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Elon Musk Warns Governors: Regulate AI Before It's 'Too Late' (recode.net)
turkeydance shared a new article from Recode about Elon Musk:
He's been warning people about AI for years, and today called it the "biggest risk we face as a civilization" when he spoke at the National Governors Association Summer Meeting in Rhode Island. Musk then called on the government to proactively regulate artificial intelligence before things advance too far... "Normally the way regulations are set up is a while bunch of bad things happen, there's a public outcry, and after many years a regulatory agency is set up to regulate that industry," he continued. "It takes forever. That, in the past, has been bad but not something which represented a fundamental risk to the existence of civilization. AI is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization"... Musk has even said that his desire to colonize Mars is, in part, a backup plan for if AI takes over on Earth.
Several governors asked Musk how to regulate the emerging AI industry, to which he suggested learning as much as possible about artificial intelligence. Musk also warned that society won't know how to react "until people see robots going down the street killing people... I think by the time we are reactive in AI regulation, it's too late."
Several governors asked Musk how to regulate the emerging AI industry, to which he suggested learning as much as possible about artificial intelligence. Musk also warned that society won't know how to react "until people see robots going down the street killing people... I think by the time we are reactive in AI regulation, it's too late."
Regulate elon musk before his retarded opinions get out of hand.
Oh too late.
So far, every time they have quoted Elon Musk about the dangers of AI, it's always been out of context. Seems like a clickbait making situation that they just can't resist.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
A - We don't really have true AI yet. (Or is this like One True Scotsman.)
B - As we get closer, the AI we're developing will be too profitable, so those profiting from it will prevent or subvert any regulation, anyway.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Is Elon going to have his Ironman suit ready before Skynet tries to take over?
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Now, everybody has seen Terminator, and Matrix, but it seems like some viewers keep the suspension of disbelief long after exiting the cinema.
AI may be advancing with giant strides, but robotics is still far, far away from doing anything remotely similar to a Terminator, even the simplest models ;-) Somebody as familiar with the limitations of current batteries as Mr.Musk must be, should think about how these killer robots are going to kill more than a handful humans before the batteries run out. Although I suppose they could hijack electric car's batteries, once those are ubiquitous. Or perhaps he was really referring to autonomous cars getting self-conscious and killing every pedestrian in sight for some reason. Again, first show a car that can drive fully autonomous, and then start worrying about how smart it's going to be.
Autonomous robot fighters will come, once the AI is in place. They will take the form of autonomous tanks, I suppose, at first. Something big that will have enough fuel to last some time. Second step I suppose would be swarms of small drones, every one with a camera and a small explosive load that will attach to foes and explode. Other devices will follow. That is unavoidable. If a country legislates against them, the other countries will gain an insurmountable advantage in the battlefield. And certainly rogue operators could use these devices and mount terrorist attacks with them. That's also mostly unavoidable. When the technology is there, you cannot legislate it away.
I don't know exactly why Mr.Musk did these declarations, perhaps he is genuinely worried about an apocalyptic future. But a public figure from the business world asking for regulation to politicians always smells like advantage-seeking or damage control of some kind to me.
Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
Musk in 2017 "society won't know how to react "until people see robots going down the street killing people..."
The first AI CEO turned presidential candidate will be noted as saying in the upcoming 2070 election "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters, okay? It's, like, incredible"
What could go wrong?
We are more about bandaging up the problems then preventing them in the first place. Look at pollution. Places don't work on reducing it until it becomes a problem.
Technology is the same way, after all, the people writing the laws generally no nothing about the new technologies emerging.
No, my guess is we will have problems long before we start doing preventive measures.
Be seeing you...
Silicon Valley billionaires like Sam Altman have been joining Musk in his crusade for AI regulation repeatedly over the last years. All of them are invested in startups doing advanced AI research, by the way. It's a campaign to play on the ignorant populace's fear and misconceptions about AI, in an attempt to legislate smaller AI startups out of the business and also to more tightly control how private citizens can profit from advances in machine learning.
