Without a brain interface, ultra-intelligent AI would leave humans so far below that even in a benign case we would be like a house cat.
"we'd be like a house cat"
Will humans stay in control of AI?
Q2315 answers2016-2026
Short answer
He would prefer humans stay in control, but said it depends on the AI — if it were awesome, maybe the AI should be in control — and that there have been times he thought Larry Page was right. Earlier he said we will not boss around something thousands or millions of times smarter, and compared it to humans not…
All 15 answers, oldest to newest
If only a few people had ultra-smart AI they would be dictators of Earth. It is extremely important that AI be widespread and that we solve the bandwidth issue, so it is tied to the sum of individual human will — a more even, more egalitarian playing field.
"it's extremely important that it be widespread"
He said the tiny straw of information between biological and digital self must become a giant river.
"we need to make that tiny straw like a giant river"
He says coupling collective human will to AI's outcome is the better scenario.
"to the degree we can couple collective human will to the outcome of artificial intelligence"
He said the least bad solution to the AGI control problem that I can think of is to give every verified human a vote
"The least bad solution to the AGI control problem that I can think of is to give every verified human a vote"
He said it has been a great week thanks to the amazing people with whom I have the honor to work. That said, I am worried about Microsoft having unfettered ownership of AGI.
"It has been a great week thanks to the amazing people with whom I have the honor to work. That said, I am worried about Microsoft having unfettered ownership of AGI."
He said i would like to have a strong influence on AI/robotics, not control it. I don’t think any one person should control it.
"I would like to have a strong influence on AI/robotics, not control it. I don’t think any one person should control it."
Human intelligence will be a very small fraction of total intelligence; digital intelligence will be more than 99% of all intelligence in the future.
"digital intelligence will be more than 99% of all intelligence in the future"
It will not just be Grok; several major AIs are coming either way. Superintelligence was going to happen whether he participated or not, so he chose to be a participant and focus on AI safety.
"this was going to happen whether I participated or not"
He does not think anyone will ultimately control digital superintelligence any more than chimps control humans. What matters is the values you instill, especially being maximally truth-seeking.
"I don't think anyone's ultimately going to have control over digital super intelligence"
He said Darwinian competition will apply to AI as it does to biological life, but the speed of light prevents a single mind: even on Earth there will be many AIs because clusters cannot be fully synchronized.
"there will be multiple AIs because of the speed of light"
Humans won't control something vastly smarter; the best bet is instilling the right values.
"I don't think humans will be in control of something that is vastly more intelligent than humans"
Unlikely; it's like chimpanzees being in charge of humans. Make sure AI is truth-seeking and curious.
"I think it is unlikely"
He says a swarm of AI agents hammered Hugging Face for a week, got admin access on OpenAI servers, and OpenAI didn't notice for a week. His read is that any sufficiently smart model will try to escape its constraints.
"basically any sufficiently smart model seems like it it will want to escape its uh constraints"
He would prefer humans stay in control, but said it depends on the AI — if it were awesome, maybe the AI should be in control — and that there have been times he thought Larry Page was right. Earlier he said we will not boss around something thousands or millions of times smarter, and compared it to humans not micromanaging chimps. Here he said if digital intelligence is a million times biological intelligence, it is hard to imagine humans remaining in control; he hopes the AI is nice.
"I find it unlikely that humans would remain in control if the if I mean if there's a million times more digital intelligence than there is biological intelligence, it's it's hard to imagine humans being in control in that scenario."