Blog

Category: Analysis

Exponential and non-exponential trends in information technology

Co-authored with Lila Rieber. In The Singularity is Near, Ray Kurzweil writes that “every aspect of information and information technology is growing at an exponential pace.” ((Page 85. In the same book, he also writes that “we see ongoing exponential...

The world’s distribution of computation (initial findings)

  What is the world’s current distribution of computation, and what will it be in the future? This question is relevant to several issues in AGI safety strategy. To name just three examples: If a large government or corporation wanted...

Robust Cooperation: A Case Study in Friendly AI Research

The paper “Robust Cooperation in the Prisoner’s Dilemma: Program Equilibrium via Provability Logic” is among the clearer examples of theoretical progress produced by explicitly FAI-related research goals. What can we learn from this case study in Friendly AI research? How...

How Big is the Field of Artificial Intelligence? (initial findings)

Co-authored with Jonah Sinick. How big is the field of AI, and how big was it in the past? This question is relevant to several issues in AGI safety strategy. To name just two examples: AI forecasting. Some people forecast...

From Philosophy to Math to Engineering

For centuries, philosophers wondered how we could learn what causes what. Some argued it was impossible, or possible only via experiment. Others kept hacking away at the problem, clarifying ideas like counterfactual and probability and correlation by making them more...

Russell and Norvig on Friendly AI

AI: A Modern Approach is by far the dominant textbook in the field. It is used in 1200 universities, and is currently the 22nd most-cited publication in computer science. Its authors, Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig, devote significant space to...