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#141 – Richard Ngo on large language models, OpenAI, and striving to make the future go well

80,000 Hours Podcast

INSIGHT

Situational Awareness in AI

Situational awareness in AI involves applying abstract knowledge to the agent's context, crucial for choosing effective actions. Currently, AI systems lack strong situational awareness, unlike humans who routinely apply it in everyday scenarios. Even advanced AI like StarCraft playing agents lack the awareness of their own existence within a larger context. Language models, while possessing abstract knowledge about their own nature and training, struggle to apply this knowledge to their responses. However, future assistant AIs will necessitate situational awareness to understand capabilities, user expectations, instructions, and limitations to be truly helpful. This includes awareness of the operating context, expectations, functionalities, constraints, and overall limitations.

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