Reviews
December 2018
Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom (2014)
28th December 2018
A comprehensive review the existential risk posed by Artificial Intelligence and in particular by the possibility of a rapid intelligence explosion, and strategies to mitigate this risk.
Concludes that although the timing and form of Superintelligence is uncertain, the risks are real and argues that urgent research into various problems is needed to allow us to take precautionary steps.
AI Toy Control Problem - Stuart Armstrong (2017)
29th December 2018
A short animated YouTube video that illustrates the AI Control problem by using a simple AI agent which has a goal that is slightly misaligned with its creator's goal.
A key point is that this shows an AI with sufficient planning skills can discover deceitful behaviour which evades safety provisions. if this improves realisation of its goal, without there being any implication of self-awareness or of independent will in the agent.
Interview by Lex Fridman - Steven Pinker (2018)
30th December 2018
Pinker says that two kinds of existential threat have been discussed and he claims that both are incoherent, and furthermore that it's not worth spending too much time worrying about this because engineering culture is to test systems before using them.
Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker (2018)
The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress
31st December 2018
Presents a positive vision of a new Age of Enlightenment in which human intelligence and culture is shown to be improving the lot of humanity.
This vision is presented as a counterpoint to what Pinker sees as all too prevalent intellectual pessimism, but sadly it ends up becoming smug, unenlightened sneering at other contemporary intellectual discovery.