New, Brief Popular-Level Introduction to AI Risks and Superintelligence
post by LyleN · 2015-01-23T15:43:30.387Z · LW · GW · Legacy · 3 commentsContents
3 comments
The very popular blog Wait But Why has published the first part of a two-part explanation/summary of AI risks and superintelligence, and it looks like the second part will be focused on Friendly AI. I found it very clear, reasonably thorough and appropriately urgent without signaling paranoia or fringe-ness. It may be a good article to share with interested friends.
Update: Part 2 is now here.
3 comments
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comment by wobster109 · 2015-01-24T04:55:25.621Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Agree 100%. Wait But Why is very accessible. Previous posts have focused on the Fermi Paradox, procrastination, sentience/consciousness, religion, and immortality. It reads like a very friendly, very accessible Less Wrong.
comment by Adam Zerner (adamzerner) · 2015-01-23T22:08:20.723Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
My one data point:
I don't have much of a formal background in Math, CS or AI. I know a bit from reading LessWrong and Kurzweil though. There weren't any core ideas in the article that were new to me... but Wait But Why has a way of explaining things that is really helpful, and my understanding has definitely been solidified after reading that. Plus it was enjoyable.
comment by Artaxerxes · 2015-01-24T08:57:30.697Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
There is some debate about how soon AI will reach human-level general intelligence—the median year on a survey of hundreds of scientists was 2040
This is probably a mistake in the article, because the 2040 median is most likely coming from this survey (www.nickbostrom.com/papers/survey.pdf), and specifically coming from when AI experts were asked what year they could be 50% sure of human level AI coming about. For comparison, the 90% interval was 2075, which paints a very different picture.
Edit: the author has fixed the phrasing on that line