Kind of like how the White House secured commitments from banks to manage systemic financial risks?
White House Secures Commitments from Leading AI Companies to Manage AI Risks
21–30 of 105 posts
Re: White House Secures Commitments from Leading AI Companies to Manage AI Risks
#22Looks like the companies all agreed to do what they were doing already. Nothing about training data transparency , nothing about a common definition of risk or standards for compliance. The public have all heard “AI is going to destroy humanity” but those statements have been short on specifics. I have been asked by many people to explain how AI could kill us all. How about some clarity for common people.
That's cuz Theory of Bounded Rationality applies.
When we are passed the point where ppl with their 3 inch brains can actually come up with answers to complex problems, you don't spend time asking them questions.
Re: White House Secures Commitments from Leading AI Companies to Manage AI Risks
#23Looks like the companies all agreed to do what they were doing already. Nothing about training data transparency , nothing about a common definition of risk or standards for compliance. The public have all heard “AI is going to destroy humanity” but those statements have been short on specifics. I have been asked by many people to explain how AI could kill us all. How about some clarity for common people.
if you think about it, its actual insanity. The fears are all from science fiction with absolutely no grounding in reality. There are legitimate concerns about the unethical mass harvesting of data but if you think about "AI safety" vs something like vehicular safety or spacecraft safety its kind of nuts, because the latter are grounded in reality and have formal specifications which need to be met. But AI safety is…
> What the fuck even is "AI" anyway?
Indeed.
For most lay people I've talked to -- family, friends, and acquiescence outside of tech -- the answer ultimately boils down to "automation that can do my job or can do the job of people I care about or can do the job of people who would then compete for my job". Sometimes also "algorithms" a la social media feeds and so on.
Ie, the lay answer to "what is AI?" has recently morphed into roughly "computer programs that I am worried about or don't like".
For most actual AI researchers I've talked to, you get the standard tounge-in-cheek response ("AI is whatever gets published at AI conferences and funded by AI investors") and then, when you press, it's roughly something like ML+CV+NLP+optimization and sometimes but not always other fields like automated reasoning or parts of robotics get added. Roughly, most of the parts of CS that aren't theory or systems or HCI or software engineering or already closed.
For most techno-babblers in the podosphere who have OPINIONS on super-intelligence but couldn't pass an internship phone screen to save their lives, it's superintelligence and other stupid hollywood bullshit.
Re: White House Secures Commitments from Leading AI Companies to Manage AI Risks
#24Looks like the companies all agreed to do what they were doing already. Nothing about training data transparency , nothing about a common definition of risk or standards for compliance. The public have all heard “AI is going to destroy humanity” but those statements have been short on specifics. I have been asked by many people to explain how AI could kill us all. How about some clarity for common people.
>I have been asked by many people to explain how AI could kill us all. How about some clarity for common people.
There are countless resources to find this stuff out. To be clear there may not be a level at which common people understand why e.g. Fission Chain Reactions are dangerous but they can grok why a giant bomb that spreads radiation is bad.
For Starters: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/uMQ3cqWDPHhjtiesc/agi-ruin-a...
>The public have all heard “AI is going to destroy humanity” but those statements have been short on specifics.
You can no more explain how Stockfish is going to beat you at chess then you can predict how an AGI would defeat humanity. Nevertheless the outcome is nearly certain.
Re: White House Secures Commitments from Leading AI Companies to Manage AI Risks
#25Looks like the companies all agreed to do what they were doing already. Nothing about training data transparency , nothing about a common definition of risk or standards for compliance. The public have all heard “AI is going to destroy humanity” but those statements have been short on specifics. I have been asked by many people to explain how AI could kill us all. How about some clarity for common people.
if you think about it, its actual insanity. The fears are all from science fiction with absolutely no grounding in reality. There are legitimate concerns about the unethical mass harvesting of data but if you think about "AI safety" vs something like vehicular safety or spacecraft safety its kind of nuts, because the latter are grounded in reality and have formal specifications which need to be met. But AI safety is…
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Re: White House Secures Commitments from Leading AI Companies to Manage AI Risks
#26Looks like the companies all agreed to do what they were doing already. Nothing about training data transparency , nothing about a common definition of risk or standards for compliance. The public have all heard “AI is going to destroy humanity” but those statements have been short on specifics. I have been asked by many people to explain how AI could kill us all. How about some clarity for common people.
