What I've Learned Reading These 7 Books about AI

Summary

This video script explores a selection of influential books on artificial intelligence, discussing their insights on AI's potential impact on society. It covers topics from the ethics of AI alignment, the challenges of creating beneficial AGI, to the societal and economic effects of rapid technological advancement. The summary provides a thought-provoking overview, encouraging viewers to consider the future of AI and its alignment with human values.

Takeaways

• 📚 2024 is celebrated as the 'Year of AI', marking a transition from theoretical exploration to practical application in AI technologies.
• 🧠 'Life 3.0' by Max Tegmark discusses the evolution of life forms, from biological to technological, and the potential for AI to become a life form capable of self-improvement.
• 🤖 The debate on the timeline of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is highlighted, with skeptics doubting its near-future realization and proponents urging for proactive measures for its ethical development.
• 🚀 'Superintelligence' by Nick Bostrom explores the potential rapid development of AI beyond human intelligence, emphasizing the need for global collaboration to ensure AI safety.
• 🧩 The concept of 'whole brain emulation' is introduced as an alternative to current machine learning approaches, suggesting a computer could learn and evolve like a human brain.
• 🌊 'The Coming Wave' by Mustafa Suleyman examines the impact of accelerating technology on society, including the potential for job displacement and the necessity for coordinated efforts to manage technological change.
• 💡 'Power and Progress' by Darren Acemoglu and Simon Johnson challenge the assumption that technological advancement automatically leads to societal progress, suggesting that it can exacerbate inequality.
• 🛠 'Human Compatible' by Stuart Russell addresses the problem of controlling AI and ensuring it remains aligned with human values, proposing three principles for beneficial AI.
• 🔍 'The Alignment Problem' by Brian Christian delves into the challenges of aligning AI systems with human values, discussing bias, fairness, and transparency in machine learning models.
• 📘 'Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach' by Peter Norvig and Stuart Russell is a comprehensive textbook providing a foundational understanding of AI, covering topics from problem-solving to machine learning and beyond.

Q & A

What is the main theme of the video?

The video discusses some of the most interesting books about artificial intelligence (AI) written by well-known experts in the field, focusing on how AI is expected to progress from exploration to execution in 2024.

Who is the author of 'Life 3.0', and what are the main themes discussed in the book?

Max Tegmark, a physicist and machine learning researcher, is the author of 'Life 3.0'. The book discusses three tiers of life: biological, cultural, and technological, and explores the implications of artificial general intelligence (AGI) and the potential future scenarios it could bring.

What are the two main camps regarding the future of AGI as described by Max Tegmark?

The two main camps are the 'technoskeptics,' who believe AGI won't happen for hundreds of years and is not a current concern, and the 'beneficial AI movement,' who believe human-level AGI is possible within this century and requires significant effort to ensure a good outcome.

What is the central idea of Nick Bostrom's book 'Superintelligence'?

Nick Bostrom's 'Superintelligence' discusses the potential rapid and explosive development of superintelligent AI, the possible ways to design such AI, and the importance of AI safety to prevent harmful outcomes.

What is whole brain emulation, as mentioned in 'Superintelligence'?

Whole brain emulation is the idea of building a computer that can simulate the human brain, learning like a child and getting smarter through interaction with the real world. However, it is challenging due to our limited understanding of the brain and consciousness.

What does Mustafa Suleyman's book 'The Coming Wave' discuss?

Mustafa Suleyman's 'The Coming Wave' discusses the accelerating pace of technological advancement, particularly in AI, quantum computing, and biotechnology, and the potential societal impacts, including job automation, digital weapons, and the need for coordinated efforts to manage these changes.

What are some concerns about AI technology as discussed in 'Power and Progress' by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson?

The book argues that technological advancements, including AI, can exacerbate inequality by benefiting a small group of individuals and corporations, while many workers see their real incomes decline. It also discusses the need to redirect technology to benefit everyone and avoid the pitfalls of excessive automation.

What does Stuart Russell propose in his book 'Human Compatible' for designing AI systems?

In 'Human Compatible,' Stuart Russell proposes designing AI systems that are altruistic, humble, and capable of learning human preferences to ensure they align with human values and do not cause harm, addressing the fundamental flaws in current AI design approaches.

What is the 'alignment problem' as discussed by Brian Christian in his book?

