Building Small AI Companions

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