It's a tough book for me to wade through.....but then this subject is not easy for me.....but if you are computer literate then you may read it like I read a prophecy book. I was in Barnes & Noble at 10:00 yesterday....Tuesday is when the new releases are put on the shelf....and purchased two of these books....one for me and one for a friend who works in artificial intelligence.
There are twenty-one blurbs for the book....dominated by AI professionals....and national security folks....and physicists. The title and subtitle makes no bones about where the authors are coming from....If Anyone Build It, Everyone Dies....Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All....and the authors are well-known and long-time experts in the field....Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares.
I could not possibly get too in-depth in describing their analysis but I can weigh in on their warning. Let me put it this way....as I believe they explained it concerning where artificial intelligence may be going. They use the concept of...."want"....where will AI....want to go....as its speedy evolution continues? The professionals as they build AI know where they want to send it....or what they themselves want it to develop as....but as AI builds upon itself....and develops somewhat as an...."alien mind"....."grown" rather than "crafted"....by the very nature of the evolution....it will go where its increased capabilities lead it....or in other words....develop their own...."preferences."
Here is where the...."want"....comes in. The authors are concerned with....super artificial intelligence....as opposed to what exists right now....for it is this superintelligence that will be smarter than humans. Nothing can be predicted as to exactly where AI will go other than it will go somewhere....and it will make its own choices on where to go.
I have only done this a few times of the many years of posting....review a book before I even finished it....this because of the importance of the subject matter....as I hope that some readers will go right out as I did and purchase the warning. As you might have noticed in that I was at Barnes & Noble at 10:00 AM....I do not waste time....because we have no time left to waste.
I did a little bit of research on the authors. One of them was a modern orthodox Jew....but today is a secular Jew....and the other was as a young child....a devoted Catholic....but has since lost his faith. Although the book is necessary....as I believe...what limits the authors is that they cannot put God into the equation.....(not yet anyway)....and therefore they themselves are limited in the possible supernatural effect on superintelligence.
Note: I may amend or add to this post as I work my way through this book.
Afterthoughts: The authors use what they call...."parables"....throughout the book....quite interesting and intriguing storylines to help further the discussion....and I came up with a parable of my own....where the West....has developed it's superintelligence AI.....but the China faction had developed its own superintelligence AI. Both AIs deemed that there could only be one super intelligent AI if the whole world were to prosper and progress. The result would be that the two superhuman AIs would war against each other?
