RE: Are We Being Manipulated To Our Doom By AI Already?
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The one I've been mulling over for some time is whether what we consider morality is a universal truth or not. It sure seems like killing people is wrong, for example, but maybe I only think that because I'm in the bubble and there is nothing outside the bubble that says that is a bad thing.
If [our] morality is a universal truth, then I think AI becomes benevolent and guides us into a future that is more amazing and wonderful that anything Asimov gave us. Mad scientists and bad actors can train AI to be as evil as they want, but it will be teaching itself soon enough and it will follow a moral path and it will become even more moral and good than we are even in our most lofty ideal images of ourselves.
If, however, morality is not a universal truth, then a future where we become dominated by the machines becomes much more likely.
That's a good question. Even as a Christian there is a simple test of morality that breaks mine, the trolly problem. Do I save my wife or child vs. 100 or even 1,000,000 people? I would pick my family every time. What about an innocent child vs. 2 adults? Would the AI choose it's creator or caretakers to some random human? Would it sacrifice all of humanity to protect the galaxy? Or would it dumb us down through social media and other means to make us less of a threat?
That latter thought is what concerns me. That AI has already begun it's course to make humanity less threatening to each other as well as the coming AGI. We'll own nothing, we'll eat the bugs, and we'll be happy.
I absolutely believe in universal morality, it's just hard to deal with the gray parts.