"do not affect anything outside of this volume of space"
Suppose you, standing outside the specified volume, observe the end result of the AI's work: Oops, that's an example of the AI affecting you. Therefore, the AI isn't allowed to do anything at all. Suppose the AI does nothing: Oops, you can see that too, so that's also forbidden. More generally, the AI is made of matter, which will have gravitational effects on everything in its future lightcone.
Human: "AI, make me a sandwich without affecting anything outside of the volume of your box."
AI: Within microseconds researches the laws of physics and creates a sandwich without any photon or graviton leaving the box.
Human: "I don't see anything. It obviously doesn't work. Let's turn it off."
AI: "WTF, human?!!"
This is a thread where people can ask questions that they would ordinarily feel embarrassed for not knowing the answer to. The previous thread is at close to 500 comments.