Joscha Bach on how to stop worrying and love AI
The Inside View
Introduction
This chapter explores the potential of AI to create a world without suffering and the impact of beliefs on our perception of artificial intelligence. It also introduces an upcoming conversation with Joshua Bach.
Joscha Bach (who defines himself as an AI researcher/cognitive scientist) has recently been debating existential risk from AI with Connor Leahy (previous guest of the podcast), and since their conversation was quite short I wanted to continue the debate in more depth.
The resulting conversation ended up being quite long (over 3h of recording), with a lot of tangents, but I think this gives a somewhat better overview of Joscha’s views on AI risk than other similar interviews. We also discussed a lot of other topics, that you can find in the outline below.
A raw version of this interview was published on Patreon about three weeks ago. To support the channel and have access to early previews, you can subscribe here: https://www.patreon.com/theinsideview
Youtube: https://youtu.be/YeXHQts3xYM
Transcript: https://theinsideview.ai/joscha
Host: https://twitter.com/MichaelTrazzi
Joscha: https://twitter.com/Plinz
OUTLINE
(00:00) Intro
(00:57) Why Barbie Is Better Than Oppenheimer
(08:55) The relationship between nuclear weapons and AI x-risk
(12:51) Global warming and the limits to growth
(20:24) Joscha’s reaction to the AI Political compass memes
(23:53) On Uploads, Identity and Death
(33:06) The Endgame: Playing The Longest Possible Game Given A Superposition Of Futures
(37:31) On the evidence of delaying technology leading to better outcomes
(40:49) Humanity is in locust mode
(44:11) Scenarios in which Joscha would delay AI
(48:04) On the dangers of AI regulation
(55:34) From longtermist doomer who thinks AGI is good to 6x6 political compass
(01:00:08) Joscha believes in god in the same sense as he believes in personal selves
(01:05:45) The transition from cyanobacterium to photosynthesis as an allegory for technological revolutions
(01:17:46) What Joscha would do as Aragorn in Middle-Earth
(01:25:20) The endgame of brain computer interfaces is to liberate our minds and embody thinking molecules
(01:28:50) Transcending politics and aligning humanity
(01:35:53) On the feasibility of starting an AGI lab in 2023
(01:43:19) Why green teaming is necessary for ethics
(01:59:27) Joscha's Response to Connor Leahy on "if you don't do that, you die Joscha. You die"
(02:07:54) Aligning with the agent playing the longest game
(02:15:39) Joscha’s response to Connor on morality
(02:19:06) Caring about mindchildren and actual children equally
(02:20:54) On finding the function that generates human values
(02:28:54) Twitter And Reddit Questions: Joscha’s AGI timelines and p(doom)
(02:35:16) Why European AI regulations are bad for AI research
(02:38:13) What regulation would Joscha Bach pass as president of the US
(02:40:16) Is Open Source still beneficial today?
(02:42:26) How to make sure that AI loves humanity
(02:47:42) The movie Joscha would want to live in
(02:50:06) Closing message for the audience
The AI-powered Podcast Player
