Facing Superintelligence (with Ben Goertzel)

Show Notes

On this episode, Ben Goertzel joins me to discuss what distinguishes the current AI boom from previous ones, important but overlooked AI research, simplicity versus complexity in the first AGI, the feasibility of alignment, benchmarks and economic impact, potential bottlenecks to superintelligence, and what humanity should do moving forward.   

Timestamps:  

00:00:00 Preview and intro  

00:01:59 Thinking about AGI in the 1970s  

00:07:28 What's different about this AI boom?  

00:16:10 Former taboos about AGI 

00:19:53 AI research worth revisiting  

00:35:53 Will the first AGI be simple?  

00:48:49 Is alignment achievable?  

01:02:40 Benchmarks and economic impact  

01:15:23 Bottlenecks to superintelligence 

01:23:09 What should we do?

What is Future of Life Institute Podcast?

The Future of Life Institute (FLI) is a nonprofit working to reduce global catastrophic and existential risk from powerful technologies. In particular, FLI focuses on risks from artificial intelligence (AI), biotechnology, nuclear weapons and climate change. The Institute's work is made up of three main strands: grantmaking for risk reduction, educational outreach, and advocacy within the United Nations, US government and European Union institutions. FLI has become one of the world's leading voices on the governance of AI having created one of the earliest and most influential sets of governance principles: the Asilomar AI Principles.