Thanks for responding Viliam. Totally agree with you that “if homo sapiens actually had no biological foundations for trust, altruism, and cooperation, then… it would be extremely difficult for our societies to instill such values”.
As you say, we have a blend of values that shift as required by our environment. I appreciate your agreement that it’s not really clear how training an AI on human preferences solves the issue raised here.
Of all the things I have ever discussed in person or on-line values are the most challenging. I’ve been interested in human values for decades before AI came along and historically there is very little hard science to be found on the subject. I’m delighted that AI is causing values to be studied widely for the first time however in my view we are only about where the ancient Greeks were with regard to the structure of matter or where Gregor Mendel’s study of pea plants fall with regards to genetics. Both fields turned out to be unimaginably complex. Like those I expect the study of values will go on indefinitely as we discover how complicated they really are.
I can see how the math involved likely precludes us writing the necessary code and that “self-teaching” (sorry I don’t know the correct word) is the only way an AI could learn human values but again it seems as if Stuart’s approach is missing a critical component. I’ve finished his book now and although he goes on at length with regards to different scenarios he never definitively addresses the issue I raise here. I think the analogy that children learn many things from their parents, not all of them “good”, applies here and Stuart’s response to this problem re his approach still seems to gloss over the issue.
Thanks for responding Viliam. Totally agree with you that “if homo sapiens actually had no biological foundations for trust, altruism, and cooperation, then… it would be extremely difficult for our societies to instill such values”.
As you say, we have a blend of values that shift as required by our environment. I appreciate your agreement that it’s not really clear how training an AI on human preferences solves the issue raised here.
Of all the things I have ever discussed in person or on-line values are the most challenging. I’ve been interested in human values for decades before AI came along and historically there is very little hard science to be found on the subject. I’m delighted that AI is causing values to be studied widely for the first time however in my view we are only about where the ancient Greeks were with regard to the structure of matter or where Gregor Mendel’s study of pea plants fall with regards to genetics. Both fields turned out to be unimaginably complex. Like those I expect the study of values will go on indefinitely as we discover how complicated they really are.
I can see how the math involved likely precludes us writing the necessary code and that “self-teaching” (sorry I don’t know the correct word) is the only way an AI could learn human values but again it seems as if Stuart’s approach is missing a critical component. I’ve finished his book now and although he goes on at length with regards to different scenarios he never definitively addresses the issue I raise here. I think the analogy that children learn many things from their parents, not all of them “good”, applies here and Stuart’s response to this problem re his approach still seems to gloss over the issue.