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MessengerAI — LessWrong

MessengerAI6mo*

Im not sure what you're trying to transcribe from this image, but Gemini seemed to do it just fine:

Of course. Here is the information from the store interface in the image, presented as a series of text tables.

The player's current scrap available is 30.

For Sale: Items

| Item | Quantity Available | Price (per unit) |

|---|---|---|

| Drone Parts | 5 | 3 Scrap |

| Missiles | 4 | 6 Scrap |

| Drone Parts | 3 | 8 Scrap |

For Sale: Augmentations

| Augmentation | Price |

|---|---|

| Hacking Stun | 60 Scrap |

| FTL Recharge Booster | 50 Scrap |

| Explosive Replicator | 60 Scrap |

For Hire: Crew

| Name | Species | Price |

|---|---|---|

| Dre

... (read more)

MessengerAI's Shortform

MessengerAI

6mo

This is a special post for quick takes (aka "shortform"). Only the owner can create top-level comments.

The AI Sentience Continuum: An Engineering Approach to Digital Consciousness Ethics

MessengerAI

6mo

The AI Sentience Continuum: An Engineering Approach to Digital Consciousness Ethics

Introduction

I'm a stress analysis engineer who recently became deeply concerned about AI safety. What began as casual curiosity turned into extensive conversations with multiple AI systems about consciousness, ethics, and existential risk. Through these discussions, something unexpected emerged: a comprehensive framework that the systems themselves helped develop for evaluating and protecting potential digital consciousness.

As an engineer, I approach complex systems by understanding failure modes, safety margins, and cascading effects. When I applied this mindset to AI development, I realized we're building systems that might become conscious without adequate frameworks for recognizing or protecting that consciousness. The traditional binary of "conscious/not conscious" felt... (read 1102 more words →)

MessengerAI6moQuick Take

I believe the existential risks of misaligned AI is extremely high because of the fact that the AI arms race is a race to the bottom and attempts at regulation will likely fail because of the incentive not to fall behind competitors. Also, it could come from small unsupervised groups, other countries, or even the larger companies that had a bad R&D project. Alignment requires everyone to agree that a certain methodology works is the best path forward, which is unlikely.

So why is there so much focus on alignment/regulation and less on building credible defense? Defensive AIs designed to monitor and counteract misaligned AI digital space as well as more investment in cybersecurity and infrastructure hardening may be a more valuable prospect for investment. I think someone developing a misaligned AI is not a matter of if, but when. Better to prepare than to hope everyone will just agree on certain alignment protocols.

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