Eliezer’s position is somewhat more nuanced than that. He admits a possibility of a FOOM timescale on the order of seconds, but a timescale on the order of weeks/months/years is also in line with the IE thesis.
FOOM on the order of seconds can be strongly argued against (Eli does a fair job of it himself, but likes to leave everything open so he can cite himself later no matter what happens), and if it’s weeks/months/years, then Hit Control C. Seriously. If your computer is trying to take over the world and is likely to succeed in the next few weeks, then kill −9 the thing. I realize that at that point you’ve likely got other AIs to worry about, but at least you’re in a position to understand it well enough to have some hope at making yours friendly and re-activating it before Skynet goes live. (I know Eli has counters to this, and counter-counters, and counter-counter-counters, but so do I—I just don’t assume you’ll be interested in hearing them. The main point here really is that the original statement wasn’t so much hyperbole as refreshingly concise—whether or not you agree with it.)
Eliezer’s position is somewhat more nuanced than that. He admits a possibility of a FOOM timescale on the order of seconds, but a timescale on the order of weeks/months/years is also in line with the IE thesis.
FOOM on the order of seconds can be strongly argued against (Eli does a fair job of it himself, but likes to leave everything open so he can cite himself later no matter what happens), and if it’s weeks/months/years, then Hit Control C. Seriously. If your computer is trying to take over the world and is likely to succeed in the next few weeks, then kill −9 the thing. I realize that at that point you’ve likely got other AIs to worry about, but at least you’re in a position to understand it well enough to have some hope at making yours friendly and re-activating it before Skynet goes live. (I know Eli has counters to this, and counter-counters, and counter-counter-counters, but so do I—I just don’t assume you’ll be interested in hearing them. The main point here really is that the original statement wasn’t so much hyperbole as refreshingly concise—whether or not you agree with it.)