Steelmaning AI risk critiques

Stuart_Armstrong

At some point soon, I'm going to attempt to steelman the position of those who reject the AI risk thesis, to see if it can be made solid. Here, I'm just asking if people can link to the most convincing arguments they've found against AI risk.

EDIT: Thanks for all the contribution! Keep them coming...

I'm sure there's no need to point to Robin Hanson's anti-foom writings? The best single article is IMO Irreducible Detail essentially questioning the generality of intelligence.

Here is a key quote:

Human brains are smart mainly by containing many powerful not-fully-general modules, and using many modules to do each task. These modules would not work well in all possible universes, but they often do in ours - See more at: http://www.overcomingbias.com/2014/07/limits-on-generality.html#sthash.S1KygaG4.dpuf

It is true that adult human brains are built out of many domain specific modules, but these modules develop via a very general universal learning system. The neuroscientific evidence directly contradicts the evolved modularity... (read more)

2sentientplatypus11y

I hadn't seen this before. Hanson's conception of intelligence actually seems much simpler and more plausible than how I had previously imagined it. I think 'intelligence' can easily act as a Semantic Stopsign because it feels like a singular entity through the experience of consciousness, but actually may be quite modular as Hanson suggests.

1[anonymous]11y

Thank you for that Irreducible Detail article, I remember reading it before but couldn't find it later. Hanson's argument is very convincing and intuitive, and really sheds light on what intelligence might really be about. When I think about my own intelligence, it doesn't feel like I have some overarching general module planning, but more like I have many simple heuristics, and rules of thumb, and automatic behaviors that just happen to work. This feels more like Hanson's idea of intelligence. I think this is the single best argument against MIRI's idea of intelligence. Here is an interesting article in the same vein.

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