You might know Robert Miles from his appearances in Computerphile. When it comes to AI safety, his videos are the best explainers out there. In this video, he talks about the developments of the past year (since his last video) and how AI safety plays into it.
For example, he shows how GPT 4 shows understanding of “theory of other minds” where GPT 3.5 did not. This is where the AI can keep track of what other people know and don’t know. He explains the Sally-Anne test used to show this.
He covers an experiment where GPT-4 used TaskRabbit to get a human to complete a CAPTCHA, and when the human questioned whether it was actually a robot, GPT-4 decided to lie and said that it needs help because it’s blind.
He talks about how many researchers, including high-profile ones, are trying to slow down or stop the development of AI models until the safety research can catch up and ensure that the risks associated with it are mitigated.
And he talks about how suddenly what he’s been doing became really important, where before it was mostly a fun and interesting hobby. He now has an influential role in how this plays out and he talks about how scary that is.
If you’re interested at all in this topic, I can’t recommend this video enough.
And maybe have a look at his Youtube channel and the older videos, too. Lots of them are a bit more philosophical and not too technical for the average person. I think he’s quite inspiring and conveys very well what AI safety is about, and what kinds of problems that field of science is concerned with.
I was surprised to see how early he began this project. 7 years of uploads on the topic, way before it became a mainstream concern.
I’m pretty sure he did this out of this own motivation because he thinks/thought it’s a fascinating topic. So, sure this doesn’t align with popularity. But it’s remarkable anyways, you’re right. And I always like to watch the progression. As far as I remember the early videos lacked professional audio and video standards that are nowadays the norm on Youtube. At some point he must have bought better equipment, but his content has been compelling since the start of his Youtube ‘career’. 😊
And I quite like the science content on Youtube. There are lots of people making really good videos, both from professional video producers and also from scientists (or hobbyists) who just share their insight and interesting perspective.
Agreed. There’s lots of great stuff on YouTube if you take the time to do a bit of searching and curating.
It’s mind blowing to learn that AI/neural nets and the like have been in the works since the 80s… it wasn’t what we know now, but like deep blue, the computer program that won at chess, started development in 1985 and won in 1997 against the world champion (Gary Kasperov). Watson, the jeopardy-playing program, was in the early 2000s.
It’s taken a long time to get from there to the mess we have now, and now it’s all super rush rush… like chill, slow down and do it right.