I don't know what a paperclip maximizer is, so I imagine something terrible and fearsome.
My opinion is that a truly massively intelligent, adaptive and unfriendly AI would require a very specific test environment, wherein it was not allowed the ability to directly influence anything outside a boundary. This kind of environment does not seem impossible to design -- if machine intelligence consists of predicting and planning the protocols may already exist (I can imagine them in very specific detail). If intelligence requires experimentation, than limiting how AI interacts with it's environment might interfere with how adaptable our experiments would allow it to become. My opinion on research is simply that specific AI experiments should not be discussed in such general terms, and that generalities tend to obfuscate both the meaning and value of scientific research.
I'm not sure how we could tell if these discussions actually effect AI research on some arbitrarily significant scale. More importantly, I'm not sure how you envision this forum focusing less on research and more on outreach. The language used on this forum is varied in tone and style (often rich with science fiction allusions and an awareness of common attitudes) and there is a complete lack of formal citation criterion in the writing pedagogy. Together these seem to suggest that no true research is being done here, academically speaking.
Furthermore, it's my understanding that humanity already has many of the components that would make up AI, well designed in the theoretical sense -- the problem lies in knowing when an extra piece might be needed, and in assembling them in a way that yields human-like intelligence and adaptability. While programming still is quite an art form, we have more tools and larger canvases than ever before. I agree that the possibility that we may be headed towards a world wherein it will be relatively easy to construct an AI that is intelligent and adaptable but not friendly, does not predicate it's likelihood. But, in my opinion, caution is still warranted.
I consider it less likely that retarding AI research ends the human race than we produce a set of conditions wherein it is likely that AI has evolved in some form (if not deliberately the product of research than by some other means) and the world just simply isn't ready for it. This is not to say that we need to prepare for skynet and all build bomb shelters, we just need to be aware of the social implications that the world we live in may evolve an intelligence even more adaptable than us.
So my question for you is simply, how do you think we should influence all companies doing AI research through this forum?
I apologize in advance. I really think in this degree of detail in real life. Many people find it exhausting. It has been suggested that I probably have autism.
I don't know what a paperclip maximizer is, so I imagine something terrible and fearsome.
Google is your friend here. It's well discussed on and outside of lesswrong.
My opinion is that a truly massively intelligent, adaptive and unfriendly AI would require a very specific test environment, wherein it was not allowed the ability to directly influence anything outside a boundary...
The search term here is "AI boxing" and it is not as simple as you think, nor as impossible as people here seem to think. In my opinion it's probably the safest pat...
AI friendliness is an important goal and it would be insanely dangerous to build an AI without researching this issue first. I think this is pretty much the consensus view, and that is perfectly sensible.
However, I believe that we are making the wrong inferences from this.
The straightforward inference is "we should ensure that we completely understand AI friendliness before starting to build an AI". This leads to a strongly negative view of AI researchers and scares them away. But unfortunately reality isn't that simple. The goal isn't "build a friendly AI", but "make sure that whoever builds the first AI makes it friendly".
It seems to me that it is vastly more likely that the first AI will be built by a large company, or as a large government project, than by a group of university researchers, who just don't have the funding for that.
I therefore think that we should try to take a more pragmatic approach. The way to do this would be to focus more on outreach and less on research. It won't do anyone any good if we find the perfect formula for AI friendliness on the same day that someone who has never heard of AI friendliness before finishes his paperclip maximizer.
What is your opinion on this?