One of the maddening things about reading #BrianChristian’s #TheAlignmentProblem is that it assumes creating systems without firm use cases—“general” AI—is inevitable and desirable. It never questions assumptions of who is doing this work, why, and for whose benefit.

A book that talks in a positive way about narrowly scoped systems which multiply human potential while preserving values is needed. A kind of “Understanding Computers and Cognition” focused on today’s technology.

JFC, #BrianChristian actually wrote that the #EffectiveAltruism scam is “the most significant ethical social movement in the early twenty-first century”

What on earth was he thinking?

So much for “transcendance”. #BrianChristian #TheAlignmentProblem

https://www.ft.com/content/175e5314-a7f7-4741-a786-273219f433a1

Oh man #BrianChristian’s #TheAlignmentProblem is treating #WilliamMacAskill and the whole EA/Longtermer cult seriously on pp 235-36. This is after opening shots with a #NickBostrom quote on p 223.

Sigh.

Let’s see if he ever gets to the eugenics & racism.

Having read (and mostly enjoyed) books by Max Tegmark, Stuart Russell, Ray Kurzweil, Brian Christian, Ajay Agrawal and Nick Bostrom in recent months, its been Melanie Mitchell (AI: a guide for thinking humans), D'Iganzio & Klein (Data Feminism) and Erica Thompson (Escape from Model Land) that I think have provided some of the most balanced and insightful perspectives on AI and data science.

#MaxTegmark
#StuartRussell
#RayKurzweil
#BrianChristian
#AjayAgrawal
#NickBostrom
#MelanieMitchell
#DIganzio
#Klein
#EricaThompson