if you’re making or contributing to research that pushes the boundary of artificial intelligence, then… stop doing that.
Given that we currently don’t know how to build aligned AI, solving the AI Alignment problem by definition is going to require research that pushes the bounds of artificial intelligence. The advice you’re giving is basically that anyone concerned about AI Alignment should self-select out of doing that research. Which seems like the opposite of help.
Given that we currently don’t know how to build aligned AI, solving the AI Alignment problem by definition is going to require research that pushes the bounds of artificial intelligence.
This is an extraordinarily vague statement that is technically true but doesn’t imply anything you seem to think it means. There’s a fairly clear venn diagram between alignment research and capabilities research. On one side of the diagram is most things that make OpenAI more money and on the other side is Paul Christiano’s transparency stuff.
The advice you’re giving is basically that anyone concerned about AI Alignment should self-select out of doing that research.
If it’s the research that burns the capabilities commons while there’s lots of alignment tasks left to be done, or people to convince, then yes, that seems prudent.
There’s a fairly clear venn diagram between alignment research and capabilities research.
This appears to be the crux of our disagreement. I do not think the venn diagram is clear at all. But if I had to guess, I think there is a large overlap between “make an AI that doesn’t spew out racist garbage” and “make an AI that doesn’t murder us all”.
Given that we currently don’t know how to build aligned AI, solving the AI Alignment problem by definition is going to require research that pushes the bounds of artificial intelligence. The advice you’re giving is basically that anyone concerned about AI Alignment should self-select out of doing that research. Which seems like the opposite of help.
This is an extraordinarily vague statement that is technically true but doesn’t imply anything you seem to think it means. There’s a fairly clear venn diagram between alignment research and capabilities research. On one side of the diagram is most things that make OpenAI more money and on the other side is Paul Christiano’s transparency stuff.
If it’s the research that burns the capabilities commons while there’s lots of alignment tasks left to be done, or people to convince, then yes, that seems prudent.
This appears to be the crux of our disagreement. I do not think the venn diagram is clear at all. But if I had to guess, I think there is a large overlap between “make an AI that doesn’t spew out racist garbage” and “make an AI that doesn’t murder us all”.