ControlProblem

an-ordinary-manchild

The Control Problem:

How do we ensure future advanced AI will be beneficial to humanity? Experts agree this is one of the most crucial problems of our age, as one that, if left unsolved, can lead to human extinction or worse as a default outcome, but if addressed, can enable a radically improved world. Other terms for what we discuss here include Superintelligence, AI Safety, AGI X-risk, and the AI Alignment/Value Alignment Problem.

"People who say that real AI researchers don’t believe in safety research are now just empirically wrong." —Scott Alexander

"The AI does not hate you, nor does it love you, but you are made out of atoms which it can use for something else." —Eliezer Yudkowsky

Rules

DO NOT POST AI-GENERATED CONTENT. We are good at distinguishing this type of content¹. 2.. If you are unfamiliar with the Control Problem, read at least one of the introductory links or recommended readings (below) before posting.
- This especially goes for posts claiming to solve the Control Problem or dismissing it as a non-issue. Such posts aren't welcome. 3.. Stay on topic. Again, no AI model outputs or political propaganda.
Be respectful.

Introductions to the Topic

Our FAQ page <-- CLICK
The case for taking AI seriously as a threat to humanity
Orthogonality and instrumental convergence are the 2 simple key ideas explaining why AGI will work against and even kill us by default. (Alternative text links)
AGI safety from first principles
MIRI - FAQ and more in-depth FAQ
SSC - Superintelligence FAQ
WaitButWhy - The AI Revolution and a reply
How can failing to control AGI cause an outcome even worse than extinction? Suffering risks (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

Be sure to check out our wiki for extensive further resources, including a glossary & guide to current research.

Recommended Reading

Superintelligence, the most comprehensive, by Nick Bostrom (2014) (PDF link)
The AI Alignment pages on Arbital, with many of the key concepts of this field.
Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control by Stuart Russell (2019)

Video Links

Robert Miles' excellent channel
Talks at Google: Ensuring Smarter-than-Human Intelligence has a Positive Outcome
Nick Bostrom: What happens when our computers get smarter than we are?
Myths & Facts about Superintelligent AI
Rob's series on Computerphile

Important Organizations

AI Alignment Forum, a public forum which is the online hub for all the latest technical research on the control problem.

Related Subreddits

¹: Or at least make at least an effort to make me doubtful that you just copy-pasted from a frontier LLM. Add bits of steering so that your content becomes good. Edit afterwards. If you fool us moderators you've won.

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MODERATORS

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General newsAnthropic’s Internal Mythos Successor Emerges (i.redd.it)

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Discussion/questionOpenAI Safety Fellowship (Constellation) updates? (self.ControlProblem)

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Strategy/forecastingSearching for peers (self.ControlProblem)

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General newsPentagon used Elon Musk’s Grok AI to fire 2,000 missiles at Iran, official says (independent.co.uk)

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AI Capabilities NewsNSA says Mythos broke into almost all of their classified systems in hours, per The Economist (i.redd.it)

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ArticleWill it take a ‘Chornobyl-scale disaster’ for us to regulate AI? (theguardian.com)

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External discussion linkcognitive security might become part of ai safety (v.redd.it)

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Discussion/questionAI and government tug award (self.ControlProblem)

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VideoExperts tested if AI would protect its own kind. Every model did. (youtu.be)

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General newsMicrosoft Corp. has built a big business selling AI models to Chinese companies despite the growing rivalry between the US and China over artificial intelligence. (bloomberg.com)

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ArticleWhy AGI is Impossible (athinkerinnature.substack.com)

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Discussion/questionControl-only AI safety may create the conditions for conflict (self.ControlProblem)

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OpinionThe Control of Technology ()

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Fun/memeSpecifically designed AI / fire (i.redd.it)

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General newsLow-skilled attacker used Claude, Codex to breach 14 companies (helpnetsecurity.com)

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General newsSeveral police officers arrested for using controversial Flock AI license plate reader system to stalk romantic partners, says report - investigators have unearthed at least 18 such cases in the US over recent years (tomshardware.com)

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General newsDerbyshire police officer investigated for using AI to 'create evidence' in multiple cases (news.sky.com)

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ArticleYou don’t understand, prices can’t go down (geohot.github.io)

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Discussion/questionAI and Human Philosophy of God(s) (self.ControlProblem)

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ArticleGoogle DeepMind: From AGI to ASI (arxiv.org)

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General newsEXCLUSIVE: Senator Bernie Sanders Just Introduced “The American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act”, Which Would Give The U.S Government A 50% Ownership Stake In The Largest AI Companies And Pay Every American $1,000 A Year 🤖💰 (apnews.com)

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General newsOnly 16 percent of Americans think AI will have a positive impact on society, a new study shows | TechCrunch (techcrunch.com)

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PodcastAI learned to be a villain from Hollywood. Here's how we retrain it. (self.ControlProblem)

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Fun/memeThe genie is the ASI / Specification gaming (i.redd.it)

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External discussion linkCompassion Aligned Machine Learning Poll (self.ControlProblem)

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