I agree that this is troubling, though I think it’s similar to how I wouldn’t want the term biorisk to be expanded …
Well as I said, natural language doesn’t have to be perfectly logical, and I think “biorisk” is in somewhat in that category but there’s an explanation that makes it a bit reasonable than it might first appear, which is that the “bio” refers not to “biological” but to “bioweapon”. This is actually one of the definitions that Google gives when you search for “bio”: “relating to or involving the use of toxic biological or biochemical substances as weapons of war. ‘bioterrorism’”
I guess the analogous thing would be if we start using “AI” to mean “technical AI accidents” in a bunch of phrases, which feels worse to me than the “bio” case, maybe because “AI” is a standalone word/acronym instead of a prefix? Does this make sense to you?
Not to say that’s what you are doing with AI risk. I’m worried about what others will do with it if the term gets expanded.
But the term was expanded from the beginning. Have you actually observed it being used in ways that you fear (and which would be prevented if we were to redefine it more narrowly)?
Yeah that makes sense. Your points about “bio” not being short for “biological” were valid, but the fact that as a listener I didn’t know that fact implies that it seems really easy to mess up the language usage here. I’m starting to think that the real fight should be about using terms that aren’t self explanatory.
Have you actually observed it being used in ways that you fear (and which would be prevented if we were to redefine it more narrowly)?
I’m not sure about whether it would have been prevented by using the term more narrowly, but in my experience the most common reaction people outside of EA/LW (and even sometimes within) have to hearing about AI risk is to assume that it’s not technical, and to assume that it’s not about accidents. In that sense, I have seen been exposed to quite a bit of this already.
Well as I said, natural language doesn’t have to be perfectly logical, and I think “biorisk” is in somewhat in that category but there’s an explanation that makes it a bit reasonable than it might first appear, which is that the “bio” refers not to “biological” but to “bioweapon”. This is actually one of the definitions that Google gives when you search for “bio”: “relating to or involving the use of toxic biological or biochemical substances as weapons of war. ‘bioterrorism’”
I guess the analogous thing would be if we start using “AI” to mean “technical AI accidents” in a bunch of phrases, which feels worse to me than the “bio” case, maybe because “AI” is a standalone word/acronym instead of a prefix? Does this make sense to you?
But the term was expanded from the beginning. Have you actually observed it being used in ways that you fear (and which would be prevented if we were to redefine it more narrowly)?
Yeah that makes sense. Your points about “bio” not being short for “biological” were valid, but the fact that as a listener I didn’t know that fact implies that it seems really easy to mess up the language usage here. I’m starting to think that the real fight should be about using terms that aren’t self explanatory.
I’m not sure about whether it would have been prevented by using the term more narrowly, but in my experience the most common reaction people outside of EA/LW (and even sometimes within) have to hearing about AI risk is to assume that it’s not technical, and to assume that it’s not about accidents. In that sense, I have seen been exposed to quite a bit of this already.