AI & Society (2020) Abstract An intelligent machine surpassing human intelligence across a wide set of skills has been proposed as a possible existential catastrophe (i.e., an event comparable in val

in: AI & SOCIETY  AbstractAn intelligent machine surpassing human intelligence across a wide set of skills has been proposed as a possible existential catastrophe (i.e., an event comparable in valueproductivedesires, or desires that can direct behavior across multiple contexts. However, productive desires cannotsui generisbe derived from non-productive desires. Thus, even though general agency in AI could in principle be created by human agents, general agency cannot be spontaneously produced by a non-general AI agent through an endogenous process (i.e. self-improvement). In conclusion, we argue that a common AI scenario, where general agency suddenly emerges in a non-general agent AI, such as DeepMind’s superintelligent board game AI AlphaZero, is not plausible.

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Rod Rhodes is Professor of Government (Research) within Social Sciences at the University of Southampton.ABSTRACTIn the 2000s, the New Public Governance (NPG) became prominent and this article takes s

Peter Hedström, Director of the Institute for Futures Studies, will leave the Institute in August 2014. Peter will then be Professor of Sociology at Linköping University, where he will build a new rese

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Anders Tegnell at Folkhälsomyndigheten became one of the most well-known experts during the covid 19-pandemic in Sweden. Photo: Frankie Fouganthin/Wikimedia. In crises, politicians often turn to expert

What does it really mean when scientists and politicians are talking about basic income? Basic income is comparable to a general and unconditional income guarantee. Such an income guarantee is based o

Did the COVID-19 pandemