Google is working on a kill switch to prevent an AI uprising
All this speculating about AIs (eg Nick Bostrom) has me pretty puzzled. On one hand it’s fun and interesting, on the other it seems quite silly and ignorant. We don’t know what this “superintelligence” is, how are we supposed to know how to make it safe.<p>Genetics is a good analogy. People always knew that traits are inherited from parents. Around 150 years ago we started to get some serious scientific theory and knowledge on the subject (Mendel, Darwin, Wallace, Etc.). We started using the word “gene” 50-60 years later. The actual discovery of DNA molecules happened in in the 50s.<p>Before we knew about DNA, “gene” was an abstract idea, not really different from the word “trait.” That’s where we are now with consciousness, intelligence and such. We name these things based on their observable characteristics. We don’t really know what “memory,” “desire” or “logical conclusion” are, only what they do.<p>IE A trait is some observable characteristic of an organism, like bioluminescence. A gene (genome, genoplex..) is a sequence of amino acids that causes traits. We don’t know what the gene equivalents for natural intelligence are yet.<p>Discussing questions like the morality of enslaving AI, strategies for making it play nice, the provable impossibility of limiting it, the possibility of giving it a moral compass…. it’s all silly. We don’t know what we are talking about, literally.<p>It’s like talking about what would be or wouldn’t be impossible to do with genetic engineering before the discovery of DNA.