Netcentrica, in this letter your explicit opinion is that fiction with a deep treatment of the alignment problem will not be palatable to a wider audience. I think this is not necessarily true. I think that compelling fiction is perhaps the prime vector for engaging a wider, naive audience. Even the Hollywood treatment of I Robot touched on it and was popular. Not deep or nuanced, sure. But it was there. Maybe more intelligent treatments could succeed if produced with talent.
I mostly stopped reading sci Fi after the era of Asimov and Bradbury. I’d be interested in comments on which modern, popular authors have written or produced AI fiction with the most intelligent treatment of the assignment issue (or related issues), to establish a baseline.
Reading your response I have to agree with you. I painted with too broad a brush there. Just because I don’t use elements the general public enjoys in my stories about benevolent AI doesn’t mean that’s the only way it can or has to be done.
Thinking about it now I’m sure stories could be written where there is plenty of action, conflict and romance, while also showing what getting alignment right would look like.
Thanks for raising this point. I think it’s an important clarification regarding the larger issue.
Netcentrica, in this letter your explicit opinion is that fiction with a deep treatment of the alignment problem will not be palatable to a wider audience. I think this is not necessarily true. I think that compelling fiction is perhaps the prime vector for engaging a wider, naive audience. Even the Hollywood treatment of I Robot touched on it and was popular. Not deep or nuanced, sure. But it was there. Maybe more intelligent treatments could succeed if produced with talent.
I mostly stopped reading sci Fi after the era of Asimov and Bradbury. I’d be interested in comments on which modern, popular authors have written or produced AI fiction with the most intelligent treatment of the assignment issue (or related issues), to establish a baseline.
Reading your response I have to agree with you. I painted with too broad a brush there. Just because I don’t use elements the general public enjoys in my stories about benevolent AI doesn’t mean that’s the only way it can or has to be done.
Thinking about it now I’m sure stories could be written where there is plenty of action, conflict and romance, while also showing what getting alignment right would look like.
Thanks for raising this point. I think it’s an important clarification regarding the larger issue.