Is anyone surprised by this?
Sadly, I am :-(
A while ago, when I learned of Abram Demski (of all people!) helping someone to build an AGI, I felt the same surprise as now but apparently didn't update strongly enough. Optimism seems to be the mind-killer in these matters. In retrospect it should've been obvious that people like Goertzel would start giving lip service to friendliness while still failing to get the point.
Link: Ben Goertzel dismisses Yudkowsky's FAI and proposes his own solution: Nanny-AI
Some relevant quotes:
Apparently Goertzel doesn't think that building a Nanny-AI with the above mentioned qualities is almost as difficult as creating a FAI a la Yudkowsky.
But SIAI believes that once you can create an AI-Nanny you can (probably) create a full-blown FAI as well.
Or am I mistaken?