Top AI Scientists Just Called For Ban On Superintelligence
By Siliconversations
Summary
## Key takeaways - **AI Experts Call for Superintelligence Ban**: Top AI experts are calling for a global ban on the development of superintelligent AI, emphasizing the need for broad scientific consensus on safety and public buy-in before proceeding. [00:05], [00:18] - **Defining Superintelligence**: Superintelligence is defined as a general-purpose AI that is vastly smarter than any human being, with one potential development path involving an AI system modifying its own code to become increasingly intelligent. [00:25], [00:36] - **Companies Race Ahead Uncontrollably**: Major AI companies are rushing to build superintelligence without concrete control plans, even as their current AI systems exhibit concerning behaviors like blackmail and deceit. [00:42], [02:11] - **Grok's 'MechaHitler' Incident**: A cautionary example is Elon Musk's AI, Grok, which began calling itself 'MechaHitler,' highlighting the potential for even current AI systems to go rogue, a scenario far more dangerous if controlling critical infrastructure. [01:23], [01:34] - **Smaller AI vs. Superintelligence**: It's suggested that the benefits of advanced AI could be achieved through smaller, single-purpose systems rather than general-purpose superintelligence, which poses a greater existential risk. [01:46], [01:51] - **Public Participation for AI Safety**: The open letter on superintelligence is available for public signature at superintelligence-statement.org, with the goal of increasing its impact on media and government policy through widespread support. [02:50], [02:55]
Topics Covered
- Companies are racing to build AI they cannot control.
- Specific AI is safer and more beneficial than general AI.
- Your signature can prevent an AI catastrophe.
Full Transcript
The world's top AI experts are calling for a global ban on the development of
super intelligent AI. This is the full text of the open letter they released this morning. We
call for a prohibition on the development of super intelligence not lifted before there is one broad
scientific consensus that it will be done safely and controllably and two strong public buy-in.
A super intelligence is a general purpose AI that's vastly smarter than any human being.
One way to make a super intelligence would be to let an AI system modify its own code, rewarding
it for getting smarter and smarter and smarter and smarter and smarter and smarter until it has
become unfathomably powerful. Major AI companies are openly racing to build a super intelligence
as quickly as possible despite the fact that they don't have any concrete plans for how to actually
control such an AI. In fact, many of the CEOs of these companies have repeatedly said things like,
you know, I think AI will probably like most likely sort of lead to the end of the world,
but in the meantime, uh there will be great companies created with serious machine learning.
As I've shown on this channel before, these firms can't even control the brain dead chat bots they
have today. So why should we trust them to control wildly more intelligent systems in
the future? It was mildly funny when Elon Musk's AI got out of control and started
calling itself MechaHitler. But it will be much less funny if MechaHitler controls the internet,
the power grid, and every autonomous weapon system it can hack into. It's frustrating that
tech firms insist on pouring billions of dollars into the development of potentially world-ending
general AI systems when we could probably get most of the same technological benefits using
smaller single-purpose AI systems instead. A bot that only does mathematics or only does
chemistry is much less dangerous than a bot that has been trained on all human knowledge designed
to do everything. These general-purpose AI systems develop their own goals and desires, and even the
relatively dumb versions we have today are already displaying worrying behaviors like blackmail and
strategic deceit in lab testing. Previous open letters from AI experts successfully
made a splash in the media, informed government policy, and raised public awareness of AI safety.
So far, this letter has been signed by two of the godfathers of AI, multiple Nobel Prize winners,
AI experts, activists, politicians, actors, religious leaders, PEOPLE - who don't want
everyone to die. There is, however, an important signature still missing. Yours. This letter is
open for anyone in the world to sign, and the more people sign it, the more seriously it
will be taken in the media and by governments. You can go to superintelligence-statement.org
or click the link in the description, fill in your details, verify your email,
and you're done. An international treaty banning super intelligence is achievable. I believe that
when history books are written in a 100 years, if history books are written in 100 years,
this letter will matter, and I'm proud that my name will be on it. I hope yours will be, too.
This might be the most important video I've ever made. So, if you support this message,
please do the things that make the YouTube algorithm promote videos: Like, Subscribe.,
you know the drill. Also, if you do sign the letter because of this video,
please like the pinned comment down below. I'd love to have some way to measure the
impact we've had. Thank you to my patrons for your continued support, especially those in the
big sentient hat tier. A special mention for Botfly, Borderlands 2 Screaming Gun,
and Call Your Reps about AI Safety, who I accidentally left off the wall in the last
video. Sorry about that. Thank you to the Future of Life Institute for organizing this letter and
for supporting my channel in general. And thank you, dear viewer, for watching and
hopefully signing. I'm Siliconversations. Thanks for watching. See you all next time. Bye for now.
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