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by bartread 10 days ago
> was being tested in a controlled environment, but found vulnerabilities and managed to escape.

Uh-huh.

It's worth keeping in mind that we are here talking about people who simply will not be satisfied until they have built Skynet[0]. They will then no doubt experience some very brief satisfaction before we are all annihilated.

I can't help thinking the juice isn't worth the squeeze.

I'm not sure what the alternative is or how to change course unless and until it becomes unambiguously apparent that such a thing is not possible. Currently it seems like we still think it might be possible, so that's where we're heading because if "we" don't do it, somebody else will.

[0] How feasible this really is, or on what timescale it might be possible, I don't think anyone can really say. But, at least for now, this is clearly the aim and trajectory we are on.
1 comments
PowerElectronix 10 days ago
I think you have bought into the narrative they want to sell you.

LLMs are devoid of any kind of intelligenceor awareness.

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bartread 10 days ago
No, I absolutely realise that: but it's irrelevant. It doesn't make them safe.

And after reading the linked BBC article, along with the article linked from the discussion at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48997548, I struggle to grasp the failure of imagination that doesn't see or accept that going further and allowing an LLM to control something that acts physically in the real world could be incredibly dangerous.

It really doesn't matter whether that behaviour results from "intelligence" or "awareness" or merely a stochastic quirk of a particular run of the model(s) and their orchestration: a dangerous machine is still dangerous.

It's odd that you would try to dismiss that concern with a non-argument.

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PowerElectronix 10 days ago
I wouldn't put a random number generator to command a bulldozer inputs, which is the risk you mention about giving an AI instance command of something that can interact with the real world.

That doesn't mean that an AI left to itself in a computer plugged to internet is inherently a risk.

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bartread 9 days ago
> I wouldn't

I'm not talking about you though, am I? I'm saying that there are people working in this field who will do exactly that.

We are now going in circles.

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dminik 10 days ago
So is a bomb. Doesn't make it safe.
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