Menu
Sign In Search Podcasts Libraries Charts People & Topics Add Podcast API Blog Pricing

David Duvenaud

๐Ÿ‘ค Speaker
1064 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

80,000 Hours Podcast
Why 'Aligned AI' Could Still Kill Democracy | David Duvenaud, ex-Anthropic team lead

And so if we happen to somehow today care about the true morality, we need to preserve that.

80,000 Hours Podcast
Why 'Aligned AI' Could Still Kill Democracy | David Duvenaud, ex-Anthropic team lead

And the sort of natural course of history, I don't think it's going to preserve it by default.

80,000 Hours Podcast
Why 'Aligned AI' Could Still Kill Democracy | David Duvenaud, ex-Anthropic team lead

That makes sense.

80,000 Hours Podcast
Why 'Aligned AI' Could Still Kill Democracy | David Duvenaud, ex-Anthropic team lead

And maybe I would unfairly characterize that as a corner case where it happens to be that taking our hands off the wheel is sort of the morally best action, which I feel like is a bit of a coincidence or it would be a sort of happy coincidence just because...

80,000 Hours Podcast
Why 'Aligned AI' Could Still Kill Democracy | David Duvenaud, ex-Anthropic team lead

We already evolved civilizations that, for instance, are making AIs that maybe don't have rights or that used to have slavery or all sorts of oppressive governments sort of arise naturally throughout time.

80,000 Hours Podcast
Why 'Aligned AI' Could Still Kill Democracy | David Duvenaud, ex-Anthropic team lead

So if we did take our hands off the reins, we might expect that the future AI civilization would create their own sub-AI slaves or something that were treated poorly.

80,000 Hours Podcast
Why 'Aligned AI' Could Still Kill Democracy | David Duvenaud, ex-Anthropic team lead

And so if the idea is that, no, no, it's fine, they'll be enlightened enough not to do that,

80,000 Hours Podcast
Why 'Aligned AI' Could Still Kill Democracy | David Duvenaud, ex-Anthropic team lead

then maybe you're okay.

80,000 Hours Podcast
Why 'Aligned AI' Could Still Kill Democracy | David Duvenaud, ex-Anthropic team lead

But I feel like it's weird to think that they'll somehow recognize this as like this really important moral truth that we don't see.

80,000 Hours Podcast
Why 'Aligned AI' Could Still Kill Democracy | David Duvenaud, ex-Anthropic team lead

Yeah, I mean, the question, though, is, like, what sort of dynamics are you setting up, right?

80,000 Hours Podcast
Why 'Aligned AI' Could Still Kill Democracy | David Duvenaud, ex-Anthropic team lead

If you just say, I'm siding with the AIs, but they themselves are still in this, like, competitive race, then you still are sort of, like, taking your hands off the wheel and saying, okay, well, their culture and morality is still going to evolve, and where do we think that's going to lead us is sort of the important question then.

80,000 Hours Podcast
Why 'Aligned AI' Could Still Kill Democracy | David Duvenaud, ex-Anthropic team lead

So I agree with it.

80,000 Hours Podcast
Why 'Aligned AI' Could Still Kill Democracy | David Duvenaud, ex-Anthropic team lead

Okay, I guess I'll say that's conflating two positions, one of which I agree with and one I don't, which is I think almost by definition, we want human values to rule forever.

80,000 Hours Podcast
Why 'Aligned AI' Could Still Kill Democracy | David Duvenaud, ex-Anthropic team lead

And if you're saying like, no, no, no, I want some progress or evolution to happen, it's like, great, that is now the value that you want to block in forever, even if it involves lots of object-level change.

80,000 Hours Podcast
Why 'Aligned AI' Could Still Kill Democracy | David Duvenaud, ex-Anthropic team lead

As for whether humans are actually in the loop making decisions, I think it's probably the case that whatever you want to optimize eventually does look like this is mostly handed off.

80,000 Hours Podcast
Why 'Aligned AI' Could Still Kill Democracy | David Duvenaud, ex-Anthropic team lead

And then the caveat is that sort of on reflection, if the AI has ever cared to ask the humans, like, how do you agree with how we've been running things?

80,000 Hours Podcast
Why 'Aligned AI' Could Still Kill Democracy | David Duvenaud, ex-Anthropic team lead

That the humans would be like, two thumbs up.

80,000 Hours Podcast
Why 'Aligned AI' Could Still Kill Democracy | David Duvenaud, ex-Anthropic team lead

That's what I would have done.

80,000 Hours Podcast
Why 'Aligned AI' Could Still Kill Democracy | David Duvenaud, ex-Anthropic team lead

Like, keep up the good work.

80,000 Hours Podcast
Why 'Aligned AI' Could Still Kill Democracy | David Duvenaud, ex-Anthropic team lead

Yes.