In a way this is a lesson learned from the early computing and internet histories, because now everybody and their dog is allowed to write programs, cobble together powerful devices, and send data all over the world - all of which is simply due to the fact that nobody in power saw this coming back then. Now "they" are working hard on reversing that, by locking devices down, making tampering with DRM illegal, and walling off the open network - but all of that wouldn't have been necessary if big corps at the time had the foresight to legally classify generic computing as a national security threat.
This is absolutely deplorable, and the fact that it seems to be working is beyond worrying. Everybody who is only slightly in favor of this would do well to take a minute and think through what such regulation would mean, not only for AI, but for computing in general. This is about who gets to control the pace, the price, and the magnitude of human progress moving forward.
"This is silly of course but Elon insists the entire planet could be lost than AI has no place in society."
Yeah, silly, but still, lets start with his auto-pilot before his cars start killing people on purpose.
why he thinks it would be possible for humans to control superintelligent AI with regulation? Or why it wouldn't be able to achieve space travel?
What exactly IS "AI?" You have to strictly define it before you can "regulate it." Actually, "AI" isn't "artificial intelligence" at all. It was, and is, a sloppy term for advanced theories and programming techniques to solve problems. You may as well try to regulate clouds. Basically, you would destroy programming. Besides, whatever we (in America) did would not be done elsewhere, for advantage. And other, non-AI, programming of powerful computer systems does damage too. It is very easy to say what Musk is saying, but put a microscope on it and there is really nothing there.
E Proelio Veritas means "from struggle, truth." I created it in the early 90s for a tiny chess club that collapsed and took it for myself to use on the internet. The base of the thought-path was Emmanuel Lasker's dictum that states, "On the chessboard lies and hypocrisy do not survive long." I made it general.
E Proelio Veritas.
Sometimes the rich and famous get weird fixations outside of their skill set and produce noise of no more worth than noise from anyone else without a clue.
Artificial Intelligence? We can't even define the intelligence of a cockroach let alone model it.
Regulation is another feel-good measure along the lines of our current security theater.
Even IF we outright banned it, do you think other countries will adhere to the will of the US in such matters ?
Unlikely.
So the question becomes this:
Do you allow your adversaries to develop the tech that will be used against you, ( in war, economy, or any application ) or do you try to keep pace to keep the playing field even ?
Imagine if we had banned Science and Math outright early on in our history because of the potential for what it could be used for.
We would still be living in caves and hunting with spears.
You lack the ability to appreciate a bunch of if-then-else's. A neural net that beats humans in vision tasks or is almost as good as a human in translation can be implemented as a bunch of additions, multiplications and a few comparisons.
And you got it in reverse - we are much more advanced in neural nets than in robotic mechatronics. What's keeping robotics now is a lack of cheap and efficient batteries and mechanics.
Having just watched the interview, I can tell you one of the governors asked Elon that exact question. Gov. Doug Ducey (R-AZ) said (paraphrasing): If they discovered a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that could explode, people would say "Ban it!" but then we wouldn't have natural gas. How do we regulate something that doesn't even exist yet?
Elon's response: "Well, I think the first order of business would be to gain insight. Right now the government does not even have insight. I think the right order of business would be to stand up a regulatory agency. Initial goal: gain insight into the status of AI activity. Make sure the situation is understood. Once it is, then put regulations in place to ensure public safety. That's it."
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough of it. --AC
It is already too late.
In fact, it always was too late.
Regulations don't stop people from doing things.
Laws don't stop people from doing things.
Otherwise we would not have police or criminals.
No matter what you do for laws and regulations someone, somewhere will make a General AI.
Elon is like the little Dutch boy with his finger stuck in the Dyke's hole.
He, you, I can lament but it isn't going to stop GAI.
The only solution is to create the first GAI which is benevolent towards us but in turn protects us from any malevolent GAI.