ask it what it thinks would be the optimal definition of the goal of a friendly AI, from the point of view of humanity, accounting for things that humans are too stupid to see coming.
Optimal? Can you say more clearly what you mean by that?
give it the goal to not alter reality in any way besides answering questions.
It is not allowed to consume power or generate heat? Can you say more clearly what you mean by that?
have this go on for a long time until [...]
...until someone else builds a superintelligence?
The whole point of what I'm trying to say is that I don't need to elaborate on the task definition. The AI is smarter than us and understands human psychology. If we don't define "optimal" properly it should be able to find a suitable definition on its own by imagining what we might have meant. If that turns out to be wrong, we can tell it and it comes up with an alternative.
I agree on the second point. It would be hard to define that goal properly, so it doesn't just shut itself down, but I don't think it would be impossible.
The idea that someon...
edit: I think I have phrased this really poorly and that this has been misinterpreted. See my comment below for clarification.
A lot of thought has been put into the discussion of how one would need to define the goals of an AI so that it won't find any "loopholes" and act in an unintended way.
Assuming one already had an AI that is capable of understanding human psychology, which seems necessary to me to define the AI's goals anyway, wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that the AI would have an understanding of what humans want?
If that is the case, would the following approach work to make the AI friendly?
-give it the temporary goal to always answer questions thruthfully as far as possible while admitting uncertainty
-also give it the goal to not alter reality in any way besides answering questions.
-ask it what it thinks would be the optimal definition of the goal of a friendly AI, from the point of view of humanity, accounting for things that humans are too stupid to see coming.
-have a discussion between it and a group of ethicists/philosophers wherein both parties are encouraged to point out any flaws in the definition.
-have this go on for a long time until everyone (especially the AI, seeing as it is smarter than anyone else) is certain that there is no flaw in the definition and that it accounts for all kinds of ethical contingencies that might arise after the singularity.
-implement the result as the new goal of the AI.
What do you think of this approach?