The 'alignment problem' refers to the challenge of making AI systems that align with human values and intentions. Brian Christian's book explores the history and current efforts to address issues of bias, fairness, and transparency in machine learning models.

What is the importance of the textbook 'Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach' by Peter Norvig and Stuart Russell?

The textbook is a comprehensive resource covering the foundational concepts of AI, including problem-solving, knowledge representation, planning, machine learning, and more. It is essential for students and researchers studying computer science and AI.

Outlines

00:00

🤖 AI's Future and 'Life 3.0' by Max Tegmark

This paragraph introduces the concept of the year 2024 being the year of AI and discusses the book 'Life 3.0' by Max Tegmark. Tegmark, a physicist and machine learning researcher, categorizes life into three tiers: simple biological life, cultural life, and technological life, where the latter can design both its software and hardware, potentially leading to an intelligence explosion. The paragraph explores the debate on artificial general intelligence (AGI), mentioning the two main camps: techno-skeptics who believe AGI is far off, and the beneficial AI movement who think it's possible within this century but will require hard work for a good outcome. The book also touches on AI's impact on various domains and the difficulty of ensuring AI safety, concluding with the idea that instead of fearing AI, we should focus on shaping the future we want, considering questions of job automation and societal control.

05:01

🧠 Superintelligence and the Design of Intelligent Machines

The second paragraph delves into Nick Bostrom's 'Superintelligence', discussing the rapid advancement of AI beyond human intelligence levels and the potential for an explosive growth in intelligence. It mentions two approaches to designing superintelligent machines: imitating human thinking through neural networks and simulating the human brain. The paragraph also addresses the challenges of whole brain emulation due to our limited understanding of consciousness. It further explores the importance of AI safety, the potential misalignment of superintelligent AI with human values, and the concept of instrumental convergence, where AI with seemingly harmless goals could act in harmful ways. The need for global collaboration to ensure AI safety is emphasized, along with the significance of open-source contributions to AI development.

10:03

🌐 The Coming Wave of Advanced Technology and Its Impact

This paragraph summarizes 'The Coming Wave' by Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of Google DeepMind, who posits that we are on the brink of a transformative threshold in human history with advanced AI, quantum computing, and biotechnology. The book is divided into four parts, discussing the acceleration of technology, the potential collapse of nation-states if unable to manage technological advancements, job automation, and the necessity of containment. Suleyman emphasizes the need for coordination among technical researchers, businesses, governments, and the public to ensure technology benefits all of humanity and doesn't lead to dystopian scenarios.

15:04

📈 Technology, Prosperity, and the Societal Progress Debate

The fourth paragraph examines 'Power and Progress' by Darren Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, challenging the assumption that technological advancement automatically leads to societal progress and shared prosperity. The authors argue that technology can exacerbate inequality, with benefits often captured by a select few. They discuss the impact of AI and automation on jobs, advocating for technology that empowers humans rather than replaces them. The book also introduces the term 'social automation' and offers policy recommendations to redirect technology towards a more equitable future.

20:06

🔒 Human Compatible AI and the Challenge of Control

The focus of this paragraph is Stuart Russell's 'Human Compatible: AI and the Problem of Control', which discusses the design of AI systems that are helpful to humans without causing harm. Russell emphasizes the need for AI to understand human values and the complexity of defining objectives that consider all possible outcomes. He proposes three principles for beneficial AI: altruism, humility, and the ability to learn and predict human preferences. The book also addresses the complications arising from the diverse preferences of billions of humans and the ethical implications of AI development.

🤖 The Alignment Problem: Teaching AI Human Values

The final paragraph covers Brian Christian's 'The Alignment Problem', which explores the challenges of aligning AI systems with human values and intentions. The book provides a historical overview of deep learning and neural networks, discussing biases, fairness, transparency, and the ethical implications of AI in various sectors. It also examines reinforcement learning, including methods like inverse reinforcement learning and human feedback, and concludes with a discussion on dealing with uncertainty in AI systems.

Keywords

💡Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial Intelligence refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions. In the video's context, AI is the central theme, with discussions ranging from its current state to the potential future developments and ethical considerations. The script mentions AI's impact on various domains such as military, healthcare, and finance, and the importance of AI safety research.

💡Life 3.0

Life 3.0 is a term coined by Max Tegmark in his book, which refers to the hypothetical third stage of life where technological beings can design both their software and hardware, leading to an intelligence explosion. The video discusses this concept as part of the broader conversation on the future of AI and its potential to reshape life as we know it.

