No one in their right mind can deny the struggle to survive animates natural selection. Though it’s a bit misleading to say that ‘survival is paramount – and that every strategy serves that goal’: survival plays a crucial role in evolution, but it is not the ultimate goal. As emphasised by Charles Darwin’s theory of…
Note: this is by no means exhaustive. it’s focus is on western philosophy. I’ll expand and categorise more later… The earliest precursors to indirect normativity can be traced back to early philosophical discussions on how to ground moral decision-making in processes or frameworks rather than specific, static directives. While Nick Bostrom’s work on indirect normativity…
Implications for AI Safety and Indirect Normativity The challenge of understanding value space has moved from a philosophical curiosity to an urgent technical problem. As we approach the development of advanced artificial intelligence, the structure of value and our ability to specify it has become perhaps the most critical challenge facing humanity. This challenge assumes…
Will AI Ignore, Preserve or Improve on Our Values? Imagine a future where advanced AIs follow every instruction flawlessly – but humanity feels strangely adrift. Our tools are obedient, but the ‘soul’ of our civilisation feels absent. This is the hidden danger of V-risk – value erosion. In this post I explore what I explore…
Some people want to infuse AI with the codification of our existing moral judgements. CEV takes the idea a bit further. In short, CEV is a conceptual approach to aligning superintelligent AI by designing it to act according to an idealised version of what humans would want if they had more knowledge, were faster thinkers,…
The concept of a non-arbitrary objective value space offers a compelling framework for understanding how to navigate to more valuable worlds. This framework presupposes the existence of stance-independent normative truths – metaphysical/ontological, epistemic, scientific & ethical principles that rational agents will converge upon given sufficient cognitive sophistication [1]. Here I will mostly talk in relation…
Is self-interest by necessity the default motivation for all agents?Will Superintelligence necessarily become a narcissistic utility monster? No, self-interest is not necessarily the default motivation of all agents. While self-interest is a common and often foundational drive in many agents (biological or artificial), other motivations can and do arise, either naturally or through design, depending…
Capability Control: The Tool or Slave Model Capability control focuses on limiting what an AI can do, rather than shaping why it does it. The idea is to ensure AI systems behave predictably and stay within strict bounds – like a powerful but obedient tool. This includes: In this model, the AI is treated less…
Concerning sentient AI, we would like to avoid unnecessary suffering in artificial systems. It’s hard for biological systems like humans to turn off suffering without appropriate pharmacology i.e. from aspirin to anesthetics etc. AI may be able to self administer pain killers – a kind of wireheading in reverse. Similarly to wireheading in AI systems…
There is so much wrong with the world right now – I don’t know where to begin. I wake up early with dread sometimes – it’s hard to know what thread to tug at – the amorphous confusion festooning the great big everything seems so hopeless. It would be a lot easier if everyone were…
