Having some of the OpenAI company budget allocated to ‘AI safety’ could just be safety-washing—essentially, part of the OpenAI PR/marketing budget, rather than an actual safety effort.
If the safety people don’t actually have any power to slow or stop the rush towards AGI, I don’t see their utility.
As for the arms race dilemma, imagine if OpenAI announced one day ‘Oh no, we’ve made a horrible mistake; AGI would be way too risky; we are stopped all AGI-related research to protect humanity; he’s how to audit us to make sure we follow through on this promise’. I think the other major players in the AI space would be under considerable pressure from investors, employees, media, politicians, and the public to also stop their AGI research.
It’s just not that hard to coordinate on the ‘no-AGI-research’ focal point if enough serious people decide to do so, and there’s enough public support.
Having some of the OpenAI company budget allocated to ‘AI safety’ could just be safety-washing—essentially, part of the OpenAI PR/marketing budget, rather than an actual safety effort.
If the safety people don’t actually have any power to slow or stop the rush towards AGI, I don’t see their utility.
As for the arms race dilemma, imagine if OpenAI announced one day ‘Oh no, we’ve made a horrible mistake; AGI would be way too risky; we are stopped all AGI-related research to protect humanity; he’s how to audit us to make sure we follow through on this promise’. I think the other major players in the AI space would be under considerable pressure from investors, employees, media, politicians, and the public to also stop their AGI research.
It’s just not that hard to coordinate on the ‘no-AGI-research’ focal point if enough serious people decide to do so, and there’s enough public support.