Can we build AI without losing control over it? | Sam Harris

[Edwardo Piet]

You think that's what intelligence is?

Sounds to me like you're talking about skill in general.

Intelligence is about speed and depth of comprehension (or in A.I. an artificial simulation of it).

That's a lay person's understanding of intelligence and is a very small proportion of what the brain does.

Well, you may have a greater understanding of something like intelligence but if the definition of intelligence is about comprehension and you're talking about things that have nothing to do with comprehension then we're not actually talking about comprehension. It's much like a compatabilist who claims they have a more complex understanding of free will when all they've done is redefined it.

How well you can adapt in an environment says nothing about your intelligence if you don't actually understand or comprehend anything in that environment. The fact dogs can smell better than us or eagles can see further than us doesn't make them smarter in their environment it merely makes them more skilled in their environment. They are competent without comprehension.

You're talking about competence in an environment without comprehension in an environment, and without the latter it's not intelligence, it's merely skillfulness.