Guest: Dr. John Brandenburg; Topics: AI, John's book, "The War of the Singularity: The Human Race is Cancelled," the risks and dangers of artificial intelligence, containing it and more.
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We welcomed Dr. John Brandenburg back to this show so that he could point out and stress the risks and dangers of our continued development and use of artificial intelligence (AI). This program was to be an Open Lines program but when Dr. B called during the week, he said it was imperative that he talked with us on this subject ASAP. Thus, I gave him the air time rather than doing an Open Lines Show.
You can follow along with the Tags (repeated below for your convenience) as to major discussion topics but there were multiple callers and email comments with many listeners challenging Dr. B as to the fear and dangers re AI. These listeners did not see the threats from AI at the same level John was talking about. As you listen to the discussion, let us know what you think re AI by posting on our blog for this show. Here are the tags;
Tags: Dr. John Brandenburg, The War of the Singularity: The Human Race is Cancelled, Artificial Intelligence (AI), space opera, AI Elon, the Bible, Joshua 8:8, destroying AI, artificial intelligence dangers and risks, AI and risks to humanity, loss of liberty, AI genie out of the bottle, China and AI, rogue nations with AI, self replicating machines, gray goo, machine learning benefits, AI as sentient beings, AI containment, Geoffrey Hinton, AI as a dangerous pathogen, containment as any other high risk virus, robots replacing children & pets, self-driving cars, cultural conflicts, atrophy of the mind, transparency, why assume the worst, enhancing natural consciousness, computers with consciousness, AI and emotions, Eliezer Yudkowsky.
Note that among the references cited by John along with the callers was Eliezer Yudkowsky. As it turned out, Yudkowsky posted a new article on the risks of AI calling for it to be shut down. I posted it on the blog for your perusal. Let us know what you think by posting your thoughts on the blog.
During the discussion, Dr. B pointed out that he was religious. He then cited biblical references for destroying AI which can be found in Joshua 8 vs. 8. He also mentioned biblical references to the "Great" Elon. We don't usually get biblical references from a Space Show guest or listener so I thought it was worth highlighting these particular Dr. B comments. As for the AI discussion, much of it was devoted to how one might stop it because so to speak, the genie is already out of the bottle. Multiple listeners pointed out that even if the U.S. did curtain AI for six months or longer, China and others would continue with it. This prompted John to talk about his containment ideas. He said that existing AI could be contained like a virus with special labs, also like containment with a nuclear reactor for power generation. Most listeners did not believe AI could be contained, even by some of the more extreme methods suggested by Dr. B. What do you think? Could it be contained were there a pause in the development or an attempt to destroy it as suggested by multiple authors and Dr. B? Let us know your thoughts by posting them on our blog.
John and listeners talked about the works and ideas of multiple people involved in the AI world. Examples were Sam Altman and Geoffrey Hinton. John referenced these and others extensively during the program.
Post your comments/questions on our blog for this show. You can reach Dr. Brandenburg through The Space Show.
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