Looking at the discourse around artificial intelligence through the lens of a fire alarm is quite eye-opening, and, well, alarming. «There is never going to be a time before the end when you can look around nervously, and see that it is now clearly common knowledge that you can talk about AGI being imminent, and take action and exit the building in an orderly fashion, without fear of looking stupid or frightened.»
From Weekly Filet #254, in November 2017.
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Writing this newsletter is never easy, but today, it’s particularly challenging. The reason is quite simple: As I’m writing this, I’m also busy playing the role of an AI that produces paperclips. That sounds really boring – who would want to do that? Exactly my words a couple of hours ago before I got hooked. Don’t click this link, seriously.
From Weekly Filet #251, in October 2017.
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Somehow, computers outsmarting humans in games tend to get way more attention than in areas in which the consequences will be a lot more far-reaching. Take medicine. Algorithms are already beating humans’ accuracy in analysing brain scans or detecting skin cancer. This New Yorker piece offers a deep dive on how it works and what it means. (Plus, and that alone is worth the click: the definitive illustration of the mind-body-problem)
From Weekly Filet #236, in June 2017.
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This is one of the rare kind of texts that has the potential to completely change your perspective. I’ve always struggled to wrap my head around Artificial Intelligence and the question of whether and when machines will be more intelligent than humans. It sure is a fascinating issue, but it always had this sci-fi out-of-touchiness; humans are notoriously bad at understanding exponential growth and thus far, no text had really helped me understand how we might get from Siri and Watson to superintelligent computers and immortality (or extinction) within a couple of decades. All of that changed when I read this two-part series. A stunner. In so many ways.
From Weekly Filet #195, in February 2015.
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