Nor is there likely to ever be such cooperation.   Thus, well intended intellectual elites in the West are not in a position to decide the future of AI.   I shoulda just said that.

Tired: can humans solve artificial intelligence alignment?

Wired: can artificial intelligence solve human alignment?

Apologies that I haven't read the article (not an academic) but I just wanted to cast my one little vote that I enjoy this point, and the clever way you put it.

Briefly, it's my sense that most of the self inflicted problems which plague humanity (war for example) arise out of the nature of thought, that which we are all made of psychologically.   They're built-in.  

I can see how AI, like computing and the Internet, could have a significant impact upon the content of thought, but not the nature of thought.

Genetic engineering seems a more likely candidate for editing the nature of thought, but I'm not at all optimistic that this could happen any time soon, or maybe any time ever.   

EA and AI safety have invested a lot of resources into building our ability to get coordination and cooperation between big AI labs.

Are you having any luck finding cooperation with Russian, Chinese, Iranian and North Korean labs?

However, since ASI could reduce most risks, delaying the creation of ASI could also increase other existential risks, especially from advanced future technologies such as synthetic biology and molecular nanotechnology.

Here's a solution to all this.  I call this revolutionary new philosophy....

Acting Like Adults

Here's how it works.  We don't create a new technology which poses an existential risk until we've credibly figured out how to make the last one safe.  

So, in practice, it looks like this.  End all funding for AI, synthetic biology and molecular nanotechnology etc until we figure how to liberate ourselves from 1945 existential risk technology.  

The super sophisticated, high end, intellectual elite, philosophically elegant methodology involved here is called...

Common Sense

If our teenage son wants us to buy him a car, we might respond by saying, "show me that you won't crash this moped first".  Prove that you're ready.

The fact that all of this has to be explained, and once explained it will be universally ignored, demonstrates that...

We ain't ready.

Why was progress so slow in the past?

Knowledge development feeds back on itself.  So when you have a little knowledge you get a slow speed of further development, and when you have a lot of knowledge you get a fast speed.  The more knowledge we get, the faster we go.

The first photo was incredible, amazing!  Thanks for sharing that.

So what do we make of these men, who risk so much for so little?

Macho madness.  Youtube and Facebook is full of it these days, and it truly pains me to watch young people with so much ahead of them risk everything in exchange for a few minutes of social media fame.  

But, you know, it's not just young people, it's close to everybody.   Here's an experiment to demonstrate.  The next time you're on the Interstate count how many people NASCAR drafting tailgate you at 75mph.   Risking everything, in exchange for nothing.

On behalf of the Boomer generation I wish to offer my sincere apologies for how we totally ripped off our own children.  We feasted on the big jobs in higher education, and sent you the bill.

I paid my own way through the last two years of a four year degree, ending in 1978.  I graduated with $4,000 in debt.  That could have been you too, but we Boomer administrators wanted the corner office.

I've spent my entire adult life living near, sometimes only blocks away, from the largest university in Florida.  It used to be an institution of higher learning, but we Boomers turned it in to a country club.  Very expensive. But no worries, cause we passed the bill on to you.

By the way, reading this post costs $1300.  But don't worry about it, because I can give you a loan, with interest of course.

As a self appointed great prophet, sage and heretic I am working to reveal that a focus on AI alignment is misplaced at this time.   As a self appointed great prophet, sage and heretic I expect to be rewarded for my contribution with my execution, which is part of the job that a good heretic expects in advance, is not surprised by,  and accepts with generally good cheer.  Just another day in the office.  :-)

Here's a suggested theme song for the EA movement.