Stuart Russell

Because unless we figure out how do we guarantee that the AI systems are safe, we're toast.

Yeah, so a few million years ago, the human line branched off from the gorilla line in evolution.

And now the gorillas have no say in whether they continue to exist because we are much smarter than they are.

Why don't people stop then?

Well, one of the reasons is something called the Midas touch.

So King Midas is this legendary king who asked the gods, can everything I touch turn to gold?

And we think of the Midas touch as being a good thing, but he goes to drink some water, the water has turned to gold.

And he goes to comfort his daughter, his daughter turns to gold.

And so he dies in misery and starvation.

So this applies to our current situation in two ways.

One is that greed is driving these companies to pursue technology with the probabilities of extinction being worse than playing Russian roulette.

And that's even according to the people developing the technology without our permission.

And people are just fooling themselves if they think it's naturally going to be controllable.

You know, after 50 years, I could retire, but instead I'm working 80 or 100 hours a week trying to move things in the right direction.

Not yet.

I think there's still a decent chance they guarantee safety, and I can explain more of what that is.

Well, I started doing AI in high school back in England.

But then I did my PhD starting in 82 at Stanford.

I joined the faculty at Berkeley in 86.

So I'm my 40th year as a professor at Berkeley.