We Need a Fourth Law of Robotics in the Age of AI
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- First Law: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
- Second Law: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
- Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
- Fourth Law (proposed): A robot or AI must not deceive a human by impersonating a human being.
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See the full story here: https://towardsdatascience.com/we-need-a-fourth-law-of-robotics-in-the-age-of-ai/
Why Convergence-Of-Evidence That Predicts AGI Will Outdo Scientific Consensus By AI Experts
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The good news about scientific consensus includes these four salient points:
- (1) Scientific consensus is based on collective insight versus individual-only opinion.
- (2) Scientific consensus gives clarity and stability to what we know about scientific facets.
- (3) Scientific consensus serves as a building block for constructing holistic scientific theories.
- (4) Scientific consensus is flexible and can adapt as our understanding of the world changes.
The bad news about scientific consensus includes these four crucial points:
- (1) Scientific consensus can turn out to be wrong and yet we were earlier led to assume it was unquestionably right.
- (2) Scientific consensus is somewhat insidious since it is hard to stridently disagree with a consensus viewpoint.
- (3) Scientific consensus might be reached simply due to bird-of-a-feather convention and not due to hardcore scientific reasoning.
- (4) Scientific consensus at times becomes dogma that no one dares refute.
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Convergence-of-Evidence aka Consilience
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We dutifully seek out evidence from a multitude of sources and use that evidence to essentially converge on a scientific posture or status. It is best if the sources are independent of each other. I say that because a bunch of sources that are all from the same drinking well aren’t going to up the ante on being a healthy convergence. The convergence would simply be the same regardless that you had amassed a ton of evidence.
The idea is that we can put our shoulders behind a convergence-of-evidence that comes from different sources that each arrived at their positions via different and separate means. ...
Convergence-of-Evidence And AGI
This brings us to the big reveal, namely that in addition to AI luminaires having their predictions about the attainment of AGI, plus having a form of scientific consensus via the use of AI expert surveys, we ought to also include convergence-of-evidence toward AGI into the mix too. Sadly, there isn’t much of a movement yet in the AGI arena towards a convergence-of-evidence or consilience. I am optimistic that we will gradually and inexorably get there. ...
I offer a brief sketch of what kind of evidence we would want to encompass in a convergence-of-evidence framework for identifying the nearness of attaining AGI. There would need to be a concerted effort to land on firm metrics and standardize the approach. If a standard isn’t formulated, everyone will be hawking their particular set of evidence, and it will be a chaotic mess. ...
See the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lanceeliot/2025/05/06/framework-for-convergence-of-evidence-that-we-are-nearing-agi-will-outdo-scientific-consensus-by-ai-experts/
Artificial General Intelligence in Competition and War
PhilNote: Unfortunately this is why DOGE is eliminating gov't agencies and positioning the gov't to outsource national policy to the Xai / Palintar / Anduril collective. The biproduct of DOGE is a huge transfer of tax dollars to Elon, Palmer Lucky, and Peter Thiel.
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In case it escaped anyone’s notice the "third offset" was a miserable failure. We decisively lost, and our potential enemies won. The United States kept building expensive weapons systems while our enemies built up an asymmetric advantage by focusing on relatively inexpensive missiles, drones, cyber, etc. But there is good news, an AGI-powered economy and military forces are going to give us another bite at the apple. If the United States first wins the race to deploy agentic warfare and then couples that with AGI, our past mistakes and failures will become meaningless, as the new AGI paradigm will guarantee freedom, security, and prosperity. This time, failure is not an option.
See the full story here: https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2025/05/07/artificial_general_intelligence_in_competition_and_war_1108660.html
OpenAI launches global push for democratic AI
PhilNote: I currently agree with the idea put forth in Chris Dixon's book Read Write Own that as long as you have centralized control of a network (as proposed by Sam Altman here) you face the risk of arbitrary non-democratic changes by the network's leadership. The next generation of networks, including those that incorporate AI, could very well be decentralized and federated.
OpenAI announced a push to help countries build AI Infrastructure and promote AI rooted in democratic, rather than authoritarian, values.
Why it matters: Global expansion will be one key to ensuring that OpenAI's massive investments pay off — and the company is arguing that it will help the U.S. counter China's influence, too.
How it works: OpenAI chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane said the new "OpenAI for Countries" effort, announced Wednesday, aims to partner with countries or regions to build and operate data centers that would serve up localized versions of ChatGPT for their citizens, with particular focus on health care and education.
- Countries that take part would help fund infrastructure as part of a broadening of the Project Stargate effort that OpenAI announced with Oracle and SoftBank earlier this year.
- OpenAI will be working closely with the U.S. government, which has export control powers, to determine where OpenAI technology can be deployed.
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The big picture: OpenAI's announcement comes a day before CEO Sam Altman is set to testify before the Senate Commerce Committee at a hearing on "Winning the AI race."
See the full story here: https://www.axios.com/2025/05/07/openai-democratic-ai-expansion?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Saudi Arabia: Neom climate adviser warns megacity could alter weather systems
A climate scientist working as an adviser on Saudi Arabia's Neom project has warned that the new city could change local environments and weather systems, including the path of wind and sand storms. ...
He said the sustainability advisory committee, which he sits on, was told during a recent meeting that the climate concerns were escalated to a “higher priority” since the abrupt departure of Nadhmi al-Nasr, the former chief of Neom. ...
