Also, Kurtzweil had some highly selling books out a long time ago.
Yes, but with a quite different message.
I came across Bostrom a decade ago. I’m sure his book is great but ‘Bostrom writes a book’ isn’t that different from ‘Bostrom has a website’.
No, it’s quite different.
I don’t think Bill Gates would have made those claims when it wasn’t for Bostrom’s book. Bill Gates also promotes the book to other people. Bill Gates likely wouldn’t tell important people: “Go read up on Bostroms website how we should think about AGI risk”, the way he does it with the book.
Elon Musk is a busy guy with 80 hour workweeks. Bostrom and FHI made to him the case that UFAI risk is important.
Personal conversations were likely important but reading Bostrom’s book helped raise the importance of the issue in Elon’s mind.
I’m not saying that Bostrom was behind Stephen Hawking remarks but I think he’s partly responsible for Musk and Gates positions.
When it comes to Musk I think there was a facebook post a while ago about FHI efforts in drafting Musk for the cause.
With Gates there’s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DBNKRYVY8g where Gates and Musk sit at a conferece for the Chinese elite and get interviewed by Baidu’s CEO. As part of that Gates get asked for his take on AI risk and he says that he’s concerned and people who want to delve deeper into the issue should read Bostroms book.
As far as the timeline goes I think it’s probable that Gates public comments on the issue come after him reading the book.
I don’t think that a smart person suddenly starts to fear AI risk because they read in a newspaper that Steven Hawking is afraid of it. On the other hand a smart person who reads Bostrom’s book can be convinced by the case of the book that the issue is really important.
That’s something a book can do but that newspapers usually don’t do. Books that express ideas in a way that convinces a smart person that reads them are powerful.
I don’t think that a smart person suddenly starts to fear AI risk because they read in a newspaper that Steven Hawking is afraid of it.
Well, Steven Hawking is far smarter than most people, so on most subjects which Steven Hawking is familiar it would be a good idea to update in the same direction as him, unless you are an expert on it too.
Also, it raises AI risk as a possible concern, at which point people might then try to find more information, such as Bostrom’s book, or website.
So yes, people get more information from reading a book than reading a newspaper article, but the article might be what lead them to read the book in the first place.
Yes, but with a quite different message.
No, it’s quite different.
I don’t think Bill Gates would have made those claims when it wasn’t for Bostrom’s book. Bill Gates also promotes the book to other people. Bill Gates likely wouldn’t tell important people: “Go read up on Bostroms website how we should think about AGI risk”, the way he does it with the book.
Elon Musk is a busy guy with 80 hour workweeks. Bostrom and FHI made to him the case that UFAI risk is important. Personal conversations were likely important but reading Bostrom’s book helped raise the importance of the issue in Elon’s mind.
Oh, so Bostrom was behind these three people? Then his book is more important than I thought.
I’m not saying that Bostrom was behind Stephen Hawking remarks but I think he’s partly responsible for Musk and Gates positions.
When it comes to Musk I think there was a facebook post a while ago about FHI efforts in drafting Musk for the cause.
With Gates there’s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DBNKRYVY8g where Gates and Musk sit at a conferece for the Chinese elite and get interviewed by Baidu’s CEO. As part of that Gates get asked for his take on AI risk and he says that he’s concerned and people who want to delve deeper into the issue should read Bostroms book. As far as the timeline goes I think it’s probable that Gates public comments on the issue come after him reading the book.
I don’t think that a smart person suddenly starts to fear AI risk because they read in a newspaper that Steven Hawking is afraid of it. On the other hand a smart person who reads Bostrom’s book can be convinced by the case of the book that the issue is really important.
That’s something a book can do but that newspapers usually don’t do. Books that express ideas in a way that convinces a smart person that reads them are powerful.
Well, Steven Hawking is far smarter than most people, so on most subjects which Steven Hawking is familiar it would be a good idea to update in the same direction as him, unless you are an expert on it too.
Also, it raises AI risk as a possible concern, at which point people might then try to find more information, such as Bostrom’s book, or website.
So yes, people get more information from reading a book than reading a newspaper article, but the article might be what lead them to read the book in the first place.