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The research priorities document should be read first... http://futureoflife.org/static/data/documents/research_priorities.pdf http://futureoflife.org/static/da

by zeendo 12y ago

The research priorities document should be read first... http://futureoflife.org/static/data/documents/research_priorities.pdf http://futureoflife.org/static/data/documents/research_prior... without that the open letter makes almost no sense. The open letter is really just a way for the signatories to say "I support the research priorities document."

Animats 12y ago
Right. The main author is Stuart Russel, author of "Artificial Intelligence - a modern approach", which is a major intro to AI text. Two main concerns are expressed - that AI, whatever it is, should be "beneficial" and "robust". Those are good points. There are technical problems on the "robust" side. Most AI systems are still rather brittle. Machine learning systems are brittle in ways that are not well understood yet - small changes in input data can produce huge changes in results. There was an article on HN about this recently, showing mis-recognized images. The paper talks a lot about formal verification, but it's not clear that will help. "Robust", though, is an engineering problem, and can probably be solved. "Beneficial" is an economic and social problem. That's going to be much tougher, because the political issue will be "beneficial for whom?" For discussion purposes, consider that a near-term use of AI is investment asset allocation. Machine learning is already being used in that area, but so far mostly for technical analysis. What will a society look like where AIs determine where investment goes, based purely on maximizing investment return? The concept of the corporation as having as its sole goal maximizing shareholder value, combined with AIs making the decisions to make it happen, is rather scary. Yet if such companies are more successful, they win. That's capitalism.
- wging 12y ago
  Russell is one author. The other is Peter Norvig.
  - davmre 12y ago
    Just to avoid confusion: Norvig is the co-author of AIMA, the AI textbook. The research priorities document that is the subject of this thread was drafted by Stuart Russell, Daniel Dewey, and Max Tegmark, though Norvig (along with many others) is signed on via the open letter.

by zeendo 12y ago

Animats 12y ago

Right. The main author is Stuart Russel, author of "Artificial Intelligence - a modern approach", which is a major intro to AI text. Two main concerns are expressed - that AI, whatever it is, should be "beneficial" and "robust". Those are good points. There are technical problems on the "robust" side. Most AI systems are still rather brittle. Machine learning systems are brittle in ways that are not well understood yet - small changes in input data can produce huge changes in results. There was an article on HN about this recently, showing mis-recognized images. The paper talks a lot about formal verification, but it's not clear that will help. "Robust", though, is an engineering problem, and can probably be solved. "Beneficial" is an economic and social problem. That's going to be much tougher, because the political issue will be "beneficial for whom?" For discussion purposes, consider that a near-term use of AI is investment asset allocation. Machine learning is already being used in that area, but so far mostly for technical analysis. What will a society look like where AIs determine where investment goes, based purely on maximizing investment return? The concept of the corporation as having as its sole goal maximizing shareholder value, combined with AIs making the decisions to make it happen, is rather scary. Yet if such companies are more successful, they win. That's capitalism.

wging 12y ago
Russell is one author. The other is Peter Norvig.
- davmre 12y ago
  Just to avoid confusion: Norvig is the co-author of AIMA, the AI textbook. The research priorities document that is the subject of this thread was drafted by Stuart Russell, Daniel Dewey, and Max Tegmark, though Norvig (along with many others) is signed on via the open letter.