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Artificial intelligence: Our final invention?

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Artificial intelligence: Our final invention?

#11

Post by josefresco »

seiji wrote: post #4

Choice quote from the end: But it was alarming how many people I talked to who are highly placed people in AI who have retreats that are sort of ‘bug out’ houses” to which they could flee if it all hits the fan. Does HN agree or disagree a significant number of those "bug out" people truly exist?

Doubt it. I would imagine a lot like to talk about it, or refer to their second/vacation home as such. Claiming to have a remote house for when "shit hits the fan" for most means a regular home/house in a less densely populated area than their primary residence. I wouldn't expect these homes to be built with any sort of defenses or preparations for a true apocalypse.

I visit rural Maine frequently and often hear residents talk about their guns, and their "readiness" for world ending events. Yet most have done nothing to actually prepare, beyond living remotely and stock up on some guns.

Re: Artificial intelligence: Our final invention?

#12

Post by motters »

seiji wrote: post #4

Choice quote from the end: But it was alarming how many people I talked to who are highly placed people in AI who have retreats that are sort of ‘bug out’ houses” to which they could flee if it all hits the fan. Does HN agree or disagree a significant number of those "bug out" people truly exist?

The article doesn't say who these AI researchers are, and I suspect that the statement is utterly baseless and intended to add drama to the article.

At most it's possible that Hugo deGaris plausibly might have a "bug out" house, but I doubt that anyone else does.

Re: Artificial intelligence: Our final invention?

#13

Post by api »

What if "runaway" isn't possible?

It might be possible for an AI to be roughly as "intelligent" (depending on how one measures this) as the smartest humans, but that intelligence is the result of many millions or even billions of years of accumulated evolutionary learning.

It might be -- for fundamental information and machine learning theory reasons -- fundamentally harder to go where there are no roads. Start looking into combinatorics and the problems of searching large spaces.

The observation that genius is often tied to madness may be indirect circumstantial evidence for this. When we try to push the boundaries of human intellect, we seen to run rapidly into weird problems.

Re: Artificial intelligence: Our final invention?

#14

Post by pygy_ »

motters wrote: post #7

Some counter-points on this narrative, with which I'm very familiar. 1. Philosophers and AI theoreticians have a hard time defining what they mean by the term "intelligence". Talking about systems millions of times more intelligent than a human is nonsense unless you can define what it is you're talking about. 2. Whatever intelligence is it only makes any sense within the context of some environment. Environments imp…

All they need is to be smart and strong enough to take control of the dense energy sources (oil, coal, uranium). Then we're toast.

No need to be millions of times smarter, whatever that may mean.

Re: Artificial intelligence: Our final invention?

#15

Post by JamesArgo »

darkxanthos wrote: post #10

"I’m talking about the risks posed by “runaway” artificial intelligence (AI). What happens when we share the planet with self-aware, self-improving machines that evolve beyond our ability to control or understand? Are we creating machines that are destined to destroy us?" The reason no one is worrying about this is because "AI" is still a) just a bunch of math (and still surprisingly stupid) b) nowhere near sentient.…

>My Kinect can barely follow my hand or consistently recognize what I'm saying with any accuracy. I'm really not concerned with it plotting my demise.

My radium coated watch face can barely illuminate my timepiece, I'm not worried about the dangers of these radioactive elements.

Re: Artificial intelligence: Our final invention?

#16

Post by api »

JamesArgo wrote: post #5
[deleted] wrote: post #3

[deleted]

A happy narrative, but an unlikely one. Our brains are not designed to be end-user modifiable. It's naive in the extreme to think we could keep pace (in terms of intellectual enhancement) with minds that are.

They are evolved to be evolvable to some extent. The difference between a mouse and a human at the DNA level is not that great. That suggests significant mutability if we can find the right levers.

Re: Artificial intelligence: Our final invention?

#17

Post by wavesounds »

I usually like Matt Miller but this is just silly. Why be more afraid of AI then Nuclear War or a Man Made Super Virus getting into the wild? Every new technology needs to be used responsibly and were very far away from Terminator at this point. He should be embracing AI to reduce health care costs and improve city planning and control interest rates and make a more fair society and accomplish many of the goals he talks about every week on left right and center.

Re: Artificial intelligence: Our final invention?

#18

Post by baddox »

darkxanthos wrote: post #10

"I’m talking about the risks posed by “runaway” artificial intelligence (AI). What happens when we share the planet with self-aware, self-improving machines that evolve beyond our ability to control or understand? Are we creating machines that are destined to destroy us?" The reason no one is worrying about this is because "AI" is still a) just a bunch of math (and still surprisingly stupid) b) nowhere near sentient.…

I think that most scientists, and certainly most AI researchers, would say that biological intelligence is also just a bunch of math.

Re: Artificial intelligence: Our final invention?

#19

Post by fumar »

seiji wrote: post #8
vdaniuk wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certainly they do, those sneaky "highly placed people in AI" know perfectly well that it will be quite easy to hide from the strong AI in some rural area. Its not like AI could access real estate databases or build some flying droids to find those people. /s

One of my favorite hard takeoff scenarios: the AI quickly figures out how to manufacture nanobots and does so at a scale to blanket the planet, thus becoming instantly omniscient with a global field of sensors, giving it a coherent view of everything in the world at every given instant in time from that point forward. Also see: "metamorphosis of prime intellect" and "mind war: the singularity" and to a lesser extent…

I always think of the Grey Goo theory when the subject of nanobots taking over Earth comes up.

"a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating robots consume all matter on Earth while building more of themselves"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo

Re: Artificial intelligence: Our final invention?

#20

Post by seiji »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #9
seiji wrote: post #4

Choice quote from the end: But it was alarming how many people I talked to who are highly placed people in AI who have retreats that are sort of ‘bug out’ houses” to which they could flee if it all hits the fan. Does HN agree or disagree a significant number of those "bug out" people truly exist?

I suspect this is an exaggeration of talking to some high-level eccentrics that find their way into academia, especially in the computer science department. I'm dumber than a high level AI of fiction, and I could find your little cabin or panic room easily. A machine with drones, access to tax/real estate records, etc would have no problem here. Heck, why not just hire a mercenary group to fish these guys out of thei…

exaggeration of talking to some high-level eccentrics that find their way into academia

Well, he does spend most of the article gushing over the magic insight of Kurzweil. It's really a "baby's first exposure to the concept of self-advancing AI" article with a movie promo thrown in at the end. (Maybe? I just skimmed.)

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