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Robert Wiblin
@robertwiblin
Exploring the inviolate sphere of ideas one interview at a time: 80000hours.org/podcast/
RobWiblin.comJoined June 2009

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Another absolute banger from the podcast 🤩🤩🤩
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Very happy with this episode I recorded with @rohinmshah of DeepMind's safety team which we just dropped. I ask for his personal opinions on all kinds of issues: • Case for and against slowing down • Where he disagrees with ML folks and LWers • More! 80000hours.org/podcast/episod
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Best 80k episode for a while imho. Get listening!
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Very happy with this episode I recorded with @rohinmshah of DeepMind's safety team which we just dropped. I ask for his personal opinions on all kinds of issues: • Case for and against slowing down • Where he disagrees with ML folks and LWers • More! 80000hours.org/podcast/episod
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𝗔 𝗣𝗟𝗘𝗔 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗦𝗢𝗟𝗨𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗜𝗦𝗠 𝗢𝗡 𝗔𝗜 𝗦𝗔𝗙𝗘𝗧𝗬 If you’re pro-technology, it is natural to react to fears of AI doom with anger or disgust. It smacks of techno-pessimism, and could lead to regulations that kill this technology or drastically slow it down.
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I sometimes hear stuff like "of course GPT4 couldn't be conscious" in mainstream AI coverage. I think GPT4 is very unlikely to have subjective experience, but when I hear that I feel I learn only that the speaker has no idea how puzzling philosophy of mind really is.
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If you think of human beings as a technical artifact that the economy uses — one that happens to have been miles ahead of the alternatives so far — then they could be superseded and made irrelevant by alternatives, just like any other piece of capital equipment.
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For some people the question of whether machine intelligence will cause persistent human unemployment is like asking whether e.g. new and better cars will cause unemployment. But to me, it's more like asking whether we'll still be driving the same models of car in 2100.
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Great indoor air quality is good for health. This post shows how even a low-energy purifier that takes air from outside, filters it, and pumps it inwards, can keep air incredibly clean. Because the pressure gradient means other outdoor air can't get in.
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I don't think those warlords were unaware of trade. It's that their ability to do violence to others exceeded the rents they were currently extracting from them, so it was in their selfish interest to use violence (or threaten to do so) in order to steal more stuff.
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Peaceful trade is a huge deal, often in people's interests. But much of history is also "local warlord taxes peasants to fund the conquest of new regions, in order to enslave some and forcibly tax the others, in order to fund a bigger army to conquer more regions, etc."
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“the AI-human relationship is importantly disanalogous to the human-ant relationship, because the big reason we don’t trade with ants will not apply to AI systems potentially trading with us: we can’t communicate with ants, AI can communicate with us” Fascinating by @KatjaGrace:
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"Wastewater surveillance is one of the few tools that we can use to prepare for a pandemic and I am pleased that it is expanding rapidly in the US and around the world. Every major sewage plant in the world should be doing wasterwater surveillance..."
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We also discuss 6 new orgs they've supported recently: 1. Dispensers for Safe Water 2. Syphilis screening and treatment in pregnancy by Evidence Action 3. Kangaroo Mother Care 4. MiracleFeet 5. Alliance for International Medical Action 6. HKI's vitamin A supp work
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It's always lovely to check in with the folks who, like GiveWell, can confidently point to the concrete benefits of their work. 😁 GiveWell has changed a lot more in the last few years than I'd realised (much bigger, more research and recommendations):
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Lewis Dartnell who I interviewed about 'The Knowledge' (80000hours.org/podcast/episod) has a new book out about how human biology has shaped history: "A single defunct gene not only exerted a profound influence over the Age of Sail, but also indirectly led to the rise of the Mafia."
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My new book BEING HUMAN explores unexpected ways our biology has shaped world history. In this @Waterstones blog I reveal one such chain of effects: how a particular defunct gene affected the outcome of the Battle of Trafalgar and gave birth to the Mafia. waterstones.com/blog/lewis-dar
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Good: "Octopuses, crabs and lobsters will receive greater welfare protection in UK law following an LSE report which demonstrates that there is strong scientific evidence that these animals have the capacity to experience pain, distress or harm."
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5. Figuring out moral status of AI minds & how to avoid harming them. (6. And various other things.) Collectively this requires a heroic effort by many parties. There are ways to contribute on here but most of this is not going to be done on Twitter or by the 'Extreme Online'.
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IMO there's an huge amount of work to be done re AI safety and unclear amount of time to do it. 1. Figure out testing, evaluations, liability, etc. 2. Harden infosec. 3. Prevent access and misuse by terrorists or lunatics. 4. Alignment research:
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