Something related that’s been on my mind—what is the difference, if any, between a society of EMs with a charter to improve the outside world and a general AI with various sub-components that does essentially the same thing? It seems to me that an EM society would “just” involve much more calculation and be arrived at via a different route. That is, can we say the “AI program” is within the “society program” in this scenario?
A society of EMs start from a human basis. So we have a better idea of their weakness and they have a better idea of what we mean. They also have specifically human failings.
An AI made ex-nihilo can be, potentially, in a much greater area of mind space. The failure modes for the AI are likely to be quite different (eg we don’t need to worry so much about them being corrupt, but a lot more about them misinterpreting what we mean).
They could be identical in practice, but it’s still worthwhile separating the two conceptually for the moment.
Something related that’s been on my mind—what is the difference, if any, between a society of EMs with a charter to improve the outside world and a general AI with various sub-components that does essentially the same thing? It seems to me that an EM society would “just” involve much more calculation and be arrived at via a different route. That is, can we say the “AI program” is within the “society program” in this scenario?
A society of EMs start from a human basis. So we have a better idea of their weakness and they have a better idea of what we mean. They also have specifically human failings.
An AI made ex-nihilo can be, potentially, in a much greater area of mind space. The failure modes for the AI are likely to be quite different (eg we don’t need to worry so much about them being corrupt, but a lot more about them misinterpreting what we mean).
They could be identical in practice, but it’s still worthwhile separating the two conceptually for the moment.