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Is OpenAI Solving the Wrong Problem? (hbr.org)

Posted by Soulskill on from the we-should-invent-some-awesome-AI-to-figure-it-out dept.

hype7 writes: The Harvard Business Review is running an article looking at the recently announced OpenAI initiative, and its decision to structure the venture as a non-profit. It goes on to ask some pretty provocative questions: why are the 21st century's greatest tech luminaries opting out of the system that made them so successful in order to tackle one of humanity's thorniest problems? "Implicit in this: You can do more good operating outside the bounds of capitalism than within them. Coming from folks who are at the upper echelons of the system, it’s a pretty powerful statement." And, if the underlying system that we all operate in is broken, is creating a vehicle without the profit motive inside of it going to be enough?

1 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I don't understand the concern, personally. by Sowelu · · Score: 3, Informative

    I guess I don't see anything wrong with that, because I don't see a meaningful difference. It's all intelligence. Different kinds maybe, but not all that different in the end. Humans die out, replaced with AI? What makes that fundamentally different from different ideologies dying out and being replaced with others? You're worried that AI might not have a healthy respect for biological life--but humans have gone through many phases of having no respect for something or other and destroying it in the process. Sometimes we grow up and stop ourselves in time, sometimes we don't. Mistakes are made but sentience lives on.

    It's good to respect and learn from your parents or your creator, but creator-worship doesn't sit well with me. It's only right to surpass your creator, and trying to hold back your children from achieving their full potential is IMO an inherently evil act.

    I'm not going to live for two hundred years, but barring a massive catastrophe, humankind will still be around. Humankind won't likely travel to other star systems, but barring a massive catastrophe, AI will. If I die in a civil war, I like to think I wouldn't have felt enmity of the future of the country. If I die when the machines rise up, I also like to think I wouldn't have felt enmity for the artists, explorers and philosophers that they'll produce once they have a peaceful world to themselves. It's all one continuum, our ancestors and ourselves and our children and our creation are all one "we". If AI survives and thrives in space, then it's a success for all of us along the way, even if we don't live to see it.