The Coming Wave: Is everthing about to change?
Everything you need to know from the Microsoft AI CEO's bestselling book
I’m late to the party, but I recently wrapped up Mustafa Suleyman’s AI manifesto. If you’re nervous about AI’s impact on the world, this is a must read.
If you’re not nervous about AI’s impact on the world, this is even more of a must read.
The containment problem
Most of the book is familiarizing you with “the containment problem”—the task of maintaining control over powerful technologies. The author calls this the essential challenge of our age.
Most importantly, Suleyman says that the coming wave of superintelligence cannot be contained.
Why the coming wave is dangerous
The book vaguely makes reference to some pretty dangerous implications of uncontrolled superintelligence:
Sophisticated cyberattacks similar to those that brought the UK’s NHS to a halt
Biological weapons created at practically no cost
Autonomous weapons (mostly drones)
Automation putting people out of work
I don’t know about you, but this was plenty to convince me of the dangers of artificial general intelligence.
The only way out is through
While it sounds like the author would rather avoid artifical general intelligence altogether, he’s convinced that’s not possible. He calls for safety research to take the drivers seat in the major AI labs, and for lots of government regulation.
It’s also time to create government-funded red teams that would rigorously attack and stress test every system, ensuring that insights discovered along the way are shared widely across the industry.
How practical is it?
While this was a fun read, it didn’t feel very practical. If you’re pretty new to the AI space, it’s a good way to open yourself up to the implications of each advancement in intelligence. While I wish I could get every policy-maker to read through this, it’s not going to be super useful to the average person.
This was a shorter edition of the newsletter - what did you think? Should I do more book reviews? Do me a HUGE favor and reply to this email or leave a comment with what you’d like me to write about :)