I strong-upvoted this just for the title alone. If AI takeover is at all gradual, it is very likely to happen via gradual disempowerment.
But it occurs to me that disempowerment can actually feel like empowerment! I am thinking here of the increasing complexity of what AI gives us in response to our prompts. I can enter a simple instruction and get back a video or a research report. That may feel empowering. But all the details are coming from the AI. This means that even in actions initiated by humans, the fraction that directly comes from the human is decreasing. We could call this relative disempowerment. It’s not that human will is being frustrated, but rather that the AI contribution is an ever-increasing fraction of what is done.
Arguably, successful alignment of superintelligence produces a world in which 99+% of what happens comes from AI, but it’s OK because it is aligned with human volition in some abstract sense. It’s not that I am objecting to AI intentions and actions becoming most of what happens, but rather warning that a rising tide of empowerment-by-AI can turn into complete disempowerment thanks to deception or just long-term misalignment… I think everyone already knows this, but I thought I would point it out in this context.
I strong-upvoted this just for the title alone. If AI takeover is at all gradual, it is very likely to happen via gradual disempowerment.
But it occurs to me that disempowerment can actually feel like empowerment! I am thinking here of the increasing complexity of what AI gives us in response to our prompts. I can enter a simple instruction and get back a video or a research report. That may feel empowering. But all the details are coming from the AI. This means that even in actions initiated by humans, the fraction that directly comes from the human is decreasing. We could call this relative disempowerment. It’s not that human will is being frustrated, but rather that the AI contribution is an ever-increasing fraction of what is done.
Arguably, successful alignment of superintelligence produces a world in which 99+% of what happens comes from AI, but it’s OK because it is aligned with human volition in some abstract sense. It’s not that I am objecting to AI intentions and actions becoming most of what happens, but rather warning that a rising tide of empowerment-by-AI can turn into complete disempowerment thanks to deception or just long-term misalignment… I think everyone already knows this, but I thought I would point it out in this context.