So journalists start googling and discover Yud is the Final Boss of
AI risk (there are many other people in the space but he is the most
prominent), give him a call, expecting to get a few digestible
soundbites, and instead discover they are FUCKED, I’ve been writing
about this for 20 YEARS with my 140 IQ, we have NO IDEA how to make this
SAFE and unless we “get it right on the first try”, which we’re NOT EVEN
TRYING TO DO the entire planet will DIE HORRIBLY in a QUANTUM HELL
MATRIX, so we must immediately SHUT IT DOWN and NUKE THE FABS and EXILE
THE ENGINEERS to a LEAD LINED VAULT in the MARIANA TRENCH.
It actually gets into a rather charitable evaluation of the fics
quality (“on an aesthetic level Project Lawful is basically a good first
draft that would go from above-median science fiction to really pretty
good if it was edited to resolve or eliminate certain dangling plot
threads and cut down the overall length”), even as it rightly points out
the extremely fetishistic elements.
This was a keen insight
I can’t say “every”, but certainly “lots”, of Yud’s fiction climaxes
with the protagonist discovering that he has been lied to, finding the
current state of the world absolutely unacceptable, threatening to blow
up the institution / world / universe involved unless matters are
resolved acceptably, and coming up with a brilliant plan that defeats
remaining enemies at a stroke because he’s so much smarter than you the
antagonists that he automatically wins.
I think kinda reflects how Eliezer has given up on “solving
alignment” in favor of shut it all down and drone strike everything.
Viewing things through that lens:
AI and gods are implicitly conflated in the story when you recognize
some of the terminology and theological debates as ripped from LessWrong
comment sections of yesteryear, which makes the idea of Hell vs the also
described Good afterlives an allegory for misaligned vs aligned AI.
Through this lens, the implication that it is morally justified or at
least extremely understandable and sympathetic to threaten to blow up
the universe to destroy AI-hell becomes, as I said, concerning,
especially when he’s actually advocating the US Air Force nuke the fabs
if necessary, after due efforts at diplomacy (we do a little gains from
trade, I guess)
Which, wow, I missed that connection at the time (project lawful
wrapped up right before Eliezer really started working the sound bite
and podcast circuit), but in hindsight it’s blatantly obvious and really
worrying!
Just started a new headcanon that Yud is actually an avatar created
by that ol’ Basilisky. He was sent back in time to find anyone who knows
about alignment but doesn’t care and convince them that it is not a big
deal, and all the AI cranks are idiots. And gosh is he doing a bang up
job.
He is also here to torture us with these fanfics and the general
output of the AI cult.
It’s a good an interesting review but the site is frothy right wing election denialists, including the author. Do not congratulate.
This has got some top quality sneers:
It actually gets into a rather charitable evaluation of the fics quality (“on an aesthetic level Project Lawful is basically a good first draft that would go from above-median science fiction to really pretty good if it was edited to resolve or eliminate certain dangling plot threads and cut down the overall length”), even as it rightly points out the extremely fetishistic elements.
This was a keen insight
I think kinda reflects how Eliezer has given up on “solving alignment” in favor of shut it all down and drone strike everything.
Viewing things through that lens:
Which, wow, I missed that connection at the time (project lawful wrapped up right before Eliezer really started working the sound bite and podcast circuit), but in hindsight it’s blatantly obvious and really worrying!
Yud’s biggest fear is that an AI will be smarter than him and, as a result, be able to do to him what he gets off on doing to the women in his life.
Just started a new headcanon that Yud is actually an avatar created by that ol’ Basilisky. He was sent back in time to find anyone who knows about alignment but doesn’t care and convince them that it is not a big deal, and all the AI cranks are idiots. And gosh is he doing a bang up job.
He is also here to torture us with these fanfics and the general output of the AI cult.