if you think about it, its actual insanity. The fears are all from science fiction with absolutely no grounding in reality. There are legitimate concerns about the unethical mass harvesting of data but if you think about "AI safety" vs something like vehicular safety or spacecraft safety its kind of nuts, because the latter are grounded in reality and have formal specifications which need to be met. But AI safety is…
And I think it's important to note that hype about "existential risk" is coming from people who stand to profit from "AI": https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/31/ai-poses-human-extinction-ri...
So it seems like the playbook is something like: 1) play up non-problems that, thanks to 50+ years of sci-fi killer AI, will seem real to the rubes; 2) breeze on past the numerous actual problems; 3) solve as few actual problems as possible as they race to capture billions of dollars.
But happily, the contents of this press release focus mostly on actual problems, so I have some hope that the Skynet gambit won't work.
Re: White House Secures Commitments from Leading AI Companies to Manage AI Risks
#27[dead]
Re: White House Secures Commitments from Leading AI Companies to Manage AI Risks
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
if you think about it, its actual insanity. The fears are all from science fiction with absolutely no grounding in reality. There are legitimate concerns about the unethical mass harvesting of data but if you think about "AI safety" vs something like vehicular safety or spacecraft safety its kind of nuts, because the latter are grounded in reality and have formal specifications which need to be met. But AI safety is…
> What the fuck even is "AI" anyway? Indeed. For most lay people I've talked to -- family, friends, and acquiescence outside of tech -- the answer ultimately boils down to "automation that can do my job or can do the job of people I care about or can do the job of people who would then compete for my job". Sometimes also "algorithms" a la social media feeds and so on. Ie, the lay answer to "what is AI?" has recently…
If you look at actual quotes from people like Sam Altman, Ilya Sutskever, Demis Hassabis, etc. the AI, that is to say really the AGI, that they want to build is a godlike super intelligent being. To many researchers in the field this is their end goal.
Re: White House Secures Commitments from Leading AI Companies to Manage AI Risks
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
if you think about it, its actual insanity. The fears are all from science fiction with absolutely no grounding in reality. There are legitimate concerns about the unethical mass harvesting of data but if you think about "AI safety" vs something like vehicular safety or spacecraft safety its kind of nuts, because the latter are grounded in reality and have formal specifications which need to be met. But AI safety is…
And I think it's important to note that hype about "existential risk" is coming from people who stand to profit from "AI": https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/31/ai-poses-human-extinction-ri... So it seems like the playbook is something like: 1) play up non-problems that, thanks to 50+ years of sci-fi killer AI, will seem real to the rubes; 2) breeze on past the numerous actual problems; 3) solve as few actual problems as p…
"the AI is going to kill us all, dear Senators! Nothing to see in this disgustingly immoral little corner of the world where I'm building a measly $100 million personal fortune!"
Re: White House Secures Commitments from Leading AI Companies to Manage AI Risks
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean if you wire the output of GPT-x to a nuclear reactor it can cause all kinds of danger. The thing that keeps us safe from computers is generally we don't let them have access to anything dangerous and when we do theres typically an evaluation of what can go wrong and how we'll prevent the computer from doing that (often in the other direction, we only program the computer to do X in Y situations). But sometimes…
If (and it's a huge if that we are no where near) we created a super intelligent, general ai, how would you keep it from accessing things it shouldn't? It would be smarter than the world's best hacking team and work 24/7. That's sort of the deus ex machina of AI...
With a Hollywood style big red emergency stop button protected by plastic shield to prevent accidental pressing that is also protected by a lock where the person in charge has the key around their neck.
Or a giant knife switch on the wall that makes that huge clunk noise when turned to the off position, and everyone hears the sound effect of the power shutting down.
We've had computers in charge of so much for so long, but there's always a manual override to allow the operation without the computer. Manual valves to be turned (hopefully they haven't been rusted stuck so the timer on the countdown gets dramatically close to 0).