In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan explores unconventional approaches to AI safety with Judd Rosenblatt and Mike Vaiana from AE Studio. Discover how this innovative company pivoted from brain-computer interfaces to groundbreaking AI alignment research, producing two notable results in cooperative and less deceptive AI systems. Join us for a deep dive into biologically-inspired approaches that offer hope for solving critical AI safety challenges.

Self-Modeling: https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.10188

Self-Other Distinction Minimization: https://www.alignmentforum.org/posts/hzt9gHpNwA2oHtwKX/self-other-overlap-a-neglected-approach-to-ai-alignment

Neglected approaches blog post: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/qAdDzcBuDBLexb4fC/the-neglected-approaches-approach-ae-studio-s-alignment

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CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) About the Show

(00:00:22) Sponsors: WorkOS

(00:01:22) About the Episode

(00:05:18) Introduction and AE Studio Background

(00:11:37) Keys to Success in Building AE Studio

(00:16:57) Sponsors: Weights & Biases Weave | 80,000 Hours

(00:19:37) Universal Launcher and Productivity Gains

(00:24:44) 100x Productivity Increase Explanation

(00:31:46) Brain-Computer Interface and AI Alignment

(00:38:05) Sponsors: Omneky

(00:38:30) Current State of NeuroTech

(00:44:00) Survey on Neglected Approaches in AI Alignment

(00:50:41) Self-Modeling and Biological Inspiration

(00:57:48) Technical Details of Self-Modeling

(01:06:17) Self-Other Distinction Minimization

(01:12:44) Implementation in Language Models

(01:19:00) Compute Costs and Scaling Considerations

(01:24:27) Consciousness Concerns and Future Work

(01:40:24) Evaluating Neglected Approaches

(01:55:56) Closing Thoughts and Policy Considerations

(01:59:25) Outro