Artificial Intelligence

Three Point Essay | Resources to learn about AI

Jeff Sullivan

Feb 15, 2023

Jeff Sullivan’s Three Pointers

**HAL 9000 from the film** **2001: A Space Odyssey**

Humans are creatures that make tools. The tools we make can have good and bad aspects. From fishing rods to knives, iPhones to nuclear weapons, it’s what we do. We are hard-wired to create better tools and improve upon them. AI is a tool.

The concern of some intelligent humans however—notably Elon Musk, Sam Harris, Max Tegmark, and Nick Bostrom, among countless others—is that one day we will lose control of this tool. They and many others worry we’ll lose control if AI machines capable of improving themselves undergo an exponential ‘intelligence explosion’ and decide not to listen to humans, or develop different goals.

How would a super-intelligent and disobedient machine view us?

A popular analogy expressing this fear is to consider our relationship with ants. We don’t hate ants. But we view ants as relatively unintelligent and unimportant creatures. So if, say, we wanted to build a new house, and there happened to be some anthills on the land we bought to build it, we wouldn’t hesitate to destroy the anthills.

If there’s an entity that is truly much more intelligent than human beings, it’s possible we could be the new ants.

Regardless of concerns like this, it seems there’s no stopping humanity from advancing AI. From making new tools. So instead of curling up in a ball and hoping it doesn’t affect you, it’s wise to learn about it. Ignorance is not bliss. For better or worse, it’s highly unlikely that humans will stop progressing AI systems.

My intention is to encourage paying attention to what’s going on in this space. And not just to prepare for a potential doomsday; there appears to be many, many ways in which AI will continue to make humans smarter, healthier, and wealthier, as you’ll see in some of the links below. The rest of this article is resources to hopefully help you and I better understand the Artificial Intelligence revolution that’s just getting started. I did my best to include a wide diversity of perspectives.

Keep in mind this is just the content that I have happened to come across: