Well, the AI industry and the pro-AI accelerationists believe that there is an ‘immense upside of AGI’, but that is a highly speculative, faith-based claim, IMHO. (The case for narrow AI having clear upsides is much stronger, I think.)
It’s worth noting that almost every R&D field that has been morally stigmatized—such as intelligence research, evolutionary psychology, and behavior genetics—also offered huge and transformative upsides to society, when the field first developed. Until they got crushed by political demonization, and their potential was strangled in the cradle, so to speak.
The public perception of likely relative costs vs. benefits is part of the moral stigmatization process. If AI gets stigmatized, the public will not believe that AGI has ‘immense upside’. And they might be right.
Maybe. But at the moment, the US is really the only significant actor in the AGI development space. Other nations are reacting in various ways, ranging from curious concern to geopolitical horror. But if we want to minimize risk of a nation-state AI arms races, the burden is on the US companies to Just Stop Unilaterally Driving The Arms Race.
Well, the AI industry and the pro-AI accelerationists believe that there is an ‘immense upside of AGI’, but that is a highly speculative, faith-based claim, IMHO. (The case for narrow AI having clear upsides is much stronger, I think.)
It’s worth noting that almost every R&D field that has been morally stigmatized—such as intelligence research, evolutionary psychology, and behavior genetics—also offered huge and transformative upsides to society, when the field first developed. Until they got crushed by political demonization, and their potential was strangled in the cradle, so to speak.
The public perception of likely relative costs vs. benefits is part of the moral stigmatization process. If AI gets stigmatized, the public will not believe that AGI has ‘immense upside’. And they might be right.
I think as capabilities increase at least one nation will view developing safe AGI as a requirement in their national security strategy.
Maybe. But at the moment, the US is really the only significant actor in the AGI development space. Other nations are reacting in various ways, ranging from curious concern to geopolitical horror. But if we want to minimize risk of a nation-state AI arms races, the burden is on the US companies to Just Stop Unilaterally Driving The Arms Race.