Ret Serofer

Farmer
Cafe/ Listening Room Manager

#1 fan of "Dear Machine" (Kieser, 2019)

[Ret Serofer @retserofer]

To prepare ourselves and our communities for rapidly increasing machine intelligence (eg #aialignment), Reforesters bought a building in Brooklyn that will be dedicated to introspective events/journeys, bought 400 acres in upstate NY and planted 35,000 trees/shrubs.

Much work ahead on those fronts. We have been thinking on this and preparing for years.

Today, I'm excited to announce that we raised $25,000 (so far) for a preliminary AI Alignment contest to encourage open source uses of AI and robotics to scale polycultures and agroforesty. This will be the first of many contests in various disciplines. Details tba October 1, 2023. See video below to understand the work we wish to to scale w/ this first contest.

Those who seek an understanding of the framework through which the contest(s) will be judged, feel free to read "Dear Machine". Free PDF here: https://t.co/mWkRvyLRbG

With the recent, very misguided AI fears pushing for regulations that we believe will increase the likelihood and severity of negative outcomes, we are alight with a sense of urgency to support and encourage the proliferation of an adaptive web of implicitly aligned AIs (which some may refer to as #AGI #ASI #SAIM) to outcompete the perverse, pathogenic AIs that doomers are conjuring into existence.

Our future is bright. But our descendants need us to act decisively now and with positivity to fight the age-old trend for humans to build governance systems around good/evil discourse that belies the underlying complexity of our world.

We are further fundraising for a series of open source AI alignment prizes if you're inclined to infuse some positive incentives into the ecosystem. Find me. I'm on your side.

#dearmachine

[Ret Serofer @retserofer]

@SpeakerPelosi

[Ahmed Moor @AhmedMoor]

FRIENDS! It's official! We're a threat.

They've suspended the campaign account.

Help us maintain the momentum by retweeting and please consider donating at:

https://t.co/f64VI0BJKY

cc: @ryangrim @faizsays @matthewichoi @mehdirhasan

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@Acyn

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@PalTimesNews

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@LouisaClary @GenXGirl1994 @WhipKClark

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@sfchronicle

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@lizewski67 @JG_Nuke @SScalpings

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@SputnikInt

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@JFFRealtor @ScottJenningsKY

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@ChuckLebert @PalmerReport

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@rutgerbregman Because they predicted the last time humanity was wiped out?

[Ret Serofer @retserofer]

Agreed, stolen keys and backdoors could let a human directed AI hijack weak links in manufacturing of robots. Not a bad theory.

That's not an existential risk, though, that justifies government coordination and repression of AI that might otherwise be used for cancer, aging, etc.

[Ret Serofer @retserofer]

Robot manufacturers will obviously use the best encryption schemes to prevent hacks. AIs can't crack current encryption schemes and, if they do somehow crack current ones, we will already have moved on to stronger ones.

Security agencies and corporations will already have access to these tools you are claiming will hack everyone and will be able to use them for defense.

Other ideas?

[Ret Serofer @retserofer]

@negatingspirit @michaelybecker @robertwiblin "plenty of smart people saw a potential path"

That's the argument?

[Ret Serofer @retserofer]

Nuclear not a good analog for the proposed AI risk. There simply is not any realistic existential risk with AI. If you disagree, state it here in one paragraph.

[Nuclear fissile materials can be packed into a bomb by state actors that have access to enriched uranium and then detonated and blow up a large city]

[AI can .....????]

Yes, there are some hacking, bio-weapon related risks that could cause some disruptions and even deaths, but all that points to is that we must accelerate even more so the tech fortifies our digital world against those threats.

[Ret Serofer @retserofer]

@michaelybecker @robertwiblin The reality being, in fact, that every leading cause of death will be greatly reduced as increasingly intelligent machines help us solve them.

[Ret Serofer @retserofer]

It totally makes sense that the most pedigreed and studied among us would be panicking now.

Since navier-stokes it has become glaringly obvious that the technology is now coming for their lunch more than anybody else's.

Ivory Towers are being incinerated as we speak.

[Rob Wiblin @robertwiblin]

Paul Christiano (OpenAI board member) yesterday:

"There's material risk of AI takeover in the next 6-12 months.

We have seen roughly the things we might expect to see shortly before something really bad were to happen.

Even with [any] realistic policy responses, the risk remains exceptionally high.

If we build this as quickly as we can in the easiest way we can the chance is [more like] a coin flip [within the next 3 years].

For most people in this room, the most likely reason they will die is because of an AI accident."

Christiano:

• Is on OpenAI's safety and security committee (which exists to block risky practices)
• Co-invented RLHF at OpenAI back in 2017-2021
• From 2024-2026 was head of safety at the US gov's AI agency (now called CAISSI)

(Video is from 'The Hinton Lectures' there's another on tonight and tomorrow.)

[Ret Serofer @retserofer]

@CyborgFairy93 @tombibbys That's great and when the doomer fever dream is washed out by reality you will have had a while bunch of amazing life experiences!

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@MTSlive https://t.co/FfKBU9UFZw

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@robinhanson Aside from not actually believing what they are preaching enough to bet on an outcome, there is also the problem of there not being a definable, verifiable condition to resolve a prediction market on.

Further evidence the whole movement is based on fiction upon fiction.