Gentleness and the artificial Other

(Cross-posted from my website. Audio version here, or search "Joe Carlsmith Audio" on your podcast app.

This is the first essay in a series that I’m calling “Otherness and control in the age of AGI.” See here for more about the series as a whole.)

When species meet

The most succinct argument for AI risk, in my opinion, is the “second species” argument. Basically, it goes like this.

Premise 1: AGIs would be like a second advanced species on earth, more powerful than humans.

Conclusion: That's scary.

To be clear: this is very far from airtight logic.[1] But I like the intuition pump. Often, if I only have two sentences to explain AI risk, I say this sort of species stuff. “Chimpanzees should be careful about inventing humans.” Etc.[2]

People often talk about aliens here, too. “What if you learned that aliens [...]

The original text contained 12 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
January 2nd, 2024

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/mzvu8QTRXdvDReCAL/gentleness-and-the-artificial-other

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.