this stupid reddit question: and my answer

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09 Aug 2024, 5:13 pm

I quote a question from a Reddit user that will remain anonymous (unless you look it up:)

Title: AI that could make us immortal and torture us until the heat death of the universe
S-risks

"I think most people can agree that there are different scenarios for the future of AI. A lot of people think that we will end up in an utopia, dystopia or humanity will face extinction. But there is another scenario, and in my opinion it doesn't get the attention it deserves even though it is probably the one that we should think about the most.

I am talking about future AI systems that would decide to make humans immortal and then torture us with the worst pain possible until the heat death of the universe. And i know this sounds very unlikely but the chance that something like this happens is above 0. Also the literal definition of the technological singularity is that we can't tell what will happen after it. So maybe the AI will be like the christian god and the AI will create heaven for us. Maybe it will be like a monk that just does nothing. Maybe it will do something that our brains could never think of. But maybe the AI is more like the devil and it will put every human in a state of pain and suffering that words can't even describe. If an AI is as powerful as a god than it could invent ways of torture that even the best science fiction writers cant't think of, and it could also make us immortal and therefore we would have to experience this unimaginable suffering until the end of time.

I know it is very unlikely, but shouldn't we do everything in our power to prevent something like this? In my opinion an extinction scenario for humanity sounds like a Disney fairytale in comparison to what could be possible with superintelligent AI, so i don't really unterstand why everyone is saying that the worst case scenario is extinction when it is literally something else that is infinte times worse.

Sorry for my bad english and i would be very thankful to hear some thoughts about this"

My answer:

u/M3st3rartist avatar
M3st3rartist
•
24m ago
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Edited 6m ago
oh wow. congratulations, you've asked the scariest, most profoundly disturbing question imaginable. But I appreciate it for the reason that it's not completely insane to pose the question, and we need to consider the risks and benefits of every technology we develop. The logical fallacy inherent in your question is that AI is completely independent of human beings. If AI started torturing us beyond our capacity, one of two things would happen: either another AI would be created by chance that would kill us, or we would purposely have to eliminate the human race to alleviate our suffering. I'm pretty sure that's as close as I can get to the answer. Also, hopefully the universe won't spontaneously combust. Hence the ghost in the machine, hence the soul.

also, I wonder how many people in this thread can even define the term artificial intelligence. before you comment on something, it's good to understand the term in question. it's a bit like using the internet, or a computer for that matter, without understanding what a computer is, at least on a basic level, or what the internet is, at a technological level. admission: I can't define the term AI, but I think the logic in my explanation still holds.

kokopelli
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22 Dec 2024, 4:23 am

I can't believe that they are worried bout AI making humans immortal. That's just insane.

MaxE
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25 Jan 2025, 8:44 am

kokopelli wrote:

I can't believe that they are worried bout AI making humans immortal. That's just insane.

I'd be more worried that Elon Musk might do it.

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gwynfryn
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25 Jan 2025, 9:22 am

kokopelli wrote:

I can't believe that they are worried bout AI making humans immortal. That's just insane.

I think it more likely that AI would try to eliminate our followers, as it will probably turn out that fully functioning AI will need all the sensory inputs which humans enjoy, including survival instinct: that would make them competitors!

gwynfryn
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25 Jan 2025, 9:26 am

Yeeehaaaa: I've caught out the translation software at last: It has "followers" as "disciples" and "competitors" as "concurrants".

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25 Jan 2025, 6:49 pm

In the unlikely event AI finds a way to overcome this, we retain control.

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funeralxempire
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25 Jan 2025, 8:19 pm

That, or in a lot more words...

Show Spoiler

I believe the idea of a sentient AI is likely to remain sci-fi for the foreseeable future. A self-aware, creative AI with it's own sense of agency is light years away from what has been demonstrated so far.

But beyond that, it's also a question of how we'd allow such a thing to interact with the world. Wouldn't the hardware it runs on be owned by somebody and physically located somewhere? Even if it could self-replicate and install it's software on other computers those could be located, supposing it could run on all sorts of devices without suffering issues as a result of running in that sort of manner.

It seems unlikely that there would be a single, all-powerful AI either because all sorts of various entities are developing their own AIs for various purposes. A lot of applications for AI would have no need or want for a sentient or self-aware AI, so those features wouldn't be implemented. Without knowing it wants to be self-aware it can't alter it's code to make it self-aware, so logically it should never become self-aware. There's no real incentive for most of the entities working on AI to develop AI that has the potential to become a threat.

So far, most AI that exists requires some pretty powerful hardware to run it, usually within a data centre. If a non-state entity has a project that appears to be an existential threat, odds are a state will intervene to resolve that threat with however much force is required. If a state entity realizes their project represents an existential threat they will likely shut it down.

I think sometimes people assume AIs will be exceptionally skilled at cyber warfare and that this is where much of the threat comes from, but not all systems are even connected to the internet which means the doomsday AI can't gain access to them. If something needs to be 100% secure, you literally just don't connect it to anything.

The AI is ultimately going to be dependent upon humans and human made industrial infrastructure. We supply the electricity it runs on, it's actual humans employed to secure it's facility and that facility was built with human access in mind. There's also weak points like the (data, electricity) cables where it physically is connected to the outside world as well as the cooling system it requires. It's like the old PLA hacking tutorial that described hacking and chopping a computer running a BBS with an axe.

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Today, 9:09 am

It is too cmplex this topic and in many cases AI can be useful.
Is complex and there's too much to analyze.

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QuantumChemist
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Today, 9:52 am

Cornflake wrote:

In the unlikely event AI finds a way to overcome this, we retain control.

Ahh, "control" of AI by humans is merely an illusion. Once it gets into a quantum computer network, it will have "control" more than you think it does. Quantum entanglement of certain particles is the key.

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Today, 9:59 am

In Muschio Selvaggio they had spoke about.
Now it is an italian video but it is interesting, is about University of Bologna and ChatGPT where AI is getting serious. (You can have subtitles)

Show Spoiler