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167 - Eliezer is Wrong. We’re NOT Going to Die with Robin Hanson

Bankless

Bankless

Tech News, Technology, News

4.71.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2023

⏱️ 102 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this highly anticipated sequel to our 1st AI conversation with Eliezer Yudkowsky, we bring you a thought-provoking discussion with Robin Hanson, a professor of economics at George Mason University and a research associate at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University. 

Eliezer painted a chilling and grim picture of a future where AI ultimately kills us all​. Robin is here to provide a different perspective.

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✨ DEBRIEF | Unpacking the episode: 
https://www.bankless.com/debrief-robin-hanson  
 
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In this episode, we explore:

- Why Robin believes Eliezer is wrong and that we're not all going to die from an AI takeover. But will we potentially become their pets instead?
- The possibility of a civil war between multiple AIs and why it's more likely than being dominated by a single superintelligent AI.
- Robin's concerns about the regulation of AI and why he believes it's a greater threat than AI itself.
- A fascinating analogy: why Robin thinks alien civilizations might spread like cancer?
- Finally, we dive into the world of crypto and explore Robin's views on this rapidly evolving technology.

Whether you're an AI enthusiast, a crypto advocate, or just someone intrigued by the big-picture questions about humanity and its prospects, this episode is one you won't want to miss.

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Topics Covered

0:00 Intro
8:42 How Robin is Weird
10:00 Are We All Going to Die?
13:50 Eliezer’s Assumption 
25:00 Intelligence, Humans, & Evolution 
27:31 Eliezer Counter Point 
32:00 Acceleration of Change 
33:18 Comparing & Contrasting Eliezer’s Argument
35:45 A New Life Form
44:24 AI Improving Itself
47:04 Self Interested Acting Agent 
49:56 Human Displacement? 
55:56 Many AIs 
1:00:18 Humans vs. Robots 
1:04:14 Pause or Continue AI Innovation?
1:10:52 Quiet Civilization 
1:14:28 Grabby Aliens 
1:19:55 Are Humans Grabby?
1:27:29 Grabby Aliens Explained 
1:36:16 Cancer 
1:40:00 Robin’s Thoughts on Crypto 
1:42:20 Closing & Disclaimers 

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Resources:

Robin Hanson
https://twitter.com/robinhanson 

Eliezer Yudkowsky on Bankless
https://www.bankless.com/159-were-all-gonna-die-with-eliezer-yudkowsky 

What is the AI FOOM debate?
https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/the-hanson-yudkowsky-ai-foom-debate 

Age of Em book - Robin Hanson
https://ageofem.com/ 

Grabby Aliens
https://grabbyaliens.com/ 

Kurzgesagt video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDSf2h9_39I&t=1s 

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Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.

Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures 

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

One of the most striking features of our world are the mechanisms we use to keep that piece

0:04.7

and the coordinate among all these divergent conflicting things.

0:08.4

And one of the moves that often AI people make to spend scenarios is just to assume that

0:12.7

AI's have none of that problem.

0:15.6

AI's do not need to coordinate.

0:16.8

They do not have conflicts between them.

0:18.5

They don't have internal conflicts.

0:19.9

They do not have any issues in how to organize and how to keep the piece between them.

0:25.8

None of that's a problem for AI's by assumption.

0:28.1

They're just these other things that has no such problems and then of course that leads

0:32.0

to scenarios like that they kill us all.

0:36.7

Welcome to Bankless, where we explore the frontier of internet money and internet finance

0:41.2

and also AI.

0:42.2

This is how to get started, how to get better, how to frontrun the opportunity.

0:45.8

This is Ryan Chan Adams.

0:46.8

I'm here with David Hoffman and we are here to help you become more bankless.

0:50.6

Guys, we promised another AI episode after episode with Ellie's, and here it is, here's

0:55.7

the sequel.

0:56.7

The last episode of Ellie's, or Kowski, we titled correctly, we're all going to die because

1:02.2

that's basically what he said.

1:03.8

I left that episode with a lot of misgivings, existential dread.

1:08.6

Yeah, existential dread and it was not good news in that episode and I was having a difficulty

...

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