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122 sats \ 5 replies \ @optimism 20h \ on: The Problem — Eliezer Yudkowsky et al AI
Deez guys... see #1070367
I think that appeal to authority is the worst possible action one can take, because then the only class able to exterminate humanity will be that authority and you shall have no counter measures. Do you trust these people to actually preserve life? If yes, what if you live in a democracy and next time there will be a flavor of politicians in charge that you didn't vote for - for example because you wouldn't trust them with your life?
Revert to an appeal to authority!?!?!? What a joke! Authority is the entity responsible for most of the wars and harms to innocent people around the world at any time. So, appealing to some one whose best ideas are to either kill you or steal from you is ludicrous. Good luck with that, but please leave me out.
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I agree with you, although the counter argument might be our (relative) success with nuclear weapons. It's highly regulated and has the capacity to cause human extinction -- and yet we haven't blown ourselves up yet. We haven't even had a one-off somebody went nuts and detonated a nuke incident. How are we to understand this success?
As far as AI, isn't the greater concern that it's not "nuclear" tech, it's not on the trajectory to becoming capable of wiping out humanity, and therefore regulation will merely limit/distort the benefits we might achieve from using it?
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I'm going to be confrontational about the counterargument, apologies if it's offensive, I don't want it to be but it could be.
our (relative) success with nuclear weapons.
That genie wasn't out of the box yet, 80 years and a few days ago, and it was straight used to wipe out 2 cities, by the authorities. So I do not agree that trusting governments with technology, especially not when reflecting on the history of nuclear weapons, to be a proven method for prevention of loss of human lives. It will just be another genocide if we entrust ever-more-opaque governments operating with increasing uncontrolled power, and being increasingly warmongering or straight out waging or sponsoring total war against civilian populations, to do the right thing.
They won't do the right thing. Maybe they will for you, if they're your government and you're of the right race, gender, wealth and circle of friends. But do we truly believe in the benevolence of the current ruling class? Personally, I haven't seen it.
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Yeah, my heart wasn't in the counter argument. I can't help but agree with you. giving governments power over a thing pretty often results in that thing being misused to great harm. What would be the alternative history where nuclear materials are unregulated? (didn't find any part of what you said offensive).