Hanson Debating Yudkowsky, Jun 2011

XiXiDu

On Wednesday I debated my ex-co-blogger Eliezer Yudkowsky at a private Jane Street Capital event (crude audio here, from 4:45; better video here [as of July 14]).

I “won” in the sense of gaining more audience votes — the vote was 45-40 (him to me) before, and 32-33 after the debate. That makes me two for two, after my similar “win” over Bryan Caplan (42-10 before, 25-20 after). This probably says little about me, however, since contrarians usually “win” such debates.

Our topic was: Compared to the farming and industrial revolutions, intelligence explosion first-movers will quickly control a much larger fraction of their new world. He was pro, I was con. We also debated this subject here on Overcoming Bias from June to December 2008. Let me now try to summarize my current position.

[...]

It thus seems quite unlikely that one AI team could find an architectural innovation powerful enough to let it go from tiny to taking over the world within a few weeks.

Link: overcomingbias.com/2011/07/debating-yudkowsky.html

On Wednesday I debated my ex-co-blogger Eliezer Yudkowsky at a private Jane Street Capital event (crude audio here, from 4:45; better video here [as of July 14]).

I “won” in the sense of gaining more audience votes — the vote was 45-40 (him to me) before, and 32-33 after the debate. That makes me two for two, after my similar “win” over Bryan Caplan (42-10 before, 25-20 after). This probably says little about me, however, since contrarians usually “win” such debates.

Our topic was: Compared to the farming and industrial revolutions, intelligence explosion first-movers will quickly control a much larger fraction of their new world. He was pro, I was con. We also debated this subject here on Overcoming Bias from June to December 2008. Let me now try to summarize my current position.

[...]

It thus seems quite unlikely that one AI team could find an architectural innovation powerful enough to let it go from tiny to taking over the world within a few weeks.

Link: overcomingbias.com/2011/07/debating-yudkowsky.html

I have no problem with a billion dollars spend on friendly AI research. But that doesn't mean that I agree that the SIAI needs a billion dollars right now or that I agree that the current evidence is enough to tell people to stop researching cancer therapies or create educational videos about basic algebra. I don't think we know enough about risks from AI to justify such advice. I also don't think that we should all become expected utility maximizer's because we don't know enough about economics, game theory, and decision theory and especially about human nature and the nature of discovery.

This is the part I'd like to focus on. Restating that position from my understanding, you are unconvinced that SIAI is important to fund, and you will not pay them to convince you, and it would be perfectly fine for other people to fund them, and you will be following the area to see if they provide convincing things in the future. Is that a fair characterization?

...you are unconvinced that SIAI is important to fund, and you will not pay them to convince you, and it would be perfectly fine for other people to fund them, and you will be following the area to see if they provide convincing things in the future. Is that a fair characterization?

Almost, I think it is important that the SIAI continues to receive at least as much as it did last year. If the SIAI's sustainability was at stake I would contribute money, I just don't know how much. I would probably devote some time to think about the whole issue, more thor... (read more)

21

Hanson Debating Yudkowsky, Jun 2011

21

21

21

Hanson Debating Yudkowsky, Jun 2011

21

21