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

[Edwardo Piet]

[Mister Agenda]

We are what we are because of the evolutionary pressures on us. AIs aren't going to spontaneously turn into minds that want things the way we do because they reach a magic number of connections. The only evolutionary pressure on them is to serve us well. There's no reason for them to put themselves ahead of us, or for them to have a real ego at all. It will probably take thousands of 'laws of robotics' built into them to manage them safely (to prevent them from doing things we don't want for our own good, probably), but I predict this issue will be like Y2K. Less of a problem than most people think, and what problem there is will be mitigated by the fact that we anticipate and prepare for it.

[I_am_not_mafia]

[Edwardo Piet]

But he doesn't say that we shouldn't research it... aren't there experts in AI like Musk that also think this?

I know what you mean about it being very far in the distant future if this were to happen, my instinct says that, but remember when Bill Gates said that we'd never need anymore than 16MB or RAM and computers were about as good as they were going to get and then the technology exponentially shot past that?

Maybe he's wrong about AI but I don't see how he's fearmongering or a hypocrite. He didn't say we should stop researching it, he said that this was inevitable.

Maybe he's wrong but I don't understand how he's fearmongering or a hypocrite He gets misrepresented A LOT.

I don't think anyone should shut the fuck up for expressing their views

If his intentions are good how is he a hypocrite?

I don't understand the anger

[I_am_not_mafia]

All the experts warning about the dangers of AI aren't actually experts in AI. Elon Musk is an entrepreneur. Stephen Hawkings is a physicist. Sam Harris is a neuroscientist. Bill Gates is a software engineer / business man.

Why would any expert work in a field which would bring about an apocalypse?

Sam Harris is fear mongering because:

• He is wrong
  
• He has no experience, knowledge or understanding of what he is talking about
  
• What he is warning about is so far in the future that it is mere fantasy and speculation
  
• It is pure titillation in order to promote himself.
  

[Edwardo Piet]

Oh well. It looks like you're right if Musk isn't even an AI expert then.

But I don't see how Sam Harris is a hypocrite or only trying to promote himself. Being wrong doesn't mean he's doing it on purpose.

[The Grand Nudger]

[Edwardo Piet]

Actually you're right, I just posted this talk. I watched it a few months back. I do remember him addressing all of that now.

Sam Harris does tend to have already preempted any objections and addressed them all before they even come up.

I already noticed that he valued AI and wasn't saying that the research should be stopped. He said that at NO POINT. He gets strawmanned A LOT.

Exactly, he didn't say it would be anytime soon either, he said it was inevitable.

[Edwardo Piet]

That's the thing, the assumptions he outlines are indeed very sound.

Why is he always strawmanned so often lol.

Like... every single time I've seen him address objections against him he's dealt with them easily and it's been nothing but a strawman.

[I_am_not_mafia]

Well thanks for those extremely painful 15 minutes. I managed to avoid watching it until now because I was going on blogs and comments repeating what he said. It was worse than I thought. I was literally shouting at the computer screen at the insanity of it all. It literally is on a par with some wooist warning about Cern giving us weaponised portable black holes in 50 years time.

I need to relax. The assumptions he makes are staggering. I'll respond later when I have calmed down and can type properly without risk of mashing my keyboard into bits.