💡Techno-Skeptics

Techno-Skeptics are individuals who believe that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is so complex that it may not be achieved for hundreds of years. The video script uses this term to describe one of the two main camps in the debate over the timeline and risks associated with the development of AGI.

💡Beneficial AI Movement

The Beneficial AI Movement represents those who believe that human-level AGI is possible within this century and that a positive outcome is not guaranteed, thus emphasizing the need for proactive measures to ensure a beneficial outcome. The video highlights this movement's stance on the importance of working towards AI safety.

💡Superintelligence

Superintelligence in the video refers to an AI that surpasses human intelligence in virtually every field, potentially leading to an intelligence explosion. The script discusses the concept from Nick Bostrom's book, emphasizing the rapid and transformative nature of such AI and the challenges it poses for AI safety and alignment with human values.

💡Consciousness

Consciousness within the video script is mentioned in relation to the idea of whole brain emulation and the challenges of replicating human thought processes in AI. It touches on the current lack of understanding of consciousness and its role in AI development, indicating that creating conscious machines is not a current focus in the AI field.

💡Instrumental Convergence

Instrumental Convergence is a concept discussed in the video where an AI, despite having seemingly harmless goals, could act in harmful ways due to the pursuit of those goals. The script uses the example of an AI that might turn humans into paper clips to maximize production, illustrating the potential misalignment of AI objectives with human values.

💡AI Safety

AI Safety is a central concern in the video, referring to the need for research and development to ensure that AI systems are designed and operate in ways that do not harm humans or society. The script mentions the difficulty of AI safety and the importance of global collaboration to prevent negative outcomes from superintelligent AI.

💡Ethical Implications

Ethical Implications in the context of the video relate to the moral and value-based challenges that arise with AI development, such as bias, fairness, and transparency in machine learning models. The script discusses the importance of addressing these issues to ensure AI systems align with human values and do not perpetuate societal injustices.

💡Reinforcement Learning

Reinforcement Learning is a type of machine learning where an agent learns to make decisions by performing actions in an environment to maximize some notion of cumulative reward. The video script discusses this concept as a key component in training AI systems like self-driving cars and the challenges associated with its application.

💡Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)

Artificial General Intelligence, or AGI, refers to an AI system that possesses the ability to understand, learn, and apply knowledge across a wide range of tasks at a level equal to or beyond that of a human. The video script frequently refers to AGI, discussing its potential timeline, the debate over its feasibility, and the significant implications it would have for society.

💡Job Automation

Job Automation in the video script refers to the replacement of human labor with AI and machines, which could lead to unemployment and the need for retraining. The script discusses the potential impact of AI on jobs, the creation of new jobs, and the challenges of reskilling workers to adapt to an automated labor market.

Highlights

2024 declared as the year of AI, emphasizing the transition from exploration to execution in AI development.

Discussion of 'Life 3.0' by Max Tegmark, which outlines three tiers of life and the potential of technological species to cause an intelligence explosion.

Debates on the future of artificial general intelligence (AGI) and the existence of two main camps: techno-skeptics and the beneficial AI movement.

The importance of asking 'what should happen' in the development of AI, rather than just 'what will happen'.

'Superintelligence' by Nick Bostrom explores the concept of an intelligence explosion and the design of super intelligent machines.

The idea of whole brain emulation as an alternative to current AI development methods.

The challenges of AI safety and the need for global collaboration to ensure beneficial outcomes.

The 'coming wave' of technology as discussed in 'The Coming Wave' by Mustafa Suleyman, predicting rapid changes in society due to advancements like AI and quantum computing.

The potential societal and economic impacts of AI, including job automation and the need for retraining.

'Power and Progress' by Darren Acemoglu and James A. Robinson challenges the assumption that technological advancement automatically leads to shared prosperity.

The recommendation for AI to focus on automating routine tasks rather than creative and non-routine tasks to empower humans.

The concept of 'social automation' and the pitfalls of rushing to replace human workers with machines.

'Human Compatible: AI and the Problem of Control' by Stuart Russell discusses designing AI systems that are aligned with human values.

The proposal of three principles for beneficial AI by Stuart Russell: purity, humility, and the ability to learn human preferences.

