Catastrophic Risks from AI #1: Introduction

By Dan H @ 2023-06-22T17:09 (+28)

This is a linkpost to https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.12001

This is a crosspost, probably from LessWrong. Try viewing it there.

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Dan H @ 2023-06-27T04:58 (+8)

A brief overview of the contents, page by page.

1: most important century and hinge of history

2: wisdom needs to keep up with technological power or else self-destruction / the world is fragile / cuban missile crisis

3: unilateralist's curse

4: bio x-risk

5: malicious actors intentionally building power-seeking AIs / anti-human accelerationism is common in tech

6: persuasive AIs and eroded epistemics

7: value lock-in and entrenched totalitarianism

8: story about bioterrorism

9: practical malicious use suggestions

10: LAWs as an on-ramp to AI x-risk

11: automated cyberwarfare -> global destablization

12: flash war, AIs in control of nuclear command and control

13: security dilemma means AI conflict can bring us to brink of extinction

14: story about flash war

15: erosion of safety due to corporate AI race

16: automation of AI research; autnomous/ascended economy; enfeeblement

17: AI development reinterpreted as evolutionary process

18: AI development is not aligned with human values but with competitive and evolutionary pressures

19: gorilla argument, AIs could easily outclass humans in so many ways

20: story about an autonomous economy

21: practical AI race suggestions

22: examples of catastrophic accidents in various industries

23: potential AI catastrophes from accidents, Normal Accidents

24: emergent AI capabilities, unknown unknowns

25: safety culture (with nuclear weapons development examples), security mindset

26: sociotechnical systems, safety vs. capabilities

27: safetywashing, defense in depth

28: story about weak safety culture

29: practical suggestions for organizational safety

30: more practical suggestions for organizational safety

31: bing and microsoft tay demonstrate how AIs can be surprisingly unhinged/difficult to steer

32: proxy gaming/reward hacking

33: goal drift

34: spurious cues can cause AIs to pursue wrong goals/intrinsification

35: power-seeking (tool use, self-preservation)

36: power-seeking continued (AIs with different goals could be uniquely adversarial)

37: deception examples

38: treacherous turns and self-awareness

39: practical suggestions for AI control

40: how AI x-risk relates to other risks

41: conclusion