Vladimir_Nesov comments on Q&A with new Executive Director of Singularity Institute - Less Wrong
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Comments (177)
Skepticism about SIAI's competence screens off skepticism about SIAI's intentions, so of course that's not the true rejection for the vast majority of people. But it genuinely troubles me if nobody's thought of the latter question at all, beyond "Trust us, we have no incentive to implement anything but CEV".
If I told you that a large government or corporation was working hard on AGI plus Friendliness content (and that they were avoiding the obvious traps), even if they claimed altruistic goals, wouldn't you worry a bit about their real plan? What features would make you more or less worried?
I think the key point is that we're not there yet. Whatever theoretical tools we shape now are either generally useful, or generally useless, irrespective of considerations of motive; currently relevant question is (potential) competence. Only at some point in the (moderately distant) future, conditional on current and future work bearing fruit, motive might become relevant.