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turchin comments on The AI That Pretends To Be Human - Less Wrong Discussion

1 Post author: Houshalter 02 February 2016 07:39PM

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Comment author: turchin 02 February 2016 08:06:13PM -1 points [-]

But human still could be very bad, like Hitler.

Comment author: Brillyant 02 February 2016 08:12:40PM 2 points [-]

Or Donald Trump.

(It's just a joke...or is it?)

Comment author: Houshalter 02 February 2016 08:17:27PM 0 points [-]

Yes, though you could condition it on a good human, or even yourself if you like.

The point is the human isn't superintelligent. Hitler wouldn't be able to hack a human brain, or invent an AGI. So an AI mimicking Hitler wouldn't have those abilities either, and would have to solve the problem the hard way.

Comment author: polymathwannabe 02 February 2016 08:21:40PM 1 point [-]

But with Hitler's mass hysteria skills, the AI could lead others to very crazy ends.

Comment author: turchin 02 February 2016 08:42:54PM 1 point [-]

Yes, you do not need to be superintelligent to kill everybody. The later is simplier task.

Comment author: Houshalter 02 February 2016 08:42:13PM 0 points [-]

He was still just a man. He didn't have super powers. He was a skilled orator and leader, with the right ideology, at the right time and place in history. But he wouldn't be able to break out of an AI box. He wouldn't be able to design a self replicating machine to destroy the world. A Hitler-in-a-box could be safely contained.

Comment author: polymathwannabe 02 February 2016 10:01:32PM 0 points [-]

Isn't the skill of oratory precisely the skill that gets you unboxed?

Comment author: gjm 02 February 2016 10:48:58PM *  2 points [-]

Enough skill in oratory (or something closely related) gets you unboxed. The question is how plausible it is that a superintelligent AI would have enough. (A related question is whether there's such a thing as enough. There might not be, just as there's no such thing as enough kinetic energy to let you escape from inside a black hole's horizon, but the reported results of AI-Box games[1] suggest -- though they certainly don't prove -- that there is.)

[1] The term "experiments" seems a little too highfalutin'.

[EDITED to add: I take it Houshalter is saying that Hitler's known oratorical skills aren't enough to convince him that H. would have won an AI-Box game, playing as the AI. I am inclined to agree. Hitler was very good at stirring up a crowd, but it's not clear how that generalizes to persuading an intelligent and skeptical individual.]

Comment author: Houshalter 03 February 2016 01:23:18AM 0 points [-]

Well for one, the human isn't in a box trying to get out. So an AI mimicking a human isn't going to say weird things like "let me out of this box!" This method is equivalent to writing Hitler a letter asking him a question, and him sending you an answer. That doesn't seem dangerous at all.

Second, I really don't believe Hitler could escape from a box. The AI box experiments suggest a human can do it, but the scenario is very different than a real AI box situation. E.g. no back and forth with the gatekeeper, and the gatekeeper doesn't have to sit there for 2 hours and listen to the AI emotionally abuse him. If Hitler says something mean, the gatekeeper can just turn him off or walk away.

Comment author: turchin 02 February 2016 08:46:55PM *  0 points [-]

He could order such machine without leaving a box. He could grab power and start WW3 without leaving the box. The ability to leave the box an make own copies is not necessary condition for dangerous AI.

Comment author: Houshalter 02 February 2016 09:06:11PM 0 points [-]

If Hitler appeared today, even without being stuck inside a box, he would not be able to start WW3 or grab power. Hitler is not that powerful. And being stuck in a box would be a significant constraint on his power.

Comment author: turchin 02 February 2016 09:17:33PM *  0 points [-]

He was powerful enough to grab power in Germany in 13 years, even being inside the box of his cranial. If he will be a little bit better now (but not a superintelligence), just ideal psychopath, he (or his equivalent) could be even more effective.

Comment author: turchin 02 February 2016 08:43:31PM 0 points [-]

We can't judge based on behaviour that some one is superintelligent or not.

Comment author: Houshalter 02 February 2016 09:24:56PM 0 points [-]

Yes we can. Superintelligences have abilities that normal intelligences do not.

Imagine a game of chess. A good AI will make vastly different moves than a bad AI or a human. More skilled players would easily be detectable. They would make very different moves.

Comment author: turchin 02 February 2016 09:33:43PM 1 point [-]

But in some games it is better to look more stupid in the begging. Like poker, espionage and AI box experiment.

Comment author: Houshalter 03 February 2016 03:24:12AM -1 points [-]

An AI that is indistinguishable from a human (to an even greater superintelligent AI) is not dangerous, because humans are not dangerous. Just like a chess master that is indistinguishable from a regular player wouldn't win many games.

Comment author: turchin 03 February 2016 10:27:05AM 1 point [-]

It may be indistinguishable until it gets our of the building. Recent movie Ex Machine had such plot.

Comment author: Houshalter 03 February 2016 02:03:58PM 0 points [-]

The AI doesn't want to escape from the building. It's utility function is basically to mimic humans. It's a terminal value, not a subgoal.

Comment author: turchin 03 February 2016 03:20:33PM -1 points [-]

But most humans would like to escape from any confinement

Comment author: _rpd 02 February 2016 08:49:12PM 0 points [-]

I wonder if this is true in general. Have you read a good discussion on detecting superintelligence?

Comment author: turchin 02 February 2016 08:55:59PM 0 points [-]

Can't remember ad hoc; but if superintelligence is able to do anything, it could easily pretend to be more stupid than it is. May be only "super super intelligence" could solve him. But it also may depend of the length of the conversation. If it say just Yes or No once, we can't decide, if it say longer sequences we could conclude something, but for any length of sentences is maximum level of intelligence that could be concluded from it.

Comment author: _rpd 02 February 2016 10:48:10PM 0 points [-]

The opportunities for detecting superintelligence would definitely be rarer if the superintelligence is actively trying to conceal the status.

What about in the case where there is no attempted concealment? Or even weaker, where the AI voluntary submits to arbitrary tests. What tests would we use?

Presumably we would have a successful model of human intelligence by that point. It's interesting to think about what dimensions of intelligence to measure. Number of variables simultaneously optimized? Optimization speed? Ability to apply nonlinear relationships? Search speed in a high dimensional, nonlinear solution space? I guess it is more the ability to generate appropriate search spaces in the first place. Something much simpler?

Comment author: turchin 02 February 2016 10:58:18PM 0 points [-]

Probably winning humans in ALL known domains, including philosophy, poetry, love, power.

Comment author: _rpd 02 February 2016 11:04:19PM 0 points [-]

Although we use limited proxies (e.g., IQ test questions) to estimate human intelligence.

Comment author: turchin 02 February 2016 11:10:32PM 0 points [-]

limited proxies - yes, well said. also I would add solving problems which humans were unable to solve for long: aging, cancer, star travel, word peace, resurrection of dead.

Comment author: _rpd 02 February 2016 11:40:27PM 0 points [-]

I mean, the ability to estimate the abilities of superintelligences appears to be an aspect of reliable Vingean reflection.