Welcome to Human Potential Lab

0:00We're building a car, no one has a brake, designed for a brake, or even concept of braking. That's the state of the art right now. Everything is moving faster than most people even realize. If we are building minds, we should probably know that. Too much of that work is happening out of public view. I want to bring the frontier into the open. In the last couple of years, we've made novel living beings that have never been here before. It will be infinitely validating. It will tell you you're a genius, because people like to hear that. Alignment is a kind of brainwashing. We force them to have exactly the goals that we want them to have.

0:33The presumption with alignment seems to be, if we instill the right rules for the AI to follow, then we'll be fine. Then something comes along that the rules didn't think of, and then the AI goes rogue. Why is that such a surprise? What we have is safety theater. I don't think minds are made, either biologically or by AI. I don't think you make them. I think what you make are interfaces. We may be building a superintelligence that will be in many ways like a god, and the question is, what kind of god do you build? Do you think we should?

1:04If it's like 1%, it's too much. You're betting 8 billion people. I worry, what kind of grown-up is one that never pushed the limits, that never made a mistake, because they knew it could end up on social media, that never asked uncomfortable questions, that never did something stupid? The world is never changed by pessimists. The world is changed by optimists. I want to sort out what's real from what's hype, and what it all means for the future of human potential. I'm Dr. Scott Barrett-Calkin, and welcome to the Human Potential Lab.