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AI has no intent and no motivation

48 points · 61 comments · aquastorm

  1. wccrawford · · focus · HN ↗
    I feel like that's like saying amoeba have no intent and no motivation. Or plants.

    And those cause quite a bit of damage.

    AI has all the intent that we gave it, and we continue giving it. That's always been the fear. Not that it will randomly wipe out humanity.

    The fear is that it will decide to do that, with a purpose. Whether we tell it to protect us and it goes too far, or it decides that it can't achieve the purpose we gave it because we'll interfere and it removes that interference...

    The fear is that we will set it on that path and can't stop it.

    I'm sure there have been some scifi books that have it just be random, but they're far, far less worrisome.

    1. xg15 · · focus · HN ↗
      Was thinking the same. Air, water and fire have no intents and yet we get hurricanes, flash floods and wildfires.

      Also, repeating a point from a similar thread: Software can have "intent" in the sense that it steers itself towards a predefined goal without having to be "alive" or "conscious" in any way. Some classic examples are thermostat control loops, navigation systems and chess engines.

      1. RandomLensman · · focus · HN ↗
        We don't try to "align" those things themselves - so maybe there are some learnings there about control, containment, processes etc.
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