[Link] YC President Sam Altman: The Software Revolution

post by Antisuji · 2015-02-19T05:13:53.705Z · LW · GW · Legacy · 1 comments

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Writing about technological revolutions, Y Combinator president Sam Altman warns about the dangers of AI and bioengineering (discussion on Hacker News):

Two of the biggest risks I see emerging from the software revolution—AI and synthetic biology—may put tremendous capability to cause harm in the hands of small groups, or even individuals.

I think the best strategy is to try to legislate sensible safeguards but work very hard to make sure the edge we get from technology on the good side is stronger than the edge that bad actors get. If we can synthesize new diseases, maybe we can synthesize vaccines. If we can make a bad AI, maybe we can make a good AI that stops the bad one.

The current strategy is badly misguided. It’s not going to be like the atomic bomb this time around, and the sooner we stop pretending otherwise, the better off we’ll be. The fact that we don’t have serious efforts underway to combat threats from synthetic biology and AI development is astonishing.

On the one hand, it's good to see more mainstream(ish) attention to AI safety. On the other hand, he focuses on the mundane (though still potentially devastating!) risks of job destruction and concentration of power, and his hopeful "best strategy" seems... inadequate.

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