AI: We Need a Humanity Defense Organization
By Susan D’Agostino, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists:
AI Godfather’ Yoshua Bengio, Excerpt:
“Depending on how cautious we end up being collectively, we could more or less contain the risks with national regulation and international treaties. It’s important, like for nuclear treaties, to have minimal standards across nations. The harms that AI could do are not bounded by national borders.
There’s no 100 percent guarantee that nothing bad will happen. Even if we had an international treaty that bans AI more powerful than some level, somebody will disrespect those constraints. But delaying that by, say, 10 years would be great. In that time, we might improve our monitoring. We might improve our defenses. We might better understand the risks.
Time is of the essence, and regulation can reduce the probabilities of catastrophes or, equivalently, push back the time when something really bad is going to happen. Or minimize the amplitude of what may happen.
Unfortunately, the dropping of the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki really is the reason why governments came around the table and were willing to discuss, despite the Cold War. I hope we don’t need to have that level of catastrophe before we act. But it may come to that.”
Morgaine Lee, Natural Grocers, writes:
“Gathering maple tree sap to make sweet syrup for food and medicine is an ancient practice created by the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Wabanaki people of northeastern North America. From pancakes to salmon, the sweet syrup was, and still is, used to cure meats, sweeten bitter medicines, and bring a warm sugary and woody flavour to breakfasts and dinners alike. This thousands-of-years-old tradition continues to offer a spoonful of manganese, potassium, and antioxidants with its syrupy sweetness.