Remember Midas? Professor Stuart Russell did In his first BBC Reith Lecture about Artificial Intelligence last week. Midas had asked the gods that everything he touched be turned to gold. So it was, leaving Midas gasping for food or drink. Then there was the sorcerer’s apprentice. The apprentice asked the brooms to help him bring water but didn’t specify any limits. The water kept coming until he was drowning in it. Russell’s point is that AI is like this. The issue isn’t its power. What matters most is the objectives we set it. Wherever we set narrow objectives and ignore wider consequences, we destroy balance. The threat with us now. It isn’t really posed by AI. The true enemy is a focus by companies on maximising, not optimising. Read the rest here.
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