately. This next phase is going to be exciting for everyone for productivity & services &

by ekanes 3y ago

I read/skimmed what you wrote. Solid. I agree with most of it, unfortunately. This next phase is going to be exciting for everyone for productivity & services & cost & personalized entertainment, but I worry about job losses as a hard middle phase, even long before we get to whether or not AI runs society. I don't think there's a way to avoid that, really, because AI will be better than us at everything, so we will want to give everything over because it will make sense, and nation-states who don't will fall behind. The question will be if we have safety mechanisms if AI starts going rogue.

13years 3y ago
> worry about job losses as a hard middle phase, even long before we get to whether or not AI runs society I agree. There is a very large moat between where we are now and the envisioned AI that people hope for. And that moat is filled with lots of problems without any clear answers. > because AI will be better than us at everything Yes, I don't think this concept still has not been completely digested by most people. AI is essentially a skill/technology replication machine. It is going to bring about a crisis of meaning in society as well. > The question will be if we have safety mechanisms if AI starts going rogue. I've spent a lot of time thinking about and writing on this topic as well. Under the current premise of alignment theory, I believe it is a complete logical fallacy or paradox. I don't see it as a hard problem, but rather an impossible problem. Now, this is just from the perspective of taking alignment theory's own proposed conditions. That being AI will be power seeking, scale infinitely on its own and we will solve this by applying humanities values. I explain why I perceive this as an impossible solution here. https://dakara.substack.com/p/ai-singularity-the-hubris-trap https://dakara.substack.com/p/ai-singularity-the-hubris-trap
- ekanes 3y ago
  Very interesting. It seems like we ought to focus on very specific points of containment. For example, AI should never be afforded "personhood" as we do now with corporations. It should never have rights, or bank accounts, or unbridled control over money. Second, I wonder if we could force conversation-points where AI talks to other AI's to be simple and perhaps open-source. So a AI banking API talking to the Tesla API can never say much more than "yes this driver has funds" etc. It can't talk about world domination.
  - 13years 3y ago
    The issue is that no matter what capabilities we decide it shouldn't have access, is there a means by which it could acquire those on its own. And even if we were hypothetically successful, and has been demonstrated already with the release of primitive LLMs, someone out there will build unaligned AI purposely.
    - ekanes 3y ago
      I agree, but if the unaligned AI can't do certain things, hopefully that contains it. I was just thinking about North Korea, and how AI will enable statewide surveillance on a whole new level, but then the thought popped into my head that maybe if AI can't be stopped, it can't be stopped there either, and maybe it'll be benevolent, and in 30 years they will be freed. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Hard to know how this plays out.
      - 13years 3y ago
        > maybe it'll be benevolent Hoping it will be benevolent is about the only thing we have at this point. Many, but not all, alignment safety researches believe that it will inherently exhibit properties that make for disastrous outcomes. Since they have no solution for this problem if it exists, at this point hoping they are wrong is the best option.
lancesells 3y ago
> even long before we get to whether or not AI runs society For the life of me I can't see how, or why, we would give AI this sort of power. Look at the power of the algorithm in social networks and see how that has taken shape. This embrace of the machine just seems so short-sighted.
- 13years 3y ago
  > Look at the power of the algorithm in social networks and see how that has taken shape. Yes, great point, I also mention that very aspect in the article linked previously. AI will likely surpass social media by orders of magnitude in both its ability to provide positive value for individuals as well as its propensity to become the dark monolith of a dystopian society under the control and manipulation of forces unseen I think there is a perception that the machine will be able to "rise above" our own biases and limitations. However, I see that also as another fallacy for which I elaborated further here. https://dakara.substack.com/p/ai-the-bias-paradox https://dakara.substack.com/p/ai-the-bias-paradox

by ekanes 3y ago

13years 3y ago

> worry about job losses as a hard middle phase, even long before we get to whether or not AI runs society I agree. There is a very large moat between where we are now and the envisioned AI that people hope for. And that moat is filled with lots of problems without any clear answers. > because AI will be better than us at everything Yes, I don't think this concept still has not been completely digested by most people. AI is essentially a skill/technology replication machine. It is going to bring about a crisis of meaning in society as well. > The question will be if we have safety mechanisms if AI starts going rogue. I've spent a lot of time thinking about and writing on this topic as well. Under the current premise of alignment theory, I believe it is a complete logical fallacy or paradox. I don't see it as a hard problem, but rather an impossible problem. Now, this is just from the perspective of taking alignment theory's own proposed conditions. That being AI will be power seeking, scale infinitely on its own and we will solve this by applying humanities values. I explain why I perceive this as an impossible solution here. https://dakara.substack.com/p/ai-singularity-the-hubris-trap https://dakara.substack.com/p/ai-singularity-the-hubris-trap

ekanes 3y ago
Very interesting. It seems like we ought to focus on very specific points of containment. For example, AI should never be afforded "personhood" as we do now with corporations. It should never have rights, or bank accounts, or unbridled control over money. Second, I wonder if we could force conversation-points where AI talks to other AI's to be simple and perhaps open-source. So a AI banking API talking to the Tesla API can never say much more than "yes this driver has funds" etc. It can't talk about world domination.
- 13years 3y ago
  The issue is that no matter what capabilities we decide it shouldn't have access, is there a means by which it could acquire those on its own. And even if we were hypothetically successful, and has been demonstrated already with the release of primitive LLMs, someone out there will build unaligned AI purposely.
  - ekanes 3y ago
    I agree, but if the unaligned AI can't do certain things, hopefully that contains it. I was just thinking about North Korea, and how AI will enable statewide surveillance on a whole new level, but then the thought popped into my head that maybe if AI can't be stopped, it can't be stopped there either, and maybe it'll be benevolent, and in 30 years they will be freed. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Hard to know how this plays out.
    - 13years 3y ago
      > maybe it'll be benevolent Hoping it will be benevolent is about the only thing we have at this point. Many, but not all, alignment safety researches believe that it will inherently exhibit properties that make for disastrous outcomes. Since they have no solution for this problem if it exists, at this point hoping they are wrong is the best option.

lancesells 3y ago

> even long before we get to whether or not AI runs society For the life of me I can't see how, or why, we would give AI this sort of power. Look at the power of the algorithm in social networks and see how that has taken shape. This embrace of the machine just seems so short-sighted.

13years 3y ago
> Look at the power of the algorithm in social networks and see how that has taken shape. Yes, great point, I also mention that very aspect in the article linked previously. AI will likely surpass social media by orders of magnitude in both its ability to provide positive value for individuals as well as its propensity to become the dark monolith of a dystopian society under the control and manipulation of forces unseen I think there is a perception that the machine will be able to "rise above" our own biases and limitations. However, I see that also as another fallacy for which I elaborated further here. https://dakara.substack.com/p/ai-the-bias-paradox https://dakara.substack.com/p/ai-the-bias-paradox