Cultural evolution can be viewed as evolution applied to the substrate of culture, where memes (ideas, behaviors, information) are replicated and selected.
Cultural evolution enables the rapid acquisition and improvement of skills across an expanding range of tasks, which could help generate artificial general intelligence.
Cultural transmission, especially real-time cultural transmission, is difficult but important for building cultural evolution-aware cooperative AI and potentially improving safety.
Cooperation is necessary for AI, as single agents are not enough to create enough pressure for complex social interactions.
Cultural evolution may help ratchet up abilities like theory of mind and self-domestication that enable cooperation.
Some level of general intelligence may be needed to kickstart cumulative cultural evolution, though AI may currently have enough capabilities.
Cultural evolution provides a unique angle to identify potential problems early through its inherently interactive nature.
The setup discussed focuses on a fully cooperative environment where all agents share the same goal.
Continual learning and lifelong learning techniques may help address issues of “catastrophic forgetting” in cultural transmission models.
While cultural evolution may not be the only way to generate safe general intelligence, it could still provide useful inspiration.
Cultural evolution can be viewed as evolution applied to the substrate of culture, where memes (ideas, behaviors, information) are replicated and selected.
Cultural evolution enables the rapid acquisition and improvement of skills across an expanding range of tasks, which could help generate artificial general intelligence.
Cultural transmission, especially real-time cultural transmission, is difficult but important for building cultural evolution-aware cooperative AI and potentially improving safety.
Cooperation is necessary for AI, as single agents are not enough to create enough pressure for complex social interactions.
Cultural evolution may help ratchet up abilities like theory of mind and self-domestication that enable cooperation.
Some level of general intelligence may be needed to kickstart cumulative cultural evolution, though AI may currently have enough capabilities.
Cultural evolution provides a unique angle to identify potential problems early through its inherently interactive nature.
The setup discussed focuses on a fully cooperative environment where all agents share the same goal.
Continual learning and lifelong learning techniques may help address issues of “catastrophic forgetting” in cultural transmission models.
While cultural evolution may not be the only way to generate safe general intelligence, it could still provide useful inspiration.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oxOcKrCmBk