In late 2008, economist Robin Hanson and AI theorist Eliezer Yudkowsky conducted an online debate about the future of artificial intelligence, and in particular about whether generally intelligent AIs will be able to improve their own capabilities very quickly (a.k.a. “foom”). James Miller and Carl Shulman also contributed guest posts to the debate.
The debate is now available as an eBook in various popular formats (PDF, EPUB, and MOBI). It includes:
- the original series of blog posts,
- a transcript of a 2011 in-person debate between Hanson and Yudkowsky on this subject,
- a summary of the debate written by Kaj Sotala, and
- a 2013 technical report on AI takeoff dynamics (“intelligence explosion microeconomics”) written by Yudkowsky.
Comments from the authors are included at the end of each chapter, along with a link to the original post.
Head over to intelligence.org/ai-foom-debate/ to download a free copy.
