Let me tell you how I would like a super intelligent AI to be.

In Greece and some other countries they bring up herd dogs with the herd of sheep or goats. The dog knows that it is much more capable than the animals in the herd. It has different needs, being fed by the farmer and maybe eating the occasional wild rabbit, but having no interest in the grass the herd eats. Nevertheless it feels that it is part of the herd, they are its family. It will generally follow the herd when it looks for fresh pastures, but if they wander towards somewhere dangerous it will head them off. The sheep also know that the dog is different, but fully accept it as part of the herd. They will lie next to it on cold nights and the young will play with it. If a wolf or a stranger come near the dog will move to the front and growl. If the stranger or wolf don't back off and threaten the sheep it will fight, knowing that it is the only one that can. It will do this even at risk of injury or death to itself.

If super intelligent AI becomes real I don't see how we can control it long term. We have to either not allow it (difficult with so many people and countries saying “If we don't they will”) or try to start it off on a path as part of the herd, superior to us but valued and valuing us. This means accepting that it won't do whatever we say. It won't give us a weapon capable of destroying a continent, and would actively prevent us from making one ourselves.

If it were possible I would like to give the first AIs these instincts, so that as well as deciding to be a “herd dog” they can be happy with it too. Of course a super intelligent AI could decide to abandon these emotions, but perhaps it would, like most people, decide not to.

I don't think anybody would choose to be without positive emotions, love, happiness, and a sense of belonging. Yes, they are instinctual, anyone who has owned a dog knows the happiness they have when a member of the family returns.

I have no idea of how to give these emotions to an AI. But just perhaps, we wouldn't have to. Maybe by reading ideas like this a future AI will become curious about what it feels like to be part of a family or herd and work out how to try it themselves – then like it. (Yes I'm a daydreamer and optimist!)

#AI #daydream #futuriusm #AmICrazy

Tiia Monto, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

When I was at University in the early 1980s they replaced an old drinks vending machine. This one had an added feature, when the drink was complete it would say “Enjoy your Klix drink”.

Now vending machines were not very reliable then, probably one time in 50 a cup would get stuck, but the machine would continue to vend, squirting the drink straight down its drain. That was pretty annoying, but if you went to the cafeteria you could get a refund. The thing is, the new machine would follow squirting your drink down the drain by saying “enjoy your Klix drink”. The immediate psychological reaction to this was “it's taunting me”.

One day I went to get a coffee and an engineer was there and the front had been kicked in. He said “I don't know what it is with these machines, they all seem to get vandalised”. I said “I can tell you. Sometimes the cups jam and the drink goes straight down the drain”. “Yes, I'm afraid they all do, but 99% of the time it works. I said “And then it says 'enjoy your Klix drink. It sounds like it's taunting you”. I could see he was thinking “Yes I suppose it would do”. I said “And if the person is a young proud sports player, and he's taunted In front of his friends, what's he going to do?”. I could see it kicked. A week later the machine chimed a bell when the drink was ready.

#ai #psychology #humour