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John Carmack's new AGI company, Keen Technologies, has raised a $20M round

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Re: John Carmack's new AGI company, Keen Technologies, has raised a $20M round

#551

I don't see Carmack bringing anything new to the table.

Why not?

I think his approach is too naive, because I strongly believe that we need better understanding of natural intelligence before we can even dream of reproducing it digitally. And I am not talking about memory, computer can do that already better than us.

Re: John Carmack's new AGI company, Keen Technologies, has raised a $20M round

#552
post #529

Personally I hope this fails because of the disaster AGI would be for low/entry level jobs. The last thing the world needs is to give technocrats such power. I know it’s an interesting problem to solve but think of who will own that tech in the end… I hope AGI is never figured out in my lifetime.

I never understand this line of thinking. If a job becomes unnecessary, that’s a gain for humanity, not a loss.

>that’s a gain for humanity

Imagine what has happened to american manufacturing workers since the 80s but happening to everyone on the planet. This is by no means a "gain".

Re: John Carmack's new AGI company, Keen Technologies, has raised a $20M round

#553

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The common current example? A text prompt of "A horse riding an astronaut" without prompt engineering. Though I don't think the successful production of this image will demonstrate intelligence/causal understanding either (but it is a good counter example). Causal understanding is going to be a bit difficult to prove tbh.

Counter-argument: DALL-E is smart enough to understand that an astronaut riding a horse makes more sense than a horse riding an astronaut, and therefore assumes that you meant "a horse-riding astronaut" unless you go out of your way to specify that you definitely do, in fact, want to see a horse riding an astronaut.

You will have to do better than make rhetorical arguments.

Re: John Carmack's new AGI company, Keen Technologies, has raised a $20M round

#554
post #529

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understand this line of thinking. If a job becomes unnecessary, that’s a gain for humanity, not a loss.

>that’s a gain for humanity Imagine what has happened to american manufacturing workers since the 80s but happening to everyone on the planet. This is by no means a "gain".

And don't forget all those awful looms stealing workers jobs! They must all be destroyed for us to prosper

Re: John Carmack's new AGI company, Keen Technologies, has raised a $20M round

#555
post #208

I think its a silly idea that consciousness can be produced by computation.

Consciousness isn't well defined enough for us to prove your assertion as right or wrong.

As such, we also don't know if consciousness is required for an AI that can perform most useful tasks at human level.

Re: John Carmack's new AGI company, Keen Technologies, has raised a $20M round

#557

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt Carmack is motivated that much by money. He has way more than he'll ever spend.

His reply to this tweet is that he didn't want to spend $20million of his own money on this venture. When you have the option to throw 20m on projects, you can spend it reasonably quickly.

His actual claim is that spending other people's money helps his focus because it makes him feel responsible. That's a plausible argument.

Re: John Carmack's new AGI company, Keen Technologies, has raised a $20M round

#558

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Artificial General Intelligence != sentient being

What, in your view, is the difference?

AGI would be something that is able to do many different tasks without needing to be specifically built for. It could learn and do. Like a person. It can learn to drive car and then learn to iron clothes.

It does not need to be self aware. Can still be considered a machine.

People think if we get to AGI, maybe we'll get to self awareness. But we won't know that until it happens. We don't fully understand how sentience works.

Re: John Carmack's new AGI company, Keen Technologies, has raised a $20M round

#559

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>that’s a gain for humanity Imagine what has happened to american manufacturing workers since the 80s but happening to everyone on the planet. This is by no means a "gain".

And don't forget all those awful looms stealing workers jobs! They must all be destroyed for us to prosper

Short-term, textile workers in the UK at the time were definitely harmed by automation. They eventually managed to move to better paying jobs because those were available. There is no reason to believe there will be any jobs left in the age of AGI. And since the default state of humanity is existence at the subsistence level...

Re: John Carmack's new AGI company, Keen Technologies, has raised a $20M round

#560
post #498

AGI will be more dangerous that nuclear weapons. People are not allowed to start a nuclear weapon company. At all. Why are people allowed to casually start an AGI company?

> AGI will be more dangerous that nuclear weapons. This is highly debatable and frankly no one on the planet is qualified to know this for sure. It's just as likely it won't be dangerous.

There is enough work already done in game theory about the dangers of nuclear escalation. Current state of affairs pretty much ensures no rational agent will want to use them. On the other hand, when you model the interactions of significantly more intellectually capable rational agents with us, the "calculus" is not very favorable, to put it mildly.
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