See the full story here: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-arabia-neom-climate-adviser-warns-megacity-alter-weather-system?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
AI developers should counter misinformation and protect fact-based news, global media groups say
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The group says thousands of public and private media in broadcast, print and online formats have joined the “News Integrity in the Age of AI” initiative, whose five core steps were announced Monday at the World News Media Congress in Krakow, Poland.
The initiative is calling for news content to only be used in generative AI models with the authorization of the content originator, and for clarity about attribution and accuracy. It says the original news source behind AI-generated material must be “apparent and accessible."
“Organizations and institutions that see truth and facts as the desirable core of a democracy and the foundation of an empowered society should now come together at one table to shape the next era,” said Ladina Heimgartner, president of the publishers association and CEO of Switzerland’s Ringier Media. ...
See the full story here; https://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/ai-developers-should-counter-misinformation-and-protect-fact-based-news-global-media-groups-say/72EGCLVDXJAPNKKC6R6GE3MXWM/
A.I. Is Getting More Powerful, but Its Hallucinations Are Getting Worse
... More than two years after the arrival of ChatGPT, tech companies, office workers and everyday consumers are using A.I. bots for an increasingly wide array of tasks. But there is still no way of ensuring that these systems produce accurate information. ...
The newest and most powerful technologies — so-called reasoning systems from companies like OpenAI, Google and the Chinese start-up DeepSeek — are generating more errors, not fewer. As their math skills have notably improved, their handle on facts has gotten shakier. It is not entirely clear why. ...
“You spend a lot of time trying to figure out which responses are factual and which aren’t,” said Pratik Verma, co-founder and chief executive of Okahu, a company that helps businesses navigate the hallucination problem. “Not dealing with these errors properly basically eliminates the value of A.I. systems, which are supposed to automate tasks for you.” ...
“The way these systems are trained, they will start focusing on one task — and start forgetting about others,” said Laura Perez-Beltrachini, a researcher at the University of Edinburgh who is among a team closely examining the hallucination problem.
Another issue is that reasoning models are designed to spend time “thinking” through complex problems before settling on an answer. As they try to tackle a problem step by step, they run the risk of hallucinating at each step. The errors can compound as they spend more time thinking.
The latest bots reveal each step to users, which means the users may see each error, too. Researchers have also found that in many cases, the steps displayed by a bot are unrelated to the answer it eventually delivers ...
See the full story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/05/technology/ai-hallucinations-chatgpt-google.html
Anthropic CEO Admits We Have No Idea How AI Works
In an essay published to his personal website, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei announced plans to create a robust "MRI on AI" within the next decade. The goal is not only to figure out what makes the technology tick, but also to head off any unforeseen dangers associated with what he says remains its currently enigmatic nature.
"When a generative AI system does something, like summarize a financial document, we have no idea, at a specific or precise level, why it makes the choices it does — why it chooses certain words over others, or why it occasionally makes a mistake despite usually being accurate," the Anthropic CEO admitted. ...
The whole thing is driven by ingested human creative works, not from first principles of machine intelligence.
"This lack of understanding," Amodei wrote, "is essentially unprecedented in the history of technology." ...
See the full story here; https://futurism.com/anthropic-ceo-admits-ai-ignorance
UBER Expands Its Robotaxi Network with Momenta to Launch Service in Europe
Uber announced on Friday that it is teaming up with Chinese self-driving startup Momenta in order to launch robotaxi services outside the U.S. and China. The first rollout is planned for Europe in early 2026 and will start with safety operators inside the vehicles. Uber’s goal is to combine its global ridesharing network with Momenta’s autonomous driving technology to offer safe and efficient robotaxi rides. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that this partnership will help make autonomous rides more reliable and affordable worldwide. ...
See the full story here: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/markets/stocks/AMZN/pressreleases/32199578/uber-expands-its-robotaxi-network-with-momenta-to-launch-service-in-europe/
DOGE Is in Its AI Era
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Wherever DOGE has gone, AI has been in tow. Given the opacity of the organization, a lot remains unknown about how exactly it’s being used and where. But two revelations this week show just how extensive—and potentially misguided—DOGE’s AI aspirations are.
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Wherever DOGE has gone, AI has been in tow. Given the opacity of the organization, a lot remains unknown about how exactly it’s being used and where. But two revelations this week show just how extensive—and potentially misguided—DOGE’s AI aspirations are. ...
If nothing else, it’s the shortest path to a maximalist gutting of a major agency’s authority, with the chance of scattered bullshit thrown in for good measure.
At least it’s an understandable use case. The same can’t be said for another AI effort associated with DOGE. As WIRED reported Friday, an early DOGE recruiter is once again looking for engineers, this time to “design benchmarks and deploy AI agents across live workflows in federal agencies.” His aim is to eliminate tens of thousands of government positions, replacing them with agentic AI and “freeing up” workers for ostensibly “higher impact” duties. ... AI agents are still in the early stages; they’re not nearly cut out for this. They may not ever be. It’s like asking a toddler to operate heavy machinery. ...
The problem isn’t artificial intelligence in and of itself. It’s the full-throttle deployment in contexts where mistakes can have devastating consequences. It’s the lack of clarity around what data is being fed where and with what safeguards. ...
AI is neither a bogeyman nor a panacea. It’s good at some things and bad at others. But DOGE is using it as an imperfect means to destructive ends. It’s prompting its way toward a hollowed-out US government, essential functions of which will almost inevitably have to be assumed by—surprise!—connected Silicon Valley contractors.
See the full story here: https://www.wired.com/story/doge-is-in-its-ai-era/
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