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What are fiction stories related to AI alignment?

by Mati_Roy
29th Oct 2021
1 min read
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Fiction (Topic)
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What are fiction stories related to AI alignment?
13JenniferRM
10Garrett Baker
8Darmani
7Kaj_Sotala
6Mati_Roy
5Daniel Kokotajlo
4Charlie Steiner
4Kaj_Sotala
4Mati_Roy
4Pattern
3Mati_Roy
1ejacob
3Liam Donovan
2Pattern
1Liam Donovan
2Pattern
2Mati_Roy
2Mati_Roy
2Mati_Roy
2Mati_Roy
2Mati_Roy
2Mati_Roy
1TekhneMakre
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17 Answers sorted by
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JenniferRM

Oct 30, 2021

130

I've been rereading old books that might have been unduly influential on my young mind and thus returned to Heinlein's "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress". The protagonist is an apolitical computer programmer who befriends his computer and gets sucked into plotting a coup against the prison/government system for its failure to be adequately benevolent when a crisis arises that requires the role of "government" be filled by a regime able to do something other than "pure benign neglect + stealing shit sometimes".

The model of "computing" is very retrofuturistic (an imaginary future projected forward from a simpler era) but its technicalities have an internal logic of sorts.  The computer participates in the political discussions... Reading again with modern eyes, I was surprised to find a lurking alignment story.

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Garrett Baker

Oct 29, 2021

100

Crystal Society

Friendship is Optimal & related spinoffs

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Darmani

Oct 29, 2021

80

Define "related?"

Stories of wishes gone awry, like King Midas, are the original example.

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Kaj_Sotala

Oct 29, 2021

70

Greg Egan's Crystal Nights is about an attempt to align an AI society.

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Mati_Roy

Oct 29, 2021*

60

just in case just you consider just knowing the theme as kind of a spoiler; the short movie:

The Intelligence Explosion

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Daniel Kokotajlo

Jan 17, 2022

50

https://aiimpacts.org/partially-plausible-fictional-ai-futures/

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Charlie Steiner

Oct 29, 2021

40

The TV series Person of Interest, if only loosely.

The webcomic Seed.

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Kaj_Sotala

Oct 29, 2021

40

The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect is about what happens when a partially aligned AI takes over the world before its creators expect that.

Note that the associated warning is very much warranted:

This online novel contains strong language and extreme depictions of acts of sex and violence. Readers who are sensitive to such things should exercise discretion.

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Mati_Roy

Oct 29, 2021*

40

just in case just you consider just knowing the theme as kind of a spoiler; the short movie (part of an anthology):

Love, Death & Robots s1e14: Zima Blue

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[-]Pattern4y40

Anthology name, without more details for those desiring partial information:

Love, Death & Robots

Reply
3Mati_Roy4y
ah, made me thought of another one particularly relevant: The title of the episode is even more spoilery, so am putting it separately:
1ejacob4y
Clearly the best episode.

Liam Donovan

Oct 30, 2021*

30

Detonation -- an entertaining book that tries to flesh out a fast takeoff scenario and explicitly cites Bostrom and Yudkowsky. However, it also makes some extremely dubious choices; for example, the protagonist is a Marine hired to fight against the unfriendly AI, which doesn't seem like a very effective AI alignment strategy.

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[-]Pattern4y20

The link doesn't work.

Reply
1Liam Donovan4y
hopefully fixed?
2Pattern4y
Yes. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38884954-detonation works fine.

Mati_Roy

Dec 15, 2024

20

Steven Universe s1e24

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Mati_Roy

Feb 16, 2022

20

Avogadro Corp

I haven't read it, but the summary makes it seem related

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Mati_Roy

Jan 19, 2022

20

i didnt know that story, but a friend just told me that "avocadro corp" is showing in vivid detail how an autocorrect system like grammarly could be harnessed by an AI to subtly take over the world

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Mati_Roy

Jan 17, 2022

20

AI takeoff story: a continuation of progress by other means

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Mati_Roy

Oct 30, 2021

20

movie: Ex Machina

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Mati_Roy

Oct 30, 2021

20

TV show "NeXt"

See my reviews

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TekhneMakre

Oct 30, 2021

10

[kidding] Who Framed Roger Rabbit is about the aftermath of an unaligned AI that was successfully fitted with a shutdown button whose existence it completely ignores, and the programmers pressed the button after a few seconds of seeing the AI begin to implement its plan.

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I would have expected this question to already have been asked, but I couldn't find it.