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"When it comes to learning and adapting to new environments, while we are lucky AI's aren't yet as smart as a mouse, they are uncomfortably close, and the pace

"When it comes to learning and adapting to new environments, while we are lucky AI's aren't yet as smart as a mouse, they are uncomfortably close, and the pace of progress is unnerving. Hinton is right, we've got too far and we should grind all AI research to a halt via heavy global regulation." What is the goal here? Creation of an all powerful God? Self-destruction as a species? I'm not up-to-date with the exact state of the AI research, or with various AI luminaries position nuances, but I can read a first-principles back-of-the-envelope chart. It doesn't look good, especially for a committed speciist like myself. Edit. The signs are of a very serious situation. Experts are ringing the alarm of massive scale societal disruption and possibly destruction left and right. While we may not be able to do anything about it, perhaps we could act a little less callous about it.

thatguy0900 3y ago
The only goal that makes any sense to me is the logic that if a foreign nation has Ai powered munitions and I do not I might lose a war. So every country feels compelled to create it, even if everyone can acknowledge the world is worse off for it, just like nukes. There is virtually 0 way the government can determine if China or Russia is doing Ai research in a secret bunker somewhere if we stop doing it. It doesn't even need to power a gun really, just a bunch of bots changing public opinions on a forum to get favorable to you leaders in power is plenty.
- fatherzine 3y ago
  Perhaps Russia, as a society, is too corrupt to actually develop AGI. Build some Potemkin facade, let the Big-Guy-in-Charge believe he controls AI superpowers, then discreetly dissipate to warmer climates. If Big-Guy-in-Charge decides to use AI superpowers to take over the world, and starts noticing that reality doesn't quite match his understanding, quietly dispose of respective Big-Guy-in-Charge. Lather, rinse, repeat.
saulpw 3y ago
We need a messiah. Humanity has huge problems that we are not addressing (top of the list being climate change), largely because it would require massive scale societal disruption to do so. Over the past 50 years, we've thought that personal computers would help (bicycles for the mind), then we thought the internet would help (organizing the world's information), then we thought social networks would help (connecting the world's people). AI is our current best hope to disrupt humanity's trajectory straight off a cliff. The aim seems to be to accelerate this sucker and hope that this time it'll save us. Edit: I'm not saying I agree with this notion, I'm just articulating the subconscious desire here. The parent's question was literally, "what's the endgame?"
- CatWChainsaw 3y ago
  If you believe 3 of the world's major religions, we killed the last messiah we had after he told us things we didn't want to hear about ourselves.
- fatherzine 3y ago
  Interesting. Brief musing. Our collective objective function appears to be a post-scarcity economy. Alas, we physically inhabit a finite world, in which post-scarcity can never be attained -- the exponential curve ruins every single attempt. Another option is to seek peace / shalom / spiritual homeostasis, even when faced with the certainty of decay and death. Quest which perhaps does require a Messiah.
  - int_19h 3y ago
    I don't think that most people interpret "post-scarcity" as "anything goes", as in literally unlimited resources. I'd describe it as a situation in which all physical needs are addressed for all human beings (except those who voluntarily opt out) without them having to work for it.

thatguy0900 3y ago

The only goal that makes any sense to me is the logic that if a foreign nation has Ai powered munitions and I do not I might lose a war. So every country feels compelled to create it, even if everyone can acknowledge the world is worse off for it, just like nukes. There is virtually 0 way the government can determine if China or Russia is doing Ai research in a secret bunker somewhere if we stop doing it. It doesn't even need to power a gun really, just a bunch of bots changing public opinions on a forum to get favorable to you leaders in power is plenty.

fatherzine 3y ago
Perhaps Russia, as a society, is too corrupt to actually develop AGI. Build some Potemkin facade, let the Big-Guy-in-Charge believe he controls AI superpowers, then discreetly dissipate to warmer climates. If Big-Guy-in-Charge decides to use AI superpowers to take over the world, and starts noticing that reality doesn't quite match his understanding, quietly dispose of respective Big-Guy-in-Charge. Lather, rinse, repeat.

saulpw 3y ago

We need a messiah. Humanity has huge problems that we are not addressing (top of the list being climate change), largely because it would require massive scale societal disruption to do so. Over the past 50 years, we've thought that personal computers would help (bicycles for the mind), then we thought the internet would help (organizing the world's information), then we thought social networks would help (connecting the world's people). AI is our current best hope to disrupt humanity's trajectory straight off a cliff. The aim seems to be to accelerate this sucker and hope that this time it'll save us. Edit: I'm not saying I agree with this notion, I'm just articulating the subconscious desire here. The parent's question was literally, "what's the endgame?"

CatWChainsaw 3y ago
If you believe 3 of the world's major religions, we killed the last messiah we had after he told us things we didn't want to hear about ourselves.
fatherzine 3y ago
Interesting. Brief musing. Our collective objective function appears to be a post-scarcity economy. Alas, we physically inhabit a finite world, in which post-scarcity can never be attained -- the exponential curve ruins every single attempt. Another option is to seek peace / shalom / spiritual homeostasis, even when faced with the certainty of decay and death. Quest which perhaps does require a Messiah.
- int_19h 3y ago
  I don't think that most people interpret "post-scarcity" as "anything goes", as in literally unlimited resources. I'd describe it as a situation in which all physical needs are addressed for all human beings (except those who voluntarily opt out) without them having to work for it.