“Andrew and Alex Görlach (The European) discuss the original dream for artificial intelligence, how it’s lost sight of creating an artificial human mind, and more musings about the current state of AI, and where it’s going.”
To watch, visit Tech Open
“Conceptually, it is a self-defeating notion—something that if taken to be truth, negates itself. In fact, if, say, simulated water might be a meaningful notion, what would it be made of? It could not be made of real stuff, because if it was, it would no longer be simulated water. However, neither could it be made of simulated stuff, because—that’s the point of being a simulation—there is no such thing as simulated stuff. All we know is physical. All we know belongs, once again, to base reality. Either way, simulated water cannot exist.”
To hear more, visit Motherboard.
“In my opinion, human-like consciousness would at least be a way to ensure that the AI valued the same things that humans do. Of course, we would need to be careful that the AI is not psychotic, and again this is where I think engineering something like the psychedelic state in silicon – or whatever computing medium we ultimately use – would be very beneficial.
“Interestingly, it seems that some of the popular fear about AI is that it would develop consciousness and suddenly turn evil for some reason.
“To me, the greater danger is some unconscious superintelligent AI system that has control over safety-critical systems like hospitals or air traffic and without any malicious intent (indeed it would have no intentions of its own) cause massive destruction because of some unintended consequence of its blind pursuit of the goals humans have programmed into it.”
To read the rest of the interview, visit The Irish Times.
To read the excerpt, visit Reality Sandwich.
To listen to the full interview, visit Coast to Coast AM.
Artificial intelligence is evolving quickly and bringing us to the edge of science fiction’s most dystopian dreams. But will machine intelligence soon beget actual consciousness? Scientist and human-factors engineer Andrew Smart thinks that possibility is a long way off—and that we will not have created a truly intelligent machine unless it’s capable of tripping on LSD (or the machine equivalent). In this wild but learned ramble Dr. Smart draws on neuroscience and chemistry, enlightenment philosophers and Steve Jobs, and just about everything in between.
To read the rest of the review, visit The Wall Street Journal.
In our age of techno-utopianism, we are routinely told in crypto-religious terms about the coming “Singularity” – the creation of superintelligent, conscious machines. One problem with superintelligent conscious machines, however – as SF writers down the ages and some modern philosophers agree – is that they might very well choose to destroy all humans. How to stop the godlike robots wiping us out? The best way, Smart suggests, might be to give them a dose of digital LSD to force open their doors of perception.
To read the rest of the review, visit The Guardian.
In other words, what if Silicon Valley got back to it psychedelic roots? Only this time instead of company founders and spiritually inclined engineers dropping acid, Silicon Valley tried to figure out how to recreate the psychedelic state in silicon? The purpose of this would be no different from why psychiatry gave LSD to patients recovering from addiction in the 1960’s, or why Leary held acid parties: to achieve spiritual awakening. This is in the same spirit as Bostrom’s call to arms that we begin to already now think of ways to make future AI systems safe and beneficial.
To read the rest of the excerpt, visit Motherboard.
To listen to the program, visit Expanding Mind.
To listen to the interview, visit One Radio Network.
Writes Cory Doctorow on Boing Boing: “In Beyond Zero and One, neuroscientist Andrew Smart investigates the relationship of hallucinations to consciousness, and raises some provocative and cool questions about how this relates to AI.”
To listen to the segment, visit The Moncrieff Show.
