> What’s the most valid reason that we should be worried about destructive artificial intelligence?
> I think that hundreds of years from now if people invent a technology that we haven’t heard of yet, maybe a computer could turn evil. But the future is so uncertain. I don’t know what’s going to happen five years from now. The reason I say that I don’t worry about AI turning evil is the same reason I don’t worry about overpopulation on Mars. Hundreds of years from now I hope we’ve colonized Mars. But we’ve never set foot on the planet so how can we productively worry about this problem now?
Well, to steelman the ‘overpopulation on Mars’ argument a bit, feeding 4 colonists and feeding 8 is a 100% increase in food expenditure, which may or may not be possible over there. It might be courtains for a few of them if it comes to that.
I used to think I'd volunteer to go to Mars. But then I love the ocean, forests, fresh air, animals... and so on. So imagining myself in Mars' barren environment, missing Earth's nature feels downright terrible, which in turn, has taught me to take Earth's nature less for granted.
Can only imaging waking up on day 5 in my tiny Martian biohab realizing I'd made the wrong choice, and the only ride back arrives in 8 months, and will take ~9 months to get back to earth.
Sentient killer robots is not the risk most AI researchers are worried about. The risk is what happens as corporations give AI ever larger power over significant infrastructure and marketing decisions.
Facebook is an example of AI in it's current form already doing massive societal damage. It's algorithms optimize for "success metrics" with minimal regard for consequences. What happens when these algorithms are significantly more self modifying? What if a marketing campaign realizes a societal movement threatens it's success? Are we prepared to weather a propaganda campaign that understands our impulses better than we ever could?
This might have to bump out "AI is no match for HI (human idiocy)" as the pithy grumpy old man quote I trot out when I hear irrational exuberance about AI these days.
