Techno-Feudalism and the Erosion of Humanist Values

Connor Leahy and Gabriel Alfour, AI researchers from Conjecture and authors of "The Compendium," joinus for a critical discussion centered on Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) safety and governance. Drawing from their comprehensive analysis in "The Compendium," they articulate a stark warning about the existential risks inherent in uncontrolled AI development, framing it through the lens of "intelligence domination"—where a sufficiently advanced AI could subordinate humanity, much like humans dominate less intelligent species.

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TRANSCRIPT + REFS + NOTES:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/p86l75y4o2ii40df5t7no/Compendium.pdf?rlkey=tukczgf3flw133sr9rgss0pnj&dl=0

https://www.thecompendium.ai/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connor_Leahy

https://www.conjecture.dev/about

https://substack.com/@gabecc​

TOC:

1. AI Intelligence and Safety Fundamentals

[00:00:00] 1.1 Understanding Intelligence and AI Capabilities

[00:06:20] 1.2 Emergence of Intelligence and Regulatory Challenges

[00:10:18] 1.3 Human vs Animal Intelligence Debate

[00:18:00] 1.4 AI Regulation and Risk Assessment Approaches

[00:26:14] 1.5 Competing AI Development Ideologies

2. Economic and Social Impact

[00:29:10] 2.1 Labor Market Disruption and Post-Scarcity Scenarios

[00:32:40] 2.2 Institutional Frameworks and Tech Power Dynamics

[00:37:40] 2.3 Ethical Frameworks and AI Governance Debates

[00:40:52] 2.4 AI Alignment Evolution and Technical Challenges

3. Technical Governance Framework

[00:55:07] 3.1 Three Levels of AI Safety: Alignment, Corrigibility, and Boundedness

[00:55:30] 3.2 Challenges of AI System Corrigibility and Constitutional Models

[00:57:35] 3.3 Limitations of Current Boundedness Approaches

[00:59:11] 3.4 Abstract Governance Concepts and Policy Solutions

4. Democratic Implementation and Coordination

[00:59:20] 4.1 Governance Design and Measurement Challenges

[01:00:10] 4.2 Democratic Institutions and Experimental Governance

[01:14:10] 4.3 Political Engagement and AI Safety Advocacy

[01:25:30] 4.4 Practical AI Safety Measures and International Coordination

CORE REFS:

[00:01:45] The Compendium (2023), Leahy et al.

https://pdf.thecompendium.ai/the_compendium.pdf

[00:06:50] Geoffrey Hinton Leaves Google, BBC News

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65452940

[00:10:00] ARC-AGI, Chollet

https://arcprize.org/arc-agi

[00:13:25] A Brief History of Intelligence, Bennett

https://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Intelligence-Humans-Breakthroughs/dp/0063286343

[00:25:35] Statement on AI Risk, Center for AI Safety

https://www.safe.ai/work/statement-on-ai-risk

[00:26:15] Machines of Love and Grace, Amodei

https://darioamodei.com/machines-of-loving-grace

[00:26:35] The Techno-Optimist Manifesto, Andreessen

https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/

[00:31:55] Techno-Feudalism, Varoufakis

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Technofeudalism-Killed-Capitalism-Yanis-Varoufakis/dp/1847927270

[00:42:40] Introducing Superalignment, OpenAI

https://openai.com/index/introducing-superalignment/

[00:47:20] Three Laws of Robotics, Asimov

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Three-Laws-of-Robotics

[00:50:00] Symbolic AI (GOFAI), Haugeland

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_artificial_intelligence

[00:52:30] Intent Alignment, Christiano

https://www.alignmentforum.org/posts/HEZgGBZTpT4Bov7nH/mapping-the-conceptual-territory-in-ai-existential-safety

[00:55:10] Large Language Model Alignment: A Survey, Jiang et al.

http://arxiv.org/pdf/2309.15025

[00:55:40] Constitutional Checks and Balances, Bok

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/montesquieu/

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