Stuart Buck

Karma: −10

Stuart Buck 15 Dec 2023 21:55 UTC
8 points
0
on: “AI Alignment” is a Dangerously Overloaded Term
I said on Twitter a while back that much of the discussion about “alignment” seems vacuous. After all, alignment to what?
- The designer’s intent? Often that is precisely the problem with software. It does exactly and literally what the designer programmed, however shortsighted. Plus, some designers may themselves be malevolent.
- Aligned with human values? One of the most universal human values is tribalism, including willingness to oppress or kill the outgroup.
- Aligned with “doing good things”? Whose definition of “good”?

Stuart Buck 31 Oct 2023 1:11 UTC
0 points
0
on: Will releasing the weights of large language models grant widespread access to pandemic agents?
My reaction on Twitter: https://twitter.com/stuartbuck1/status/1719152472558555481

Stuart Buck 26 Apr 2023 1:34 UTC
−3 points
on: Thoughts on the Singularity Institute (SI)
This post seems even more relevant and true now, in 2023.

Stuart Buck 2 Apr 2023 0:33 UTC
−14 points
−22
on: Shutting down AI is not enough. We need to destroy all technology.
This makes as much as sense (probably more) than anything Eliezer has said recently...

Stuart Buck 22 Apr 2022 12:55 UTC
1 point
on: Ideal governance (for companies, countries and more)
Here’s an interesting example of a fairly unique governance arrangement: https://issues.org/revisiting-nsf-nsb-science-advice-olds-rosenberg-robichaud/

Stuart Buck 7 Apr 2022 23:23 UTC
1 point
in reply to: max_shen’s comment on: Ideal governance (for companies, countries and more)
Ostrom is great, obviously. In fact, I forgot how thoroughly I summarized a good bit of that literature in a 2001 piece: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=268744

Stuart Buck 5 Apr 2022 19:48 UTC
4 points
on: Ideal governance (for companies, countries and more)
I recently stumbled across a sociology classic of sorts: Paul J. DiMaggio and Walter W. Powell, “The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields” (American Sociological Review, 1983). https://www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/ifi/INF9200/v10/readings/papers/DeMaggio.pdf
“We ask...why there is such startling homogeneity of organizational forms and practices.”
The main answer: “We identify three mechanisms through which institutional isomorphic change occurs...: 1) coercive isomorphism that stems from political influence and the problem of legitimacy; 2) mimetic isomorphism resulting from standard responses to uncertainty; and 3) normative isomorphism, associated with professionalization.”