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Barack Obama on A.I., Autonomous Cars, and the Future of Humanity

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Re: Barack Obama on A.I., Autonomous Cars, and the Future of Humanity

#61

Post by GunboatDiplomat »

haalcion2 wrote: post #56

> Ito: I generally agree. The only caveat is that there are a few people who believe that there is a fairly high-percentage chance that a generalized AI will happen in the next 10 years. But the way I look at it is that in order for that to happen, we’re going to need a dozen or two different breakthroughs. So you can monitor when you think these breakthroughs will happen. > Obama: And you just have to have somebody…

That's kind of handwavy, don't you think? How does an AI, presumably requiring specialized (and expensive) hardware, simply escape? Further, this requires humans to be easily hackable by the AI, which is not obviously going to be the case. Why would human cognition have a built in flaw the AI can exploit to escape? Imagine a superintelligent person in a cage, a person as smart as an AI. No matter how clever he is, he's not going to be able to escape that cage given certain levels of precaution.

If you'd say that the AI will be super-persuasive, persuasive enough to make humans behave irrationally, I say, maybe, but it's possible to simply use already irrationally fearful humans as guards to prevent the AI from escaping.

Re: Barack Obama on A.I., Autonomous Cars, and the Future of Humanity

#63

Post by maverick_iceman »

cjbprime wrote: post #5

> OBAMA: The way I’ve been thinking about the regulatory structure as AI emerges is that, early in a technology, a thousand flowers should bloom. I gotta say, I thought he'd be more familiar with that metaphor. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Flowers_Campaign

Maybe that was a Freudian slip?

Re: Barack Obama on A.I., Autonomous Cars, and the Future of Humanity

#64

Post by themacguffinman »

haalcion2 wrote: post #56

> Ito: I generally agree. The only caveat is that there are a few people who believe that there is a fairly high-percentage chance that a generalized AI will happen in the next 10 years. But the way I look at it is that in order for that to happen, we’re going to need a dozen or two different breakthroughs. So you can monitor when you think these breakthroughs will happen. > Obama: And you just have to have somebody…

It sounds like Obama was making a joke.

Re: Barack Obama on A.I., Autonomous Cars, and the Future of Humanity

#65

Post by ams6110 »

pashariger wrote: post #62

I don't know about you, but I'm very thankful that we have a president that can understand and intelligently talk about these issues (rather than thinking it's all just black magic).

I was wondering why the authors would chose to interview someone with no particular credentials or expertise in the subject.

Re: Barack Obama on A.I., Autonomous Cars, and the Future of Humanity

#66

Post by [deleted] »

s_q_b wrote: post #34
cjbprime wrote: post #5

> OBAMA: The way I’ve been thinking about the regulatory structure as AI emerges is that, early in a technology, a thousand flowers should bloom. I gotta say, I thought he'd be more familiar with that metaphor. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Flowers_Campaign

I think he knew the origin, but chose it anyway. It is an elegant phrase. Communists could be very eloquent. How else do you think they managed to convince so many people to be communists?

[deleted]

Re: Barack Obama on A.I., Autonomous Cars, and the Future of Humanity

#67

Post by inimino »

ams6110 wrote: post #65
pashariger wrote: post #62

I don't know about you, but I'm very thankful that we have a president that can understand and intelligently talk about these issues (rather than thinking it's all just black magic).

I was wondering why the authors would chose to interview someone with no particular credentials or expertise in the subject.

What's "the subject"? I'm not sure if you are being sarcatic, but:

“ITO: I feel like this is the year that artificial intelligence becomes more than just a computer science problem. [...] the question is, how do we build societal values into AI?”

The point is that the subject is far broader than the CS department. If you think Obama doesn't have relevant expertise, your view of the subject is too narrow.

Re: Barack Obama on A.I., Autonomous Cars, and the Future of Humanity

#68

Post by bduerst »

ams6110 wrote: post #65
pashariger wrote: post #62

I don't know about you, but I'm very thankful that we have a president that can understand and intelligently talk about these issues (rather than thinking it's all just black magic).

I was wondering why the authors would chose to interview someone with no particular credentials or expertise in the subject.

He signs-into-law or vetoes legislature affecting public policy and economics.

I think it's a stretch to say he has "no particular credentials" or understanding of technological trends.

Re: Barack Obama on A.I., Autonomous Cars, and the Future of Humanity

#69

Post by mc32 »

pashariger wrote: post #62

I don't know about you, but I'm very thankful that we have a president that can understand and intelligently talk about these issues (rather than thinking it's all just black magic).

We could have had Al Gore, but for Floridians, I mean the guy created the information superhighway --that's up there with the Tim Berners-Lee kind of stratum.

On the other hand, had he won, Obama would not have become president because we would not have had to "react" to the Bush years.

Re: Barack Obama on A.I., Autonomous Cars, and the Future of Humanity

#70

Post by greeneggs »

gefh wrote: post #38

I wish people would stop bringing up the trolley problem as somehow relevant to self driving cars. In any situation,a car is going to brake as hard as possible while maintaining control, and only serve if there's no way to stop and a clear space. Other than that, a good enough interview that I can't see taking place again next presidential term.

The trolley problem is just an extreme example, that people can easily understand and think about. Less extreme versions of it occur all the time.

For example, say you are driving along a road, passing a bicyclist. You'd like to give the cyclist more room, but there's an oncoming car in the lane next to you. How much room do you give? At exactly what threshold do you decide to wait to pass the cyclist? What if the cyclist is a kid?

All the time, the driver has to make decisions that trade off the safety of multiple parties, from the car's occupants to other drivers, to bicyclists and pedestrians. In reality, these will almost always be statistical tradeoffs, and usually comparing very small probabilities of accidents, but they are still real ethical decisions that have to be made.

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