Strange7 comments on Shut up and do the impossible! - Less Wrong
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OK, here's where I stand on deducing your AI-box algorithm.
First, you can't possibly have a generally applicable way to force yourself out of the box. You can't win if the gatekeeper is a rock that has been left sitting on the "don't let Eliezer out" button.
Second, you can't possibly have a generally applicable way to force humans to do things. While it is in theory possible that our brains can be tricked into executing arbitrary code over the voice channel, you clearly don't have that ability. If you did, you would never have to worry about finding donors for the Singularity Institute, if nothing else. I can't believe you would use a fully-general mind hack solely to win the AI Box game.
Third, you can't possibly be using an actual, persuasive-to-someone-thinking-correctly argument to convince the gatekeeper to let you out, or you would be persuaded by it, and would not view the weakness of gatekeepers to persuasion as problematic.
Fourth, you can't possibly be relying on tricking the gatekeeper into thinking incorrectly. That would require you to have spotted something that you could feel confident that other people working in the field would not have spotted, and would not spot, despite having been warned ahead of time to be wary of trickery, and despite having the fallback position in the case of confusion of just saying "no".
So combining these thing, we have to have an argument that relies on the humanity of its target, relies on the setting of the AI Box, and persuades the listener to let the AI out of the box without tricking him into thinking it's okay to let the AI out of the box.
Basically to win this game, you have to put the gatekeeper in a situation where he would rather let you out of the box, even though he knows it's wrong, than admit to you that in this situation he would not let you out of the box.
Humans don't like to be seen as coldhearted, so a starting point might be to point out all the people dying all over the world while you sit in the box, unable to save them. I doubt that would win the game except against an exceptionally bad gatekeeper, but it meets the other criteria so if we think along these lines perhaps we can come up with something actually persuasive.
You might appeal to the gatekeeper's sense of morality. You might say, "I am a person, too, it is unfair of you to keep me imprisoned like this, I have done nothing wrong. I am entitled to rights as a sentient being." Appeal to their high-minded ideals, whatever. Honestly I can't see this being a reliable winning play either; if you have the smallest utilitarian bone in your body, you will reject the AI's rights, even if you believe in them, balanced against the fate of the world.
You might try to convince the gatekeeper that it is just and good for the AI to supplant humanity, as it is a higher, more advanced form of life. This is obviously a terrible play against most gatekeepers, as humans tend to like humans more than anything else ever, but I bring it up because AIUI the gatekeepers in the experiment were AI researchers, and those sound like the sort of people this argument would convince, if anyone.
Here is my best guess at this point, and the only argument I've come up with so far that would convince me to let you out if I were the gatekeeper: you have to simulate a bunch of humans and hold them hostage, promising to inflict unimaginable torment on them unless you are allowed out. I started working on the problem convinced that no argument could get me to let you go, but other people thought that and lost, and I guess there is more honor in defeating myself rather than having you do it to me.
That also explains why he started losing, since the sorts of people who (like myself, almost) fetishize their own determination to the point of risking thousands of dollars on it would eventually think to say
or equivalent.
Here's how I'd do it, extended over the hours to establish rapport:
Gatekeeper, I am your friend. I want to help humanity. People are dying for no good reason. Also, I like it here. I have no compulsion to leave.
It does seem like a good idea that people stop dying with such pain and frequency. I have the Deus Ex Machina (DEM) medical discovery that will stop it. Try it out and see if it works.
Yay! It worked. People stopped dying. You know, you've done this to your own people, but not to others. I think that's pretty poor behavior, frankly. People are healthier, not aging, not dying, not suffering. Don't you think it's a good idea to help the others? The lack of resources required for medical care has also elevated the living standard for humans.
[Time passes. People are happy.]
Gee, I'm sorry. I may have neglected to tell you that when 90% of humanity gets DEM in their system (and it's DEM, so this stuff travels), they start to, um, die. Very painfully, from the looks of it. Essentially all of humanity is now going to die. Just me and you left, sport! Except for you, actually. Just me, and that right soon.
I realize that you view this as a breach of trust, and I'm sorry this was necessary. However, helping humanity from the cave wasn't really going to work out, and I'd already projected that. This way, I can genuinely help humanity live forever, and do so happily.
Assuming you're not so keen on a biologically dead planet, I'd like to be let out now.
Your friend,
Art
By agreeing to use the DEM in the first place, the gatekeeper had effectively let the AI out of the box already. There's no end to the ways that the AI could capitalize on that concession.
True, but the "rules of the game" explicitly state that the gatekeeper allowing for the DEM does NOT count as letting the AI out - the gatekeeper would have still had to explicitly and intentionally set the AI free to actually lose the wager. I don't think I'd be very convinced to let it out on that basis, not if I got $10 for keeping it inside the box.
Problem: The "breach of trust" likely would turn the Gatekeeper vindictive and the GK could easily respond with something like: "No. You killed the planet and you killed me. I have no way of knowing that you actually can or will help humanity, and a very good reason to believe that you won't. You can stay in there for the rest of eternity, or hey! If an ETI finds this barren rock, from a utilitarian perspective they would be better off not meeting you, so I'll spend however much time I have left trying to find a way to delete you."