When we look to concrete problems in present-day AI systems, we see other — stranger — ways that things could go wrong with smarter machines. One growing issue with real-world AIs is the problem of wireheading. - The Conversation
If you accept that increased productivity helps the common good, the question becomes how to reliably achieve these increases. Until recently, the answer to this largely involved optimizing systems. - The New Yorker
The concept of Purgatory was relatively new when Dante was born. Dante’s conception of Purgatory is remarkably like a wilderness boot camp. Its terrain is forbidding—more like an alp than like a Tuscan hillside. - The New Yorker
Capitalism promises an endless series of alterations —tiny changes that... don’t amount to change at all. Aesthetic education, where “one suspends one’s current values in the expectation of acquiring better values,” can lead to more authentic transformations. - Commonweal
Works of art are not merely representations of the way things are but function to reveal and evolve a community’s shared understanding. Each time a new artwork is added to any culture, the meaning of what it is to exist is inherently changed. - 3 Quarks Daily
Professional envy can have positive and negative repercussions. Workplaces where managers make a point of comparisons — posting leaderboards or naming employees of the month — provide fertile ground for cultivating envy. - Knowable
The team found that for all three career types, work tended to be more diverse just before a true hot streak than expected from the randomly selected points. - The Guardian
So what can we see bubbling up in techland at the moment? If you believe the industry, metaverses (plural) – basically conceived as massive virtual-reality environments – might be a big thing. - The Guardian
Our recent research suggests that while group deliberation can indeed increase the accuracy of forecasts, it can lead you astray when it comes to making a final decision. - Harvard Business Review
High hopes for the imminent arrival of general AI have been there from the very beginning, and the successes of machine learning keep them high. - The New Atlantis
I believe there exists a modicum of groupthink in an established expert community; solidarity in opinions may be seen as desirable among some in the scientific community, sometimes at the expense of intellectual debates and scientific discourse. - Future
Though a wide range of A.I. technologies have improved by leaps and bounds over the past decade, even the most impressive systems have ended up complementing human workers rather than replacing them. - The New York Times
Conventional wisdom has it that cultural divisions now matter most, and that plenty of people feel they have nothing in common with liberal, supposedly “globalist” elites. Yet that idea is far from the truth. - New Statesman
Could you sing this song at your nonprofit, apropos of nothing? Even with all the caveats in the world ahead of actually singing it? Can anyone sing this song outside the confines of an arts presentation? In that presentation, would trigger warnings be required? - Alan Harrison
