The Double Ethical Bottleneck of A.I.
This is a small excerpt from my book The Journey Towards Compassionate A.I. The whole book describes the why’s, what’s and how’s concerning this.
Getting through the A.I. bi-bottleneck
On the road towards genuine super-A.I. – encompassing all domains of intelligence and in each being much more effective than humans – I see not one but two bottlenecks. This is no guarantee that after the bottlenecks, there will be heaven on earth, but let us suppose now that, from the day after, all will be well indeed.
That enables us to focus on the bottlenecks.
- The first one is human-made. Either rogue or naïve developers may take very wrong decisions. There is a sheer infinite amount of scenarios that one can think about. In the next section, I give a few examples. One may be enough not to need to fear any other anymore. It is the end, my friend.
- The second bottleneck is A.I.-made. On its way towards super-A.I. and beyond, there may be many stages and many changes. Even if the final stage is benevolent, and even if most stages are benevolent, it’s enough for only one stage to be less human-friendly, and we’re gone.
The bi-bottleneck may be quite long with many different stages.
Will humanity be able to control to a sufficient degree everything that can happen?
I think, and repeat, that reliance on control alone will not save us. I also don’t think we should relinquish all control and hope with crossed fingers that A.I. will eventually be Compassionate just like that, after the bottleneck as well as at any stage along. So, we should very well think about control, AND we should think about Compassion. BOTH are indispensable.
I hope that this book will be a wake-up call in this direction.
Related Posts
In A.I.: Do Big Data Compensate for Lack of Insight?
While today’s A.I. systems impress with speed and scale, the deeper concern isn’t what they can do — but what they cannot. In a world awash with data, have we mistaken accumulation for understanding? This blog explores why true intelligence requires more than brute force — and how a future of innerness-aware A.I. may offer Read the full article…
Meaning-Based A.I. on the Edge
There is an assumption behind much of today’s artificial intelligence: that intelligence lives in the center. Massive data centers, vast models, and centralized computation seem to define where thinking happens. The more central, the more powerful — or so it appears. Yet when we look more closely at human meaning, a different picture emerges. Meaning Read the full article…
Mental Growth Beyond A.I.: Our Human Edge
This may become increasingly important in the future when super-A.I. can, in principle, do almost anything humans do nowadays. Of course, the issue is already crucial and has always been. Mental growth is intimately connected to meaningfulness and Compassion. This highlights the AURELIS commitment to growth, not as an optional luxury but as a fundamental Read the full article…