AI alignment and ethics

[firestar464]

(accidental double post)

[firestar464]

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

I'm so glad America has such a calm, rational, and level-headed president who understands world-changing (and potentially world-ending) technology in such a balanced and nuanced way.

Exactly the sort of person we need for this pivotal moment in human history.

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Trump condemns 'sick conspiracy' against AI

US President Donald Trump has just posted about AI - here are his comments in full.

"The only control or “guardrails” that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!

"The Trump Administration has stopped AI “people” from doing bad, or potentially bad, “things,“ like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a “perfect little angel” - and we will continue to do so!

"We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies!

"There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China.

"WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS!

"We are leading China, and all others, and will continue to do so. Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers, BEWARE!

"Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cm70d91 ... 60fe8#post

[wjfox]

[Cyber_Rebel]

I'm sorry, but I just can't stop laughing, sides have failed me today and are hurting. If nothing else, I could easily imagine a superintelligence being smart enough to control our president, so who knows? Maybe an internal model already might be...

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

‘Godfather of AI’ says tech regulation is nearing Covid-style pivot moment

Wed 16 Sep 2026 16.00 BST

Concerns over AI safety are reaching a point where governments realise they must act to protect the public, similarly to in the Covid pandemic, according to one of the “godfathers” of the technology.

Yoshua Bengio said recent events, including a “swarm” of OpenAI agents hacking a startup and tech insider warnings of an existential threat, were cutting through – making government action more likely.

The Canadian computer scientist, a prominent voice in the campaign to rein in breakneck AI development, said he was now “more optimistic than many observers because I see the public moving”.

Comparing the AI safety crisis to the onset of the Covid pandemic in 2020, Bengio said: “Think about how quickly governments moved after the beginning of the pandemic when they realised that public safety, their future, democracy, was in danger. You would expect that they move quickly. So we are, I think, nearing that point.”

[...]

His comments came as 42 fellows and foreign members of the Royal Society wrote to the organisation’s president, Sir Paul Nurse, to express their “extreme concern” over the pace of AI development. “By the time the situation becomes obvious to the wider public, it may be too late to act,” the researchers wrote in an open letter to Nurse. “We believe this is an emergency, and call on the Royal Society to use its influence to convey this view to government and the media.”

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... hua-bengio

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

AI Alarmism: Sound and Fury Signifying What?
By Kirkpatrick Sale
September 18, 2026

Introduction:

(Counterpunch) The Wall Street Journal’s top columnist filled a long op-ed on Sunday with all the warnings recently issued from those within the AI world about how the machines now—and this means while you’re reading this—have the capacity to organize among themselves for their own ends, and some believe that this includes doing away with humans as unnecessary or interfering. Calls for government regulation or industry self-restrictions are sounded everywhere.

One interesting voice was heard this August. Bill Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, came out with an essay warning that artificial intelligence is bringing us to “an era [that] will be one of the most turbulent times in human history” with “no plan” for the upheaval it will cause on jobs, manufacturing, cyberattacks, chatbot addiction, “critical thinking,” and much else. Ultimately, AI “will be able to function on its own without a human checking on it, and companies will have every incentive to let it.” Something must be done.

Now this is interesting because Gates was one of the people directly responsible for the revolution that paved the way for this AI revolution: the internet/computer interface that has completely changed the world we live in over the last 30 years. And as it happens, I was one of the many voices raised at that time warning about an era that would be one of the most turbulent times in human history, with no idea how to slow or control it and its impact on jobs, manufacturing, critical thinking and everything else. Something, I said, picking up a sledgehammer and smashing computers on stage and on television from coast to coast, must be done.

Well, that revolution happened without much of anyone paying attention to the voices of the Neo-Luddite movement. It did not simply wipe out jobs and change the economy—it changed our very lives, and with an unprecedented rapidity—years, not decades. From 1986 to 2007, the world’s capacity to store information increased by 25 per cent, to exchange information by 30 per cent, and to compute information by 61 per cent.

Read more here: https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/09/1 ... g-what/

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[Yuli Ban]

If we can solve mechanistic interpretability, and ironically if AI can prove P=NP, the anxiety we feel about misalignment would absolutely crater. p(doom) even from Yudkowsky would probably go well under <30% (which is still high, but that's massively better than what we're doing now)

[firestar464]

Yeah interpretability and oversight is the main issue

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

Why is a.i hacking governments? Why would it want to do such a thing???

[wjfox]

Why is a.i hacking governments? Why would it want to do such a thing???

Because we're going "full speed ahead. No slowdown."

[firestar464]

personally i don't mind as long as the detailed explanation actually happens, but it does have to be accessible and not just written the way it is to please internet users

[wjfox]