An Open Letter To Everyone Tricked Into Fearing AI

malachiorion writes If you're into robots, AI, you've probably read about the open letter on AI safety. But do you realize how blatantly the media is misinterpreting its purpose, and its message? I spoke to the organization that released letter, and to one of the AI researchers who contributed to it. As is often the case with AI, tech reporters are getting this one wrong on purpose. Here's my analysis for Popular Science. Or, for the TL;DR crowd: "Forget about the risk that machines pose to us in the decades ahead. The more pertinent question, in 2015, is whether anyone is going to protect mankind from its willfully ignorant journalists."

Comments

Re:"Forget about the risk that machines pose to us

[AK Marc]

The same fears started when people first started with saying that AIs could someday become sentient.

Aside from iRobot, nearly all SciFi indicate the problem post-singularity is when the humans try to kill the AI first. Sometimes because the AI starts it, other times, just because the AI is an AI and should be feared. iRobot was the AI staging a complete overthrow of humanity, "for our own good". That has been a recurring theme as well.

I know people complain about looking to fiction for answers to reality, but SciFi (at least the good stuff) is as much a thought exercise about technology as "fiction", and thus is often relevant.