this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
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Okay, well, if everyone had access to an AGI, anyone could design and distribute a pathogen that could wipe out a significant portion of the population. Then again, you'd have the collective force of everyone else's AI countering that plot.
I think that putting that kind of power into the hands of everyone shouldnt be done lightly.
There are papers online on how to design viruses. Now to get funding for a lab and staff, because this is nothing like Breaking Bad.
You still can't manufacture it. Your comparision with nukes is actually a good example: The basic knowledge how a nuke works is out there, yet most people struggle in refining weapon-grade plutonium.
Knowledge is only one part in doing something.
Since when does AI translate to being able to create bacteria and stuff?
If having the information on how to do so was enough to create pathogens, we should already have been wiped out because of books and libraries.
You can't type "How do I make a pathogen to wipe out a city" into a book. A sufficiently advanced and aligned AI will, however, answer that question with a detailed list of production steps, resource requirements and timeline.
Oog, what if by making this fire, it burns down the forest?
Well that did happen to be fair.
Too soon
Right. So, the actual danger here is... Search engines?
this requires special materials like enzymes and such. It would much easier to restrict access to those. Now true this godlike ai could go back to show you how to make all the base stuff but you need equipment for this like centrifuges and you will need special media. Its like the ai telling you how to make a nuke really. Yeah it could star you off with bronze age metal smithing and you could work your way up to the modern materials you would need but realistically you won't be able to do it (assuming again you restrict certain materials)
Have you heard about this thing called the internet?
I would say the risk of having AI be limited to the ruling elite is worse, though - because there wouldn't be everyone else's AI to counter them.
And if AI is limited to a few, those few WILL become the new ruling elite.
And people would be less likely to identify what AI can and can't do if we convince ourselves to limit our access to it.
People are already incompetent enough at this when there's a disclaimer in front of their faces warning about gpt.
We're seeing responses even in this thread conflating AGI with LLMs. People at large are too fucking stupid to be trusted with this kind of thing
Are we back to freaking out about the anarchists cookbook
You're just gonna print the pathogens with the pathogen printer? You understand that getting the information doesn't mean you're able to produce it.
I need an article on how a 3d printer can be used to print an underground chemistry lab to produce these weapons grade pathogens
That's the thing though: a sufficiently advanced intelligence will know how. You don't have to.
I know how to build a barn. Doesn't mean I can do it by myself with no tools or materials.
Turns out that building and operating a lab that can churn out bespoke pathogens is actually even more difficult and expensive than that.
Your brain is an (NA)GI
Let's assume your hypothetical here isnt bonkers: How, exactly, do you propose limiting people's access to linear algebra?