1. This is a great first step. Really any kind of half-decent foot in the door is good at this stage, whilst the shock of GPT-4 is still fresh. A much better letter in even two months time would be worse I think.
2. Engendering broad support for a moratorium is good. We don’t need everyone to be behind it for x-risk reasons, but we do need a global majority to be behind it. This is why I’ve said that it might be good if a taboo around AGI development can be inculcated in society—a taboo is stronger than regulation.
3. Would be interested to see data on this.
4. I don’t think this is a significant concern. With broad enough support everyone can have at least a few people they greatly admire on the list.
5. Yes, I think the more signatures, the better. We need the whole world (or at least a large majority of it) to get behind a global moratorium on AGI development!
I tend to agree at a first glance, but when you take into account this counternarrative that has cropped up of “this is just a list of losing AI developers trying to retake control” I wonder if this will trudge on proactively or become fuel to the “the people worried about AI safety are just selfish elitists” fire that Timnit Gebru is always stoking.
Mmm not so sure on this. I think there’s a much stronger “x, who I really don’t like, is involved in this so I won’t involve myself in it” motivation now a days. Twitter is a relevant example here, where Musk joining was enough for many to leave, even if people they still admire and were interested in engaging with were still on the platform. I like the paradigm of “everyone has someone to like so we can all like it” but think today we’ve moved more towards a “distancing from people you don’t like” in a way that makes me wonder if the former is still possible. What do you think about that though?
Cool, will maybe sign then!
Thanks for responding too! Appreciate engagement, it makes thinking about these sorts of things much more worth it.
Yudkowsky’s TIME article is a good counter to this. The blunt, no holds-barred, version of what all the fuss is about.
:)
Thanks for the link, and good that there is precedence.
How many big accounts that threatened to leave Twitter actually have? I’ve seen a lot just continue to threaten to but keep posting. As Elon says, at least it’s not boring. I hope that we’re at a high point of polarisation and things will get better. Maybe the Twitter algorithm being open sourced could be a first step to this (i.e. if social media becomes less polarised, due to anger being downweighted or something, as a result).
I’ll have a go at answering your questions:
1. This is a great first step. Really any kind of half-decent foot in the door is good at this stage, whilst the shock of GPT-4 is still fresh. A much better letter in even two months time would be worse I think.
2. Engendering broad support for a moratorium is good. We don’t need everyone to be behind it for x-risk reasons, but we do need a global majority to be behind it. This is why I’ve said that it might be good if a taboo around AGI development can be inculcated in society—a taboo is stronger than regulation.
3. Would be interested to see data on this.
4. I don’t think this is a significant concern. With broad enough support everyone can have at least a few people they greatly admire on the list.
5. Yes, I think the more signatures, the better. We need the whole world (or at least a large majority of it) to get behind a global moratorium on AGI development!
I tend to agree at a first glance, but when you take into account this counternarrative that has cropped up of “this is just a list of losing AI developers trying to retake control” I wonder if this will trudge on proactively or become fuel to the “the people worried about AI safety are just selfish elitists” fire that Timnit Gebru is always stoking.
I think I just flatly agree here.
Someone from lesswrong mentioned the Letter of three hundred which I’d like to check out in this context.
Mmm not so sure on this. I think there’s a much stronger “x, who I really don’t like, is involved in this so I won’t involve myself in it” motivation now a days. Twitter is a relevant example here, where Musk joining was enough for many to leave, even if people they still admire and were interested in engaging with were still on the platform. I like the paradigm of “everyone has someone to like so we can all like it” but think today we’ve moved more towards a “distancing from people you don’t like” in a way that makes me wonder if the former is still possible. What do you think about that though?
Cool, will maybe sign then!
Thanks for responding too! Appreciate engagement, it makes thinking about these sorts of things much more worth it.
Yudkowsky’s TIME article is a good counter to this. The blunt, no holds-barred, version of what all the fuss is about.
:)
Thanks for the link, and good that there is precedence.
How many big accounts that threatened to leave Twitter actually have? I’ve seen a lot just continue to threaten to but keep posting. As Elon says, at least it’s not boring. I hope that we’re at a high point of polarisation and things will get better. Maybe the Twitter algorithm being open sourced could be a first step to this (i.e. if social media becomes less polarised, due to anger being downweighted or something, as a result).
Great :)