This is one of those things that seems obvious but it did cause some things to click for me that I hadn’t thought of before. Previously my idea of AGI becoming uncontrollable was basically that somebody would make a superintelligent AGI in a box, and we would be able to unplug it anytime we wanted, and the real danger would be the AGI tricking us into not unplugging it and letting it out of the box instead. What changed this view was this line: “Try to unplug Bitcoin.” Once you think of it that way it does seem pretty obvious that the most powerful algorithms, the ones that would likely first become superintelligent, would be distributed and fault-tolerant, as you say, and therefore would not be in a box of any kind to begin with.
that the most powerful algorithms, the ones that would likely first become superintelligent, would be distributed and fault-tolerant, as you say, and therefore would not be in a box of any kind to begin with.
Algorithms don’t have a single “power” setting. It is easier to program a single computer than to make a distributed fault tolerant system. Algorithms like alpha go are run on a particular computer with an off switch, not spread around. Of course, a smart AI might soon load its code all over the internet, if it has access. But it would start in a box.
Funny you mention AlphaGo, since the first time AlphaGo(or indeed any computer) beat a professional go player(Fan Hui), it was distributed across multiple computers. Only later did it become strong enough to beat top players with only a single computer.
This is one of those things that seems obvious but it did cause some things to click for me that I hadn’t thought of before. Previously my idea of AGI becoming uncontrollable was basically that somebody would make a superintelligent AGI in a box, and we would be able to unplug it anytime we wanted, and the real danger would be the AGI tricking us into not unplugging it and letting it out of the box instead. What changed this view was this line: “Try to unplug Bitcoin.” Once you think of it that way it does seem pretty obvious that the most powerful algorithms, the ones that would likely first become superintelligent, would be distributed and fault-tolerant, as you say, and therefore would not be in a box of any kind to begin with.
Algorithms don’t have a single “power” setting. It is easier to program a single computer than to make a distributed fault tolerant system. Algorithms like alpha go are run on a particular computer with an off switch, not spread around. Of course, a smart AI might soon load its code all over the internet, if it has access. But it would start in a box.
Funny you mention AlphaGo, since the first time AlphaGo(or indeed any computer) beat a professional go player(Fan Hui), it was distributed across multiple computers. Only later did it become strong enough to beat top players with only a single computer.