When we imagine powerful AI systems built out of large neural networks
Could you give an example of what sorts of powerful AI systems you imagine? E.g. what is a task they might be applied to, and how might they go about that task, or anything else like that.
Predict (with explanation) the overall consequences of <some policy, e.g. minimum wage laws>
Given a different neural net with great intuitions about biochemistry, build a system that discovers novel drugs
Personalize education materials for individual students
Be an effective digital personal assistant
I haven’t thought much about how they go about these tasks, but generally my first pass answer would be “however humans do it, adapted to an entity that is primarily digital”.
Solving these tasks might require resources e.g. a bunch of money.
If humans were solving them, then they would not be gathering those resources themselves, but instead allocated a budget they can use, and they could not really be expected to perform additional independent work to expand that budget.
When you imagine the powerful AI system solving the tasks, do you also imagine it having these limitations, like working under a bounded budget without earning more money for the project?
For the examples I gave I’d imagine they would work under a bounded budget.
But I’m also happy to imagine an AI system that is running a fusion company, which delegates the “design a more efficient fusion reactor” to a different AI system. In that story the first AI system is in charge of budgeting and allocating resources, including getting more resources.
Could you give an example of what sorts of powerful AI systems you imagine? E.g. what is a task they might be applied to, and how might they go about that task, or anything else like that.
Tasks:
Design a more efficient fusion reactor
Predict (with explanation) the overall consequences of <some policy, e.g. minimum wage laws>
Given a different neural net with great intuitions about biochemistry, build a system that discovers novel drugs
Personalize education materials for individual students
Be an effective digital personal assistant
I haven’t thought much about how they go about these tasks, but generally my first pass answer would be “however humans do it, adapted to an entity that is primarily digital”.
Solving these tasks might require resources e.g. a bunch of money.
If humans were solving them, then they would not be gathering those resources themselves, but instead allocated a budget they can use, and they could not really be expected to perform additional independent work to expand that budget.
When you imagine the powerful AI system solving the tasks, do you also imagine it having these limitations, like working under a bounded budget without earning more money for the project?
For the examples I gave I’d imagine they would work under a bounded budget.
But I’m also happy to imagine an AI system that is running a fusion company, which delegates the “design a more efficient fusion reactor” to a different AI system. In that story the first AI system is in charge of budgeting and allocating resources, including getting more resources.