Summary: In this episode I talk to Olle Häggström. Olle is a professor of mathematical statistics at Chalmers University of Technology and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (KVA) and of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA). Olle’s main research is in probability theory and statistical mechanics, but in recent years he has broadened his research interests to focus applied statistics, philosophy, climate science, artificial intelligence and social consequences of future technologies. He is the author of Here be Dragons: Science, Technology and the Future of Humanity (OUP 2016). We talk about AI motivations, specifically the Omohundro-Bostrom theory of AI motivation and its weaknesses. We also discuss AI risk denialism. You can download the episode here or listen below. You can also subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and a variety of other podcasting services (the RSS feed is here). Show Notes0:00 - Introduction2:02 - Do we need to define AI?4:15 - The Omohundro-Bostrom theory of AI motivation7:46 - Key concepts in the Omohundro-Bostrom Theory: Final Goals vs Instrumental Goals10:50 - The Orthogonality Thesis14:47 - The Instrumental Convergence Thesis20:16 - Resource Acquisition as an Instrumental Goal22:02 - The importance of goal-content integrity25:42 - Deception as an Instrumental Goal29:17 - How the doomsaying argument works31:46 - Critiquing the theory: the problem of self-referential final goals36:20 - The problem of incoherent goals42:44 - Does the truth of moral realism undermine the orthogonality thesis?50:50 - Problems with the distinction between instrumental goals and final goals57:52 - Why do some people deny the problem of AI risk?1:04:10 - Strong versus Weak AI Scepticism1:09:00 - Is it difficult to be taken seriously on this topic? Relevant LinksOlle's Blog Olle's webpage at Chalmers University'Challenges to the Omohundro-Bostrom framework for AI Motivations' by Olle (highly recommended)'The Superintelligent Will' by Nick Bostrom'The Basic AI Drives' by Stephen OmohundroOlle Häggström: Science, Technology, and the Future of Humanity (video)Olle Häggström and Thore Husveldt debate AI Risk (video)Summary of Bostrom's theory (by me)'Why AI doomsayers are like sceptical theists and why it matters' by me #mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; } /* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block. We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */ Subscribe to the newsletter
