Superintelligence

With recent advances in large language models such as GPT-4, it is predicted that AI capabilities in terms of general decision making and problem solving may exceed that of humans even in less than a decade. Is this good or bad news?

This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand and navigate this difficult topic. Of particular interest are Bostrom’s two groundbreaking observations: the orthogonality thesis (any level of intelligence can be combined with any final goal) and the instrumental convergence thesis (any sufficiently non-trivial final goal will also create instrumental goals of self-preservation, efficiency, creativity, and… show more.

I highly recommend the book Superintelligence to anyone interested in the future of artificial intelligence and its potential impact on humanity.

In this book, Bostrom asks thought-provoking questions about what might happen if machines surpass humans in general intelligence and become extremely powerful, possibly beyond our control. He explores the possibilities of a "seed AI" and how to make its intelligence explosion survivable while addressing the control problem.

What I found particularly interesting is Bostrom's philosophical approach to the subject. He raises deep and interesting issues that are not yet clear to us after thousands of years and that are… show more.

Bostrom has said, for a long time, that Kurzweil is half right.

If we get AGI, the outcome could be absolutely wonderful. But it could also be terrible. He warns about the possibility not so much of a superintelligence going rogue—like Skynet, or HAL in 2001—but more simply of an immensely powerful entity that would not set out to damage us but have goals that could do us harm.

I saved the most sobering and existentially terrifying book for last. This is the book that made Elon Musk famously tweet that strong A.I. is more dangerous than “nukes.” 

On the flip side, strong A.I. (superhuman level intelligence) is an extraordinary concept that, once one accepts its almost certain inevitability, is worldview altering.  

It’s also existentially horrific when one stops to examine the odds of successfully creating and remaining in control of an intelligence greater than ours. 

Bostrom takes us through the problem and, for every solution he postulates, he demonstrates the several ways this hypothetical A.I. would circumvent them.… show more.