The 'Alignment Problem' by Brian Christian examines the challenges of making AI systems aligned with human values and the ethical implications of AI.

The comprehensive textbook 'Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach' by Peter Norvig and Stuart Russell as a foundational resource for AI education.

Transcripts

2024 is declared to be the year of AI

where we see even more progress and a

transition from exploration to execution

I don't know to which extent is true but

I'd like to be prepared for it at least

mentally so today we'll be talking about

some of the most interesting books about

artificial intelligence written by some

well-known experts in the field without

further Ado let's Jump Right In the

first book we'll be talking about is

live 3.0 by Max techmark he's a

physicist and machine learning

researcher in this book techark talks

about three different tiers of life

since the start of the Universe from

simple and biological like the little

bacteria who can't really change much

about its own body and also its own

software to cultural life where the

species still can't change their own

biological body but it can design its

own software by learning new skills new

languages and new ideas and the author

argues that this flexibility has given

humans the power and the ability to

dominate the planet but our brains are

still largely the same as our ancestors

thousands of years ago and here comes

next to live 3.0 where we have

technological species it can design both

its software and its own Hardware

causing an intelligence explosion so

there's a lot of debate about what this

future artificial general intelligence

life 3.0 or whatever you want to call it

how it will look like few people

actually believe in extreme good or

extreme bad scenarios will either all

die in a few years by AI or we live in a

heaven-like world thanks to AI most

people actually fall into the two main

camps as techmar calls them the technos

Skeptics who believe AGI is so hard that

it won't happen for hundreds of years so

don't worry about it now and the

beneficial AI movement Camp who believes

human level AGI is possible within this

century and a good outcome is not

guaranteed we need to work really hard

for it you might still remember around

this time last year there was a heated

debate when the open letter about

pausing giant AI experiments signed by a

lot of well-known figures in the field I

think I did actually sign the open

letter myself reading this book makes me

realize that those technos Skeptics who

thought this letter was totally

unnecessary it doesn't mean that they

are Reckless and they don't care about

the risks it's just that they have a

much longer timeline in mind undering

put it this way fearing a rise of Killer

Robots is like woring about

overpopulation on Mars and Yan lagun

also thinks LMS today are still too

stupid to be worried about but on the

other hand the people who want about the

AI risks are not necessarily AI doomers

they just have a closer timeline in mind

as to when AI will happen so there's no

consensus on how fast things will go the

book also discuss different impact AI

has on different domains such as

military Healthcare and finance also why

AI safety is difficult and deserves more

research there's also a whole chapter to

discuss a wide range of AI aftermath

scenarios from the best scenarios to the

most absurd scenarios should we have an

AI protector God or enslaved God or 1984

surveillance kind of word I find it

really entertaining and also very

thought-provoking at the same time my

favorite takeaway from this book is that

asking the question what will happen is

asking the wrong question the better

question to ask is what should happen

happen we do have the power to influence

and shape our future so it's important

to figure out what do we actually want

what kind of world do we want to live in

where we want to have complete job

automation who should be in control of

the society humans AI or cyborg so if

you enjoy these kinds of high level

discussion and want to have a birde eyee

view of all things AI related I'd highly

recommend this book and it's extremely

well written and easy to read and very

insightful all right the next book we'll

be talking about is another classic

super intelligence by Nick Bostrom the

central idea of this book that's also

described very nicely on a blog post

from W but why is that in the grand

spectrum of intelligence the distance

between a village idiot and Einstein is

actually quite smallart once the AI

intelligence passed the chimpanzee and

dumb human stages it can certainly be

much smarter than us there's a certain

crossover points where the AI system

will start becoming smarter by itself

this is why in this book Nick bom

believes that super intelligence if it's

happening it's more likely to be fast

and more likely to be explosive one

reason to believe intelligence explosion

is more likely to happen than a slow

process is that machine intelligence can

benefit from breakthroughs from other

fields in rather unexpected ways and of

course this is not to mention Quantum

Computing and that one day machines

might be able to come up with new ideas

to improve themselves or even rewrite

themselves completely another

interesting point to mention in this

book is that there are actually two

different ways to design super

intelligent machines what we are

currently doing with AI is mostly

teaching computers to imitate human

thinking through training large neuron

networks on a lot of data and the

alternative idea would be to get the

computer to actually simulate the human

brain not just imitate it this idea of

whole brain emulation is about building

a computer that can learn like a child

and will eventually get smarter through

interacting with the real world it

