How much was this MIRI’s primary plan? Maybe it was 12 years ago before I interfaced with MIRI? But like, I have hung out with MIRI researchers for an average of multiple hours a week for something like a decade
In this post, I’m mostly talking about my debate with Eliezer more than 12 years ago, when SIAI/MIRI was still talking about building a Friendly AI (which we later described as “sovereign” to distinguish from “task” and “oracle” AI). (Or attempted or proxy debate, anyway, as I’m noticing that Eliezer himself didn’t actually respond to many of my posts/comments.)
However I believe @jessicata is right that a modified form of the plan to build a more limited “task” AI persisted quite a bit after that, probably into the time you started interfacing with MIRI. (I’m not highly motivated to dig for evidence as to exactly how long this plan lasted, as it doesn’t affect my point in the OP.) My guess as to why you got a different impression is that different MIRI people had different plans/intentions/motivations, with Eliezer being the most gung-ho on personally being involved in building some kind of world-altering AI, but also having the most power/influence at MIRI.
In this post, I’m mostly talking about my debate with Eliezer more than 12 years ago, when SIAI/MIRI was still talking about building a Friendly AI (which we later described as “sovereign” to distinguish from “task” and “oracle” AI). (Or attempted or proxy debate, anyway, as I’m noticing that Eliezer himself didn’t actually respond to many of my posts/comments.)
However I believe @jessicata is right that a modified form of the plan to build a more limited “task” AI persisted quite a bit after that, probably into the time you started interfacing with MIRI. (I’m not highly motivated to dig for evidence as to exactly how long this plan lasted, as it doesn’t affect my point in the OP.) My guess as to why you got a different impression is that different MIRI people had different plans/intentions/motivations, with Eliezer being the most gung-ho on personally being involved in building some kind of world-altering AI, but also having the most power/influence at MIRI.