Director & Movement Builder - AI Safety ANZ
Advisory Board Member (Growth) - Giving What We Can
The catchphrase I walk around with in my head regarding the optimal strategy for AI Safety is something like: Creating Superintelligent Artificial Agents* (SAA) without a worldwide referendum is ethically unjustifiable. Until a consensus is reached on whether to bring into existence such technology, a global moratorium is required (*we already have AGI).
I thought it might be useful to spell that out.
Alcoholics are encouraged not to talk passed Liquor Stores. Basically, physical availability is the biggest lever - keep your phone / laptop in a different room when you don't absolutely need them!
If GPT5 actually comes with competent agents then I expect this to be a "Holy Shit" moment at least as big as ChatGPT's release. So if ChatGPT has been used by 200 million people, then I'd expect that to at least double within 6 months of GPT5 (agent's) release. Maybe triple. So that "Holy Shit" moment means a greater share of the general public learning about the power of frontier models. With that will come another shift in the Overton Window. Good luck to us all.
The catchphrase I walk around with in my head regarding the optimal strategy for AI Safety is something like: Creating Superintelligent Artificial Agents* (SAA) without a worldwide referendum is ethically unjustifiable. Until a consensus is reached on whether to bring into existence such technology, a global moratorium is required (*we already have AGI).
I thought it might be useful to spell that out.
I recently discovered the idea of driving all blames into oneself, which immediately resonated with me. It is relatively hardcore; the kind of thing that would turn David Goggins into a Buddhist.
Gemini did a good job of summarising it:
This quote by Pema Chödron, a renowned Buddhist teacher, represents a core principle in some Buddhist traditions, particularly within Tibetan Buddhism. It's called "taking full responsibility" or "taking self-blame" and can be a bit challenging to understand at first. Here's a breakdown:
What it Doesn't Mean:
What it Does Mean:
Analogy:
Imagine a pebble thrown into a still pond. The pebble represents the external situation, and the ripples represent your emotional response. While you can't control the pebble (the external situation), you can control the ripples (your reaction).
Benefits:
Here are some additional points to consider:
Strong upvote, but I won't tell you why.
Thanks for the feedback Neil! At LM we know that insights can come from anywhere. We appreciate your input regarding the training video's completeness and the deadline duration. In the meantime please feel free to apply for one of our graduate positions, where presumably one can feel better working on capabilities since 'someone else will just take the job anyway': https://www.lockheedmartinjobs.com/job/aguadilla/software-engineer-fire-control-weapons-early-career/694/53752768720
I have heard rumours that an AI Safety documentary is being made. Separate to this, a good friend of mine is also seriously considering making one, but he isn't "in" AI Safety. If you know who this first group is and can put me in touch with them, it might be worth getting across each others plans.
I like the fact that despite not being (relatively) young when they died, the LW banner states that Kahneman & Vinge have died "FAR TOO YOUNG", pointing to the fact that death is always bad and/or it is bad when people die when they were still making positive contributions to the world (Kahneman published "Noise" in 2021!).
If you're into podcasts, the Very Bad Wizards guys did an ep on this essay, which I enjoyed: https://verybadwizards.com/episode/episode-227-a-terrible-master-david-foster-wallaces-this-is-water