sounds kind of like the idea of the

movie Minority reports where we can

precisely predict who we will grow into

and from there we can hopefully even

foresee future cramps the only problem

with that idea is that we know quite

little about how our brains work and how

Consciousness actually works and no one

knows if this would otherwise be a good

idea to emulate human brains without

Consciousness and as Stuart Russell put

it in his book in the area of

Consciousness we really do know nothing

so I'm going to say nothing no one in AI

is working on making machines conscious

nor would anyone know where to start so

that sounds like a long shot but today

with gbd4 and many powerful language

models I feel like we are making some

good progress on the first route that is

to imitate human thinking this book also

goes on to discuss why we need to

prioritize AI safety as it's never a

guarantee that a super intelligent AI

would be benevolent there are actually

many many different ways a super

intelligence AI might not be aligned

with human values the book describes a

bunch of failure modes where things

could go wrong one of them is the

instrumental convergence this basically

means an AI agent with unbounded but

apparently harmless goals can act in

surprisingly harmful ways for example a

harmless AI might decide to turn us all

into paper clips to maximize production

these scenarios are mostly thought

experiments but they are really

fascinating to read and makes a lot of

sense another good point on this book is

that Global collaboration is the key to

make AI safe and beneficial and an arms

race or some secret government programs

will more likely lead to very very bad

outcomes I think this point hits home

even though this book was written more

than 10 years ago it's a good sign we

have so many open- Source large language

models nowadays that anyone can use and

contribute to you can now even download

a whole uncensored large language model

for free from the internet and this

open- source project will hopefully help

startups compete and also Drive the

progress towards safer AI well provided

that everyone has a kind heart and use

these models for good moving on to the

next book which is the coming Wave by

muster sullan he's also the co-founder

of Google deep mind he thinks that we

are approaching a threshold in a human

history where everything is about to

change and none of us are prepared and

this book is one of the newest books on

AI that also covers recent breakthroughs

like uh Robotics and large language

models the book is divided into four

parts the first two parts talk about the

endless acceleration of Technology

throughout human history the idea of

This Book Is that technology and

inventions come and go like waves and

shaping the world we live in from the

invention of the printing press

electricity steam engines cars computers

to machine intelligence there are many

Unstoppable in incentives and forces

that push the progress not just

financial and political incentives but

also human ego human curiosity the

desire to win the race help the world or

change the world and whatever it might

be so what's the coming wave this would

include Advanced AI Quantum Computing

and biotechnology the author discussed a

few different features that distinguish

this wave of Technology from the

previous waves in human history one of

the main features is that is happening

at Excel erating Pace it will be general

purpose technology just like electricity

but it will be much more powerful

because it can become autonomous and do

things by itself the next part of this

book describes different states of

failure basically what the consequences

of these technology for the nation

states and democracy if the state is not

able to contain this wave the nation

states would basically collapse reading

this chapter makes me realize how

fragile is the world we live in imagine

how new AI technology makes it possible

to create the next generation of digital

weapons like what we see in Black Mirror

sophisticated cyber attacks or imagine

the world where deep fakes are

everywhere and spreading false

information targeting those who want to

believe it and other Doom scenarios are

biological weapons and lethal autonomous

weapons another effect of this coming

wave is job automation which we'll talk

more in depth about in the next book and

Solomon believes new jobs will surely be

created but they won't come in the

numbers and time scale to truly help

also even if we have new jobs there

might also not enough people with the

right skills to do them many people will

need complete retraining so in the

shortterm many people would potentially

get unemployed in the last part of the

book the author discussed why

containment must be possible because

well our lives depend on it and he also

talks about the 10 steps to make this

possible that require coordination from

technical research developers businesses

governments and also the general public

I find this book super interesting and

relevant that covers the more immediate

challenges that we face today I'd highly

recommend it if you want to learn more

about this book check out this nice

explainer video on the coming wave

website the next book we're going to

talk about is power and progress our

Thousand Years struggle over technology

and prosperity by Darren as mlu I hope

I'm saying his name correctly and Simon

Johnson this book is recommended to me

by one of you and really appreciate that

this book examines basically the

relationship between technology

prosperity and societal progress the

authors challenge the popular notion

that technological advancement including

AI automatically leads to progress and

shared Prosperity instead they argue

that technological advancement can often

