Fluidity

Do AI As Science And Engineering Instead - We’ve seen that current AI practice leads to technologies that are expensive, difficult to apply in real-world situations, and inherently unsafe. Neglected scientific and engineering investigations can bring better understanding of the risks of current AI technology, and can lead to safer technologies.   https://betterwithout.ai/science-engineering-vs-AI   Run-Time Task-Relevant Algorithmic Understanding - The type of scientific and engineering understanding most relevant to AI safety is run-time, task-relevant, and algorithmic. That can lead to more reliable, safer systems. Unfortunately, gaining such understanding has been neglected in AI research, so currently we have little.   https://betterwithout.ai/AI-algorithmic-level   For more information, see David Chapman's 2017 essay "How should we evaluate progress in AI?" https://betterwithout.ai/artificial-intelligence-progress   You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks   If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold   Original music by Kevin MacLeod.   This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

Current AI results from experimental variation of mechanisms, unguided by theoretical principles. That has produced systems that can do amazing things. On the other hand, they are extremely error-prone and therefore unsafe. Backpropaganda, a collection of misleading ways of talking about “neural networks,” justifies continuing in this misguided direction.   https://betterwithout.ai/backpropaganda   You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks   If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold   Original music by Kevin MacLeod.   This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

The conclusion of this chapter.   So-called “neural networks” are extremely expensive, poorly understood, unfixably unreliable, deceptive, data hungry, and inherently limited in capabilities. In short: they are bad.  https://betterwithout.ai/artificial-neurons-considered-harmful Sayash Kapoor and Arvind Narayanan’s "The bait and switch behind AI risk prediction tools": https://aisnakeoil.substack.com/p/the-bait-and-switch-behind-ai-risk A video titled "Latent Space Walk": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPgwwvjtX_g Another video showing a walk through latent space: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnXiM97ZvOM You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold Original music by Kevin MacLeod. This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

This begins "Gradient Dissent", the companion material to "Better Without AI". The neural network and GPT technologies that power current artificial intelligence are exceptionally error prone, deceptive, poorly understood, and dangerous. They are widely used without adequate safeguards in situations where they cause increasing harms. They are not inevitable, and we should replace them with better alternatives. https://betterwithout.ai/gradient-dissent Artificial Neurons Considered Harmful, Part 1 - So-called “neural networks” are extremely expensive, poorly understood, unfixably unreliable, deceptive, data hungry, and inherently limited in capabilities. In short: they are bad. https://betterwithout.ai/artificial-neurons-considered-harmful You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold Original music by Kevin MacLeod. This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

The five short chapters in this episode are the conclusion of the main body of Better Without AI. Next, we'll begin the book's appendix, Gradient Dissent. Cozy Futurism - If we knew we’d never get flying cars, most people wouldn’t care. What do we care about? https://betterwithout.ai/cozy-futurism Meaningful Futurism - Likeable futures are meaningful, not just materially comfortable. Bringing one about requires imagining it. I invite you to do that! https://betterwithout.ai/meaningful-future The Inescapable: Politics - No realistic approach to future AI can avoid questions of power and social organization. https://betterwithout.ai/inescapable-AI-politics Responsibility https://betterwithout.ai/responsibility This is about you https://betterwithout.ai/about-you You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold Original music by Kevin MacLeod. This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

A Future We Would Like - The most important questions are not about technology but about us. What sorts of future would we like? What role could AI play in getting us there, and also in that world? What is your own role in helping that happen?

https://betterwithout.ai/a-future-we-would-like

How AI Destroyed The Future -We are doing a terrible job of thinking about the most important question because unimaginably powerful evil artificial intelligences are controlling our brains.

https://betterwithout.ai/AI-destroyed-the-future

A One-Bit Future - Superintelligence scenarios reduce the future to infinitely good or infinitely bad. Both are possible, but we cannot reason about or act toward them. Messy complicated good-and-bad futures are probably more likely, and in any case are more feasible to influence.

https://betterwithout.ai/one-bit-future

This episode mentions David Chapman's essay "Vaster Than Ideology" for getting AI out of your head.

Text link: https://meaningness.com/vaster-than-ideology

Episode link: https://fluidity.libsyn.com/vaster-than-ideology

You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks   If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold Original music by Kevin MacLeod.   This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

Stop obstructing scientific progress! We already know how to dramatically accelerate science: by getting out of the way.   https://betterwithout.ai/stop-obstructing-science   How to science better. What do exceptional scientists do differently from mediocre ones? Can we train currently-mediocre ones to do better?   https://betterwithout.ai/better-science-without-AI   Scenius: upgrading science FTW. Empirically, breakthroughs that enable great progress depend on particular, uncommon social constellations and accompanying social practices. Let’s encourage these!   https://betterwithout.ai/human-scenius-vs-artificial-genius   Matt Clancy reviews the evidence for scientific progress slowing, with citations and graphs. https://twitter.com/mattsclancy/status/1612440718177603584   "Scenius, or Communal Genius", Kevin Kelly, The Technium. https://kk.org/thetechnium/scenius-or-comm/

Progress requires experimentation. Suggested ways AI could speed progress by automating experiments appear mistaken. https://betterwithout.ai/limits-to-induction You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold Original music by Kevin MacLeod. This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

Forgive the sound quality on this episode; I recorded it live in front of an audience on a platform floating in a lake during the 2024 solar eclipse.

This is a standalone essay by David Chapman on metarationaity.com. How scientific research is like cunnilingus: a phenomenology of epistemology.

https://metarationality.com/going-down-on-the-phenomenon

You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold   Original music by Kevin MacLeod. This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

What Is The Role Of Intelligence In Science?

Actually, what are “science” and “intelligence”? Precise, explicit definitions aren’t necessary, but discussions of Transformative AI seem to depend implicitly on particular models of both. It matters if those models are wrong.

https://betterwithout.ai/intelligence-in-science

Katja Grace, “Counterarguments to the basic AI x-risk case”. https://aiimpacts.org/counterarguments-to-the-basic-ai-x-risk-case/   What Do Unusually Intelligent People Do? 

If we want to know what a superintelligent AI might do, and how, it could help to investigate what the most intelligent humans do, and how. If we want to know how to dramatically accelerate science and technology development, it could help to investigate what the best scientists and technologists do, and how.

https://betterwithout.ai/what-intelligent-people-do   Patrick Collison and Tyler Cowen, “We Need a New Science of Progress,” The Atlantic, July 30, 2019. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/07/we-need-new-science-progress/594946/ Gwern Branwen, “Catnip immunity and alternatives”. https://www.gwern.net/Catnip#optimal-catnip-alternative-selection-solving-the-mdp   You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold   Original music by Kevin MacLeod. This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.