Luke Muehlhauser

Pinker still confused about AI risk

May 26, 2015 by Luke 5 Comments

Ack! Steven Pinker still thinks AI risk worries are worries about malevolent AI, despite multiple attempts to correct his misimpression:

John Lily: Silicon Valley techies are divided about whether to be fearful or dismissive of the idea of new super intelligent AI… How would you approach this issue?

Steven Pinker: …I think it’s a fallacy to conflate the ability to reason and solve problems with the desire to dominate and destroy, which sci-fi dystopias and robots-run-amok plots inevitably do. It’s a projection of evolved alpha-male psychology onto the concept of intelligence… So I don’t think that malevolent robotics is one of the world’s pressing problems.

Will someone please tell him to read… gosh, anything on the issue that isn’t a news story? He could also watch this talk by Stuart Russell if that’s preferable.

Filed Under: Quotes

Comments

  1. Ryan Carey says

    May 28, 2015 at 4:35 pm

    I predict he’ll update. 🙂

    Reply
  2. Simon says

    August 17, 2016 at 6:37 am

    As of August 12 2016 he still hasn’t: http://bigthink.com/videos/steven-pinker-on-artificial-intelligence-apocalypse

    Reply
  3. Pablo Stafforini says

    March 21, 2017 at 9:25 am

    The first link is dead. You can access the Pinker Q&A here:

    http://parlio.com/qa/steven-pinker/answer/555cb2b6e4b033c5f8aff4ea

    Reply
    • Pablo Stafforini says

      March 21, 2017 at 10:31 am

      Actually, that URL links to a different (though related) answer. Here’s the most relevant link:

      http://www.parlio.com/qa/steven-pinker/answer/5560aee6e4b0a0f6a7276cf9

      Incidentally, Pinker originally wrote that as an answer to a Quora question, a couple of weeks earlier:

      https://www.quora.com/How-will-the-evolution-of-biological-species-compare-to-that-of-integrated-technologically-dependent-ones/answer/Steven-Pinker

      Reply
  4. nshepperd says

    February 14, 2018 at 6:57 pm

    Three years later… https://www.popsci.com/robot-uprising-enlightenment-now

    I’m embarrassed for him 🙁

    Reply

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