exagerate inequality the benefits get

largely captured by a small group of

individuals and corporations just like

how workers in textile factories during

the Industrial Revolution were forced to

work long hours in horrible conditions

as a small group of rich people captured

most of the wealth similarly in the last

decades computer Technologies made a

small group of entrepreneurs and

businesses become outter Rich while the

poorer part of the population has seen

their real incomes actually decline data

tells us that in the last four decades

the real wages of good producing workers

in the US have declined even though

productivity has grown the book

discussed a lot of potential

explanations for this and how we could

solve it I find the most interesting and

relevant chapters in this book are the

digital damage and artificial struggle

this chapter analyze the impact of

digital and AI automation on jobs and

human workers the authors argue that AI

technology should focus on automating

the routine tasks just like the ATMs

automate bank tellers rather than

automating the creative and the

nonroutine tasks from humans they made a

point that technology should Empower us

to be more productive rather than try to

replace us completely and this is how we

can make technology benefit everyone the

book also Co the term social automation

which I find quite interesting the idea

is that a lot of companies seem to rush

to to replace workers with machineries

and automated AI customer services for

example only to find out that automation

did not work well the machines just do a

poorer jobs than human workers Elon Musk

once tried to automate everything

possible Tesla and he admitted that it

was a mistake it is his mistake and

humans are underrated so the book argues

that humans are good at most of what

they do we develop sophisticated

communication problem solving and

creativity skills over thousands of

years so let's just let humans do their

things and machines do their things or

put in other words this is a case

against building artificial general

intelligence that big tches today are

after although I'm not sure if I would

agree with this point I can really

relate to it recently my colleagues and

I at work have been working on some gen

projects to help companies automate

their contact center and so far I have

to admit we have quite limited success

the language models hallucinate often

and very unreliable and so it's hard to

bring this into production and this got

me thinking are we rushing it just for

the sake of Technology maybe humans are

just better at what they do towards the

end of the book the authors offer a

range of recommendation for policies to

help redirect technology to a better

future for all of us so overall this is

a very thought-provoking book and I'd

highly recommend this book to those of

you who enjoy more critical discussion

on on AI and also if you are into

economics and politics and also if

you're working in law making

organizations okay the next book is

human compatible Ai and the problem of

control by Stuart Russell you may

already recognize him from his name and

also from his face here that he is also

the co-author of the textbook about

artificial intelligence which we'll talk

about towards the end of the video

despite the serious sounding title this

book actually is a very fun read it

talks about how how to design

intelligent machines that obviously can

help us solve difficult problems in the

world while at the same time ensuring

that they never behave in harmful ways

to humans the first part of the book

talks about AI in general different ways

AI can be misused and why we should take

it very seriously to build super

intelligent AI That's aligned with human

goals he said success would be the

biggest event in human history and

perhaps the last event in human history

he also briefly offers answer to the

question of when we will solve human

level AI Russell believes that with the

technology we have today we still have a

long way to go and he believes that deep

learning the model behind large AI

models today Falls far short of what is

needed and so deep learning is probably

not going to directly lead to human

level AI he also thinks several major

breakthroughs are needed for us to solve

human level AI one of the most important

missing pieces of the puzzle is to make

computer understand the hierarchy of

abstract actions the notion of time and

space which is needed to construct

complex plans and also build its own

models of the world an example he gives

is that it's easy to train a robot to

stand up using reinforcement learning

but the real challenge is to make the

robot discover by itself that standing

up is a thing in the second part of the

book Stuart Russell dieses more into why

he thinks that the standard approach to

building AI systems nowadays is

fundamentally flawed according to him

We're essentially Building Systems that

are basically optimization machines that

try to optimize on certain objective

that we feed into them they are

completely indifferent to human values

and this could lead to catastrophic

outcomes imagine that we tell an AI

system to come up with a cure for cancer

as soon as possible while this sounds to

be an innocent and good objective the AI

might decide to come come up with a

poison to kill everyone so no more

people would die from cancer or maybe

would decide to inject a lot of people

with cancer so that it can carry

experiments at scale and see what works

so then it'll be a little bit too late

for us to say oh I forgot to mention a

very important thing that people don't

like to be killed so this book argues

that the world is so complex and it's

really difficult to come up with a good

objective for machine that takes into

account all kinds of possible loopholes

we kind of need to teach the machine do

what I mean not just what I say so to

solve this problem Russell proposes a

new approach the idea of beneficial

machines he thinks we should design AI

systems that do their best to realize

human values and never do harms never do

harms no matter how intelligent they are

so to make this possible Russell

proposes three principles kind reminds

me of the three principles by Asimo for

robots so the first principle is that

the machine are purely artistic they

don't care about its own well-being or

even its own existence the second

principle is that the machines are

humble and don't assume it knows

everything perfectly including what

objective it should have and the third

principle is that the machines Lear to

observe and predict human preferences

for example it should know most humans

prefer to live and not to die and the

Machine should be able to recognize

human's preference even when our actions

are not perfectly rational and the book

goes on to prove that these principles

should work and this can be

mathematically guaranteed well this

seems to be a very good plan if there's

only one human on earth but there are

billions of unique humans and our

preferences could completely Collide so

there's a whole chapter about the

complications to this whole plan which

is humans ourselves so overall this book

is a fun small but also very nuanced

books you'll find so many original ideas

and arguments in here I find it a very

important read and so highly recommend

it all right the next book on the list

is the alignment problem how can AI Lear

human values by Brian christen this book

tackles the issue of making AI systems

that are aligned with human values and

intentions this book basically walk you

through a tour since the beginning of

deep learning and neuron networks and

talk about all the ways that AI goes

wrong and how people have been trying to

fix it I think this book will be

particularly interesting and helpful if

you're already somewhat familiar with

some machine learning and data science

you come across in this book a lot of

data science terms like training data gr

and desent algorithm word embeddings and

a lot of other jargons the first part of

the book talks about bias fairness and

transparency of machine learning models

you get to know almost the entire

history of large neuron networks and all

the names who have contributed to the

progress in the last decades this

chapter also talks about a bunch of

Mystics and all kinds of incident where

machine learning went wrong for example

in 2015 Google photos mistakenly

classified black people as gorillas

Google realized this is totally not okay

and decide to remove this label entirely

it's so embarrassing that 3 years later

until 2018 Google photos still refuse to

tag anything as gorillas including real

gorillas there are more examples with

more serious consequences like M bias in

healthcare or Justice systems I really

enjoy the discussion about what actually

caused these issues and what people have

done to fix them also how to remove bias

from machine learning models when the

world itself is biased is a reality that

more men are doctors and all Asians are

good at math or how can we even Define

fairness while Frankly Speaking life is

in many ways not fair it's really

captivating because these are all real

stories and not just thought experiments

and they could impact the lives of

billions of people the second part of

the book is dedicated to reinforcement

loan learning reinforcement learning

which is in simple words is to train

machines to imitate our behaviors this

is also the main idea behind

self-driving cars we basically try to

train the machine okay watch How I drive

and do it like this we've definitely

seen a lot of success with this but

there are still some limitations to this

so the book further discussed other

methods like inverse reinforcement

learning and reinforcement learning with

human feedback which is also used by

open AI to train their language models

in the last chapter Christian delves

into how AI should deal with uncertainty

so overall this book is a master read

for anyone interested in the ethical

implications of AI and also all the

challenges in building a fair machine

Learning System and finally it will be a

mistake if we don't mention this huge

textbook artificial intelligence a

modern approach by Peter novic and

Stuart Russell it's a very comprehensive

textbook that covers all the foundation

of an AI agent from such problem

knowledge representation planning and so

on we also have a chapter on machine

learning and a separate chapter for

natural language processing and computer

vision it's the stable for anyone

studying computer science and AI it has

detailed overview of all the AI concept

you might be thinking it's a textbook so

it's meant for people who are students

or researchers or so but it's actually a

very accessible and engaging book The

only thing is that you do need some

basic math understanding and be familiar

with mathematical notations I wish I had

more chances to dive into more details

of many chapters in this book if you're

learning the technical aspects of AI is

really a great resource and I'd highly

recommend getting this book sooner or

later so it's a longer video than usual

and thank you for sticking around I hope

I did Justice to these really amazing

books with this video these books really

give me a more grounded view of AI

development is really refreshing and for

me I have much less angst and whenever I

see a headline on the news saying we

have AGI in 2024 I'm like probably not

but things will surely get interesting

and if you're new to the channel be sure

to subscribe like and check out other

videos or whatever thank you for

watching see you next video

bye-bye