Super-Intelligent AI: Vitalik Buterin Highlights Potential Risks and Countermeasures
Following up on his November 2023 post promoting the concept of “defensive accelerationism,” or d/acc, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated in a blog post on January 5 that super-intelligent AI may be as close as five years away, and it’s impossible to predict whether the outcome would be favorable. According to Buterin, if this occurs, a soft pause on industrial-scale computer hardware would be a possibility to delay the growth of AI. This would reduce the amount of computing power available globally by up to 99% for a period of one to two years, giving humans more time to get ready.
Many researchers and industry executives have expressed worries about AI. In a March 2023 open letter, more than 2,600 people called for a halt to AI development because of the serious risks it poses to mankind and civilization. Buterin pointed out that he only presented nebulous arguments against developing dangerous types of superintelligence in his post introducing d/acc, and he wanted to offer his ideas on how to handle the situation when there is a high risk of AI.
Buterin Calls for Global Approval System for Industrial AI Devices
However, Buterin stated that he would only advocate for a hardware soft pause if he were certain that we require something more robust than liability regulations, which would include that anybody who creates, implements, or utilizes AI might be held accountable for the harm the model causes. He pointed out that locating AI chips and demanding their registration are two ideas for a hardware stop. Buterin suggested installing a chip in industrial-scale AI gear that would only be able to function if it received three signatures from significant international organizations once a week.
The signatures would be device-independent (if desired, we could even require a zero-knowledge proof that they were published on a blockchain), so it would be all-or-nothing. There would be no practical way to authorize one device to keep running without authorizing all other devices.
Buterin
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