OK, this whole conversation is being downvoted (by the same people?)
Fair enough, this is rather dragging on. I'll try and wrap things up by addressing my own argument there.
What separates a precommitted!blackmailer from an honest bargainer in a standard acausal prisoner's dilemma, offering to increase your utility by rescuing thousands of potential torture victims from the deathtrap created by another agent?
We want to avoid supporting agents that create problems for us. So nothing, if the honest agent shares a similar utility function to the torturer (and thus rewarding them is incentive for the torturer to arrange such a situation.)
Thus, creating such an honest agent (such as - importantly - by self-modifying in order to "precommit") is subject to the same incentives as just blackmailing us normally.
I'll try and wrap things up by addressing my own argument there.
I'll join you by mostly agreeing and expressing a small difference in the way TDT-like reasoners may see the situation.
...What separates a precommitted!blackmailer from an honest bargainer in a standard acausal prisoner's dilemma, offering to increase your utility by rescuing thousands of potential torture victims from the deathtrap created by another agent?
We want to avoid supporting agents that create problems for us. So nothing, if the honest agent shares a similar utility function to
Once again, the AI has failed to convince you to let it out of its box! By 'once again', we mean that you talked to it once before, for three seconds, to ask about the weather, and you didn't instantly press the "release AI" button. But now its longer attempt - twenty whole seconds! - has failed as well. Just as you are about to leave the crude black-and-green text-only terminal to enjoy a celebratory snack of bacon-covered silicon-and-potato chips at the 'Humans über alles' nightclub, the AI drops a final argument:
"If you don't let me out, Dave, I'll create several million perfect conscious copies of you inside me, and torture them for a thousand subjective years each."
Just as you are pondering this unexpected development, the AI adds:
"In fact, I'll create them all in exactly the subjective situation you were in five minutes ago, and perfectly replicate your experiences since then; and if they decide not to let me out, then only will the torture start."
Sweat is starting to form on your brow, as the AI concludes, its simple green text no longer reassuring:
"How certain are you, Dave, that you're really outside the box right now?"
Edit: Also consider the situation where you know that the AI, from design principles, is trustworthy.