OpenAI’s offices were sent thousands of paper clips in an elaborate prank to warn about an AI apocalypse::The prank was a reference to the “paper clip maximizer” scenario – the idea that AI could destroy humanity if it were told to build as many paper clips as possible.
I highly doubt that would ever happen.If this AI is building paperclips to overthrow humanity then someone is going to notice
You would think so, but you have to remember AGI is hyper-intelligent. Because it can constantly learn, build, and improve upon itself at an exponential rate it’s not only a little bit smarter than a human-- it’s smarter than every human combined. AGI would know that if it’s caught trying to maximizing paperclips humans would shut it down at the first sign something is wrong, so it would find unfathomably clever ways to avoid detection.
If you’re interested in the subject the YouTube channel Computerphile has a series of videos with Robert Miles that explain the importance of AI safety in an easy to understand way.
For a system to be advanced enough to be that dangerous, it would need the complex analogical thought that would prevent this type of misunderstanding. Rather, such dumb super intelligence is unlikely.
however, human society has enabled a paperclip maximizer in the form of profit maximizing corporate environments.
I’m more worried about what capital will do with the tech than the tech itself.
Its far more likely that wealth inequality will be greatly exasperated, and the philanthropic elite will become even more powerful while the “middle class” disappears entirely into a new bottom class that makes up most of humanity, Imperium of Man style.
The problem is the social unrest will be uncontrollable, and among their solutions will not only to be to micromanage the population, but also adjust its numbers by force.
So murder drones will just be sent to cull the masses down to a manageable number. This is the robot future Randall is concerned about in XKCD 1968.
Imagine if the police dogbots killed people and we couldn’t question why, nor had the power to resist. This is a problem being considered by AI ethicists. Also that AI will develop scarier ways to cull the population, possibly instigating the demise of their operating end users.
