TechTalks Newsletter

Share this post
Evolution, rewards, and artificial intelligence
bdtechtalks.substack.com

Evolution, rewards, and artificial intelligence

Ben Dickson
Jun 17, 2021
Comment1
Share

Last week, I wrote an analysis of “Reward Is Enough,” a paper by scientists at DeepMind. As the title suggests, the researchers hypothesize that the right reward is all you need to create the abilities associated with intelligence, such as perception, motor functions, and language.

The article and the paper triggered a heated debate on social media, with reactions going from full support of the idea to outright rejection. Of course, both sides make valid claims. But the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Natural evolution is proof that the reward hypothesis is scientifically valid. But implementing the pure reward approach to reach human-level intelligence has some very hefty requirements.

In this post, I’ll try to disambiguate in simple terms where the line between theory and practice stands.

Read the full article on TechTalks.

For more on the philosophy of artificial intelligence:

  • Will artificial intelligence have a conscience?

  • The complicated world of AI consciousness

  • A reflection on artificial intelligence singularity

  • Human Compatible: A timely warning on the future of AI

Comment1
ShareShare

Create your profile

0 subscriptions will be displayed on your profile (edit)

Skip for now

Only paid subscribers can comment on this post

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in

Check your email

For your security, we need to re-authenticate you.

Click the link we sent to , or click here to sign in.

Craig Travis
Jun 20, 2021

People are different. In fact they're opposites. One wonders how good something will be. Another wonders how evil. I noticed right away instead of wondering if AI would raise our conscience to a new level you wondered if it would even have one. Just sayin'

Expand full comment
Reply
TopNewCommunity

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2022 Ben Dickson
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Publish on Substack Get the app
Substack is the home for great writing