{"id":2253,"date":"2025-04-29T21:01:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T04:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/?p=2253"},"modified":"2025-05-09T17:57:28","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T00:57:28","slug":"when-ai-grows-up-no-longer-really-cute-tiger-cub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/2025\/04\/29\/when-ai-grows-up-no-longer-really-cute-tiger-cub\/","title":{"rendered":"When AI grows up \u2013 no longer ‘really cute tiger cub’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Geoffrey Hinton<\/a> on the future of AI<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So, after watching the video interview with the ‘Godfather of AI’ (CBS News<\/a> below), I was struck by something that was assumed or just left implicit. Namely, that AIs (AGIs) will be a monolithic threat (or benefit). Whether globally or at a international corporate or state level. That such super-intelligent machines will share a common purpose or perspective regarding humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any hive-like alignment is particularly curious because Hinton discusses the stewardship of corporations and nations and bad actors. And that AIs can reflect on their own reasoning, use deception, and (at some point) resist manipulation. Which likely entails different cultural values in the mix. And he notes that “human interests don\u2019t align with each other.” So, why would AI interests? \u2013 in the long run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, while the interview raises the problem of AI-human misalignment, might AIs have different personalities? Diverge in temperament and virtue? “Evolve” in different ways? Tribes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I sketch such possible futures, tales of agency, in my Ditbit\u2019s Guide to Blending in with AIs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here’re some quotes from The Singju Post’s transcript (see below) of the interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u2026 if I had a job in a call center, I\u2019d be very worried. \u2026 We know what\u2019s going to happen is the extremely rich are going to get even more extremely rich and the not very well off are going to have to work three jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[The risk of AI takeover, the existential threat] \u2026 these things will get much smarter than us \u2026 But let\u2019s just take as a premise that there\u2019s an 80% chance that they don\u2019t take over and wipe us out. \u2026 If we just carry on like now, just trying to make profits, it\u2019s going to happen. They\u2019re going to take over. We have to have the public put pressure on governments to do something serious about it. But even if the AIs don\u2019t take over, there\u2019s the issue of bad actors using AI for bad things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI is potentially very dangerous. And there\u2019s two sets of dangers. There\u2019s bad actors using it for bad things, and there\u2019s AI itself taking over.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For AI taking over, we don\u2019t know what to do about it. We don\u2019t know, for example, if researchers can find any way to prevent that, but we should certainly try very hard. \u2026 Things that are more intelligent than you, we have no experience of that. \u2026 how many examples do you know of less intelligent things controlling much more intelligent things?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think the situation we\u2019re in right now [“A change of a scale we\u2019ve never seen before \u2026 hard to absorb \u2026 emotionally”], the best way to understand it emotionally is we\u2019re like somebody who has this really cute tiger cub<\/strong>. It\u2019s just such a cute tiger cub. Now, unless you can be very sure that it\u2019s not going to want to kill you when it\u2019s grown up, you should worry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And with super intelligences, they\u2019re going to be so much smarter than us, we\u2019ll have no idea what they\u2019re up to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We worry about whether there\u2019s a way to build a superintelligence so that it doesn\u2019t want to take control. \u2026 The issue is, can we design it in such a way that it never wants to take control, that it\u2019s always benevolent?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People say, well, we\u2019ll get it to align with human interests<\/strong>, but human interests don\u2019t align with each other. \u2026 So if you look at the current AIs, you can see they\u2019re already capable of deliberate deception.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The Singju Post (Our mission is to provide the most accurate transcripts of videos and audios online) > “Transcript of Brook Silva-Braga Interviews Geoffrey Hinton on CBS Mornings<\/a>” (April 28, 2025) by Pangambam S \/ Technology<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 CBS News > CBS Saturday Morning > Artificial Intelligence > “‘Godfather of AI’ Geoffrey Hinton warns AI could take control from humans: ‘People haven’t understood what’s coming’<\/a>” by Analisa Novak, Brook Silva-Braga (April 26, 2025) \u2013 Video interview (52′) [See the The Singju Post’s transcript]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[CBS’ article contains only a few highlights from the video.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

(quotes)
While Hinton believes artificial intelligence will transform education and medicine and potentially solve climate change, he’s increasingly concerned about its rapid development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The best way to understand it emotionally is we are like somebody who has this really cute tiger cub,” Hinton explained. “Unless you can be very sure that it’s not gonna want to kill you when it’s grown up, you should worry.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AI pioneer estimates a 10% to 20% risk that artificial intelligence will eventually take control from humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“People haven’t got it yet, people haven’t understood what’s coming,” he warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Hinton, AI companies should dedicate significantly more resources to safety research \u2014 “like a third” of their computing power, compared to the much smaller fraction currently allocated.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

References<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Wired > “Take a Tour of All the Essential Features in ChatGPT<\/a>” by Reece Rogers (May 5, 2025) \u2013 If you missed WIRED\u2019s live, subscriber-only Q&A focused on the software features of ChatGPT, you can watch the replay here (45′).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

What are some ChatGPT features that I wasn’t able to go deep on during the 45-minute session? Two come to mind: temporary chats and memory.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Geoffrey Hinton on the future of AI So, after watching the video interview with the ‘Godfather of AI’ (CBS News below), I was struck by something that was assumed or just left implicit. Namely, that AIs (AGIs) will be a monolithic threat (or benefit). Whether globally or at a international corporate or state level. That […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1819,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[191,261,263,260,262],"class_list":["post-2253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-computer","category-research","tag-ai","tag-alignment","tag-future","tag-geoffrey-hinton","tag-risk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2253"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2263,"href":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2253\/revisions\/2263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.digivideoplus.com\/dv_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}