Stuart Buck

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Stuart Buck

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"AI Alignment" is a Dangerously Overloaded Term

I said on Twitter a while back that much of the discussion about "alignment" seems vacuous. After all, alignment to what?

The designer's intent? Often that is precisely the problem with software. It does exactly and literally what the designer programmed, however shortsighted. Plus, some designers may themselves be malevolent.
Aligned with human values? One of the most universal human values is tribalism, including willingness to oppress or kill the outgroup.
Aligned with "doing good things"? Whose definition of "good"?

Will releasing the weights of large language models grant widespread access to pandemic agents?

Stuart Buck3y00

My reaction on Twitter: https://twitter.com/stuartbuck1/status/1719152472558555481

Thoughts on the Singularity Institute (SI)

Stuart Buck3y-30

This post seems even more relevant and true now, in 2023.

Shutting down AI is not enough. We need to destroy all technology.

[+]Stuart Buck3y-14-22

Ideal governance (for companies, countries and more)

Stuart Buck4y10

Here's an interesting example of a fairly unique governance arrangement: https://issues.org/revisiting-nsf-nsb-science-advice-olds-rosenberg-robichaud/

Ideal governance (for companies, countries and more)

Stuart Buck4y30

Ostrom is great, obviously. In fact, I forgot how thoroughly I summarized a good bit of that literature in a 2001 piece: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=268744

Ideal governance (for companies, countries and more)

Stuart Buck4y40

I recently stumbled across a sociology classic of sorts: Paul J. DiMaggio and Walter W. Powell, "The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields" (American Sociological Review, 1983). https://www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/ifi/INF9200/v10/readings/papers/DeMaggio.pdf

"We ask...why there is such startling homogeneity of organizational forms and practices."

The main answer: "We identify three mechanisms through which institutional isomorphic change occurs...: 1) coercive isomorphism that stems from ... (read more)