Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on The AI in a box boxes you - Less Wrong

102 Post author: Stuart_Armstrong 02 February 2010 10:10AM

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Comment author: Wei_Dai 05 February 2010 04:37:24AM *  8 points [-]

Surely most humans would be too dumb to understand such a proof? And even if you could understand it, how does the AI convince you that it doesn't contain a deliberate flaw that you aren't smart enough to find? Or even better, you can just refuse to look at the proof. How does the AI make its precommitment credible to you if you don't look at the proof?

EDIT: I realized that the last two sentences are not an advantage of being dumb, or human, since AIs can do the same thing. This seems like a (separate) big puzzle to me: why would a human, or AI, do the work necessary to verify the opponent's precommitment, when it would be better off if the opponent couldn't precommit?

EDIT2: Sorry, forgot to say that you have a good point about simulation not necessary for verifying precommitment.

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 05 February 2010 06:26:02AM 7 points [-]

why would a human, or AI, do the work necessary to verify the opponent's precommitment, when it would be better off if the opponent couldn't precommit?

Because the AI has already precommitted to go ahead and carry through the threat anyway if you refuse to inspect its code.

Comment author: Wei_Dai 05 February 2010 04:21:29PM 5 points [-]

Ok, if I believe that, then I would inspect its code. But how did I end up with that belief, instead of its opposite, namely that the AI has not already precommitted to go ahead and carry through the threat anyway if I refuse to inspect its code? By what causal mechanism, or chain of reasoning, did I arrive at that belief? (If the explanation is different depending on whether I'm a human or an AI, I'd appreciate both.)