ciphergoth comments on Help us name a short primer on AI risk! - Less Wrong

7 Post author: lukeprog 17 September 2013 08:35PM

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Comment author: gjm 18 September 2013 08:13:24AM 11 points [-]

I don't like all the clever-clever titles being proposed because (1) they probably restrict the audience and (2) one of the difficulties MIRI faces is persuading people to take the risk seriously in the first place -- which will not be helped by a title that's flippant, or science-fiction-y, or overblown, or just plain confusing.

You don't need "primer" or anything like it in the title; if the book has a fairly general title, and is short, and has a preface that begins "This book is an introduction to the risks posed by artificial intelligence" or something, you're done. (No harm in having something like "primer" or "introduction" in the title, if that turns out to make a good title.)

Spell out "artificial intelligence". (Or use some other broadly equivalent term.)

I would suggest simply "Risks of artificial intelligence" or maybe "Risks of machine intelligence" (matching MIRI's name).

Comment author: ciphergoth 18 September 2013 11:34:36AM 2 points [-]

I take your point, but it looks like the book they've decided to write is one that's at least a little flippant and science-fiction-y, and that being so the title should reflect that.

Comment author: Stuart_Armstrong 18 September 2013 01:07:18PM 1 point [-]

The Terminator section is to counter that issue immediately, rather than being sci-fi ish.