US government commission pushes Manhattan Project-style AI initiative
By Larks @ 2024-11-19T16:22 (+76)
This is a linkpost to https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/us-government-commission-pushes-manhattan-project-style-ai-initiative-2024-11-19/
A U.S. congressional commission on Tuesday proposed a Manhattan Project-style initiative to fund the development of AI systems that will be as smart or smarter than humans, amid intensifying competition with China over advanced technologies.
The bipartisan U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission’s (USCC) stressed that public-private partnerships are key in advancing artificial general intelligence (AGI), but did not give any specific investment strategies as it released its annual report.
Full report: https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/2024-11/2024_Annual_Report_to_Congress.pdf
sapphire @ 2024-11-20T08:20 (+14)
I spent all day crying about this. An arms race is about the least safe way to approach. And we contributed to this. Many important people read Leopold's report. He promoted it quite hard. But the background work predates Leopold's involvement.
We were totally careless and self aggrandizing. I hope other people don't pay for our sins.
Sharmake @ 2024-11-20T16:51 (+11)
This sounds very much like the missile gap/bomber gap narrative, and yeah this is quite bad news if they actually adopt the commitments pushed here.
The evidence that China is racing to AGI is quite frankly very little, and I see a very dangerous arms race that could come:
MichaelDickens @ 2024-11-20T16:25 (+8)
I spent all day crying about this. An arms race is about the least safe way to approach.
I feel that. This report saddens me and I think its recommendations are very bad.
And we contributed to this.
I don't feel that I contributed to this. Perhaps I could have done more to prevent it, although it's not obvious to me what I could have done.
akash 🔸 @ 2024-11-20T18:36 (+3)
And we contributed to this.
What makes you say this? I agree that it is likely that Aschenbrenner's report was influential here, but did we make Aschenbrenner write chapter IIId of Situational Awareness the way he did?
But the background work predates Leopold's involvement.
Is there some background EA/aligned work that argues for an arms race? Because the consensus seems to be against starting a great power war.
Habryka @ 2024-11-20T18:52 (+15)
I think a non-trivial fraction of Aschenbrenner's influence as well as intellectual growth is due to us and the core EA/AI-Safety ideas, yeah. I doubt he would have written it if the extended community didn't exist, and if he wasn't mentored by Holden, etc.
MathiasKB🔸 @ 2024-11-20T09:01 (+11)
How big a deal is the congressional commission? What is the historical track record of Congress implementing the commission's top recommendation?
With hindsight, this comment from Jan Kulveit looks prescient.
David Mathers🔸 @ 2024-11-20T09:41 (+2)
My gut instinct, given how Trump seems to view the world (i.e. in terms of personal loyalty to him) is that Ivanaka Trump re-tweeting Situational Awareness may actually have been a more significant moment.