wedrifid comments on Suggest alternate names for the "Singularity Institute" - Less Wrong

24 Post author: lukeprog 19 June 2012 04:42AM

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Comment author: wedrifid 19 June 2012 11:09:16AM 14 points [-]

Center for Friendly Artificial Intelligence Research

Including "Friendly" is good for those that understand that it is being used as a jargon term with a specific meaning. Unfortunately it could give an undesirable impression of unsophisticated to the naive audience (which is the target).

Comment author: Dorikka 19 June 2012 11:50:14AM 12 points [-]

I also strongly object to 'Friendly' being used in the name -- it's a technical term that I think people are very likely to misunderstand.

Comment author: RichardHughes 19 June 2012 08:45:54PM 0 points [-]

Agreed that people are very likely to misunderstand it - however, even the obvious, naive reading still creates a useful approximation of what it is you guys actually do. I would consider that misreading to be a feature, not a flaw, because the layman's reading produces a useful layman's understanding.

Comment author: Dorikka 19 June 2012 10:08:00PM 4 points [-]

The approximation might end up being 'making androids to be friends with people', or some kind of therapy-related research. Seriously. Given that even many people involved with AGI research do not seem to understand that Friendliness is a problem, I don't think that the first impression generated by that word will be favorable.

It would be convenient to find some laymen to test on, since our simulations of a layman's understanding may be in error.

Comment author: RichardHughes 25 June 2012 07:04:49PM 0 points [-]

I have no ability to do any actual random selection, but you raise a good point - some focus group testing on laymen would be a good precaution to take before settling on a name.