News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:OpenAI: Introducing SuperAlignment by ben_w on Wednesday July 05, 2023 @06:37PM (#36608176)
You're seeing what you want to see.

They're repeatedly very specific about the whole "this can kill all of us if we do it wrong", so it's more than a little churlish to parrot the name "ClosedAI" when they're announcing hiring a researcher to figure out how to align with anyone, at all, even in principle.

Re:OpenAI: Introducing SuperAlignment by junon on Wednesday July 05, 2023 @07:56PM (#36608979)
I'm still a bit hung up on "it can kill all of us". How?
Re:OpenAI: Introducing SuperAlignment by ctoth on Wednesday July 05, 2023 @10:29PM (#36610275)
Here's an article[0] and a good short story[1] explaining exactly this.

[0]: No Physical Substrate, No Problem https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/04/07/no-physical-substrate-...

[1]: It Looks Like You're Trying To Take Over The World https://gwern.net/fiction/clippy

Re:OpenAI: Introducing SuperAlignment by junon on Thursday July 06, 2023 @03:26AM (#36612473)
The clippy example already starts out with many assumptions that simply aren't true today.

LLMs are not going to destroy humanity. We need a paradigm shift and a new model for AI for that to happen. ClosedAI is irresponsibly trying to create hype and mystery around their product, which always sells.

Re:OpenAI: Introducing SuperAlignment by ben_w on Thursday July 06, 2023 @04:14AM (#36612809)
Will you please stop calling them ClosedAI? That just comes across like a playground taunt, like "libtard" or "CONservative".
Re:OpenAI: Introducing SuperAlignment by junon on Friday July 07, 2023 @04:09AM (#36628705)
I'll call them what they are. Closed and antithetical to their original goals.
Re:OpenAI: Introducing SuperAlignment by ben_w on Thursday July 06, 2023 @03:25AM (#36612464)
Did you ever play the old "Pandemic" flash game? https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/Pandemic

Doing that would be self-destructive, but that doesn't mean it won't happen (reference classes: insanity, cancer).

If the AI can invent and order a von Neumann probe — the first part is the hard part, custom parts orders over the internet is already a thing — that it can upload itself to, then it can block out (and start disassembling) the sun in a matter of decades with reasonable-looking reproduction rates (though obviously we're guessing what reasonable looks like).

AI taking over brain implants and turning against everyone without them like a zombie war (also a plot device in web serial The Deathworlders, futuristic Sci-fi so this isn't on Earth, but the same AI genocides multiple species over millions of years).

Re:OpenAI: Introducing SuperAlignment by antifa on Thursday July 06, 2023 @07:25AM (#36614226)
To be realistic, I'm more worried about McDonald's or Musk doing all of that.
Re:OpenAI: Introducing SuperAlignment by ben_w on Thursday July 06, 2023 @10:54AM (#36616943)
They're an easy reference class, to be sure, though not the only one.

If I'm framing the problem for an anti-capitalist audience, I'd ask something like:

Imagine the billionaire you hate the most. The worst of them. Now give them a highly competent sycophant that doesn't need to sleep, and will do even their most insane requests without question or remorse…

what can go wrong in this scenario?

Re:OpenAI: Introducing SuperAlignment by gre345t34 on Thursday July 06, 2023 @04:37AM (#36612981)
It's like murder but scaled up.