The threat from AI is not that it will revolt, it’s that it’ll do exactly as it’s told | CBC Radio cbc.ca/radio/quirks/a… So interesting piece on CBC @CBCQuirks One point that was made is “we don’t have examples in nature of less capable, less powerful, less intelligent beings controlling more powerful, more capable, more intelligent beings.†But we do have an examples. Corporations and the economy. @cstross has pointed out that corporations can be thought of as slow AI’s. We attempt to regulate and control corporations with regulatory agencies (another slow AI to watch the other Slow AI’s) And Central Banks and international agencies like IMF and World Bank try to regulate the world economy. Also the Soviet Union attempted to centrally plan their (more) closed economies. Of course many (but not all ) people will also acknowledge that all of these attempts had many failures.
https://twitter.com/ianirving/status/1254095008015233029
To expand on my posted on Twitter (“the bird that ate blogging”)and threaded , a CBC Radio science program Quirks and Quarks segment “The threat from AI is not that it will revolt, it’s that it’ll do exactly as it’s told” discussed the issue of an obedient AI program doing exactly as instructed, rather than the more typical “skynet” scenario of rogue or disobedient, but with catastrophic side effects.
Charlie Stross, who is a good thinker, has blogged about Old, slow AI in 2017, and corporations are AIs 2019, where he also revealed Governments and Universities as a type of pre digital artificial intelligence. To which I would add the Catholic Church, aka The Vatican. (Possibly other large religious organizations?)
These human superorganisms all have objectives which they try to reach via their bureaucracy (a rules-based information processing system). Like all organisms, beyond a certain size their primary objective is to ensure their continued existence. (Is there a different Maslow’s hierarchy of needs for AI?) Prior to industrial capitalism (IC), they would have done this via military might (I’m looking at you East India Company), in a post IC world they do this via Financial means.
So how are these slow institutional intelligences regulated (even if poorly)? Currently, by other slow institutional regulatory agencies intelligences! National agencies and Government bodies (the congresses and parlements, central banks and other agencie ) of the largest nations watch and attempt to watch other the behavior of the superorganisms in and around them.