[LINK] Steven Hawking warns of the dangers of AI

Salemicus

[Hawking] told the BBC:"The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race."

...

"It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate," he said. "Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete, and would be superseded."

There is, however, no mention of Friendly AI or similar principles.

In my opinion, this is particularly notable for the coverage this story is getting within the mainstream media. At the current time, this is the most-read and most-shared news story on the BBC website.

From the BBC:

[Hawking] told the BBC:"The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race."

...

"It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate," he said. "Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete, and would be superseded."

There is, however, no mention of Friendly AI or similar principles.

Just spitballing, but I would guess that this type of coverage is a net benefit due to the level of exposure and subsequent curiosity generated by "holy crap what is this thing that could spell doom for us all?" That is, it seems like singularitarian ideas need as much exposure as possible (any press is good press) and are a long way away from worrying about anti-AI picketers. Am I off here?

What's the causal pathway by which coverage like this improves things? If we want technical expertise or research funding, it seems like there are more targeted channels. This could be optimal if we want to make some kind of political move though. What else?

1MathiasZaman11y

I think you're correct. Ideas like AGI are mostly unknown by the general public and anything that can make someone curious about that cluster of ideas is probably a good thing.

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[LINK] Steven Hawking warns of the dangers of AI

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[LINK] Steven Hawking warns of the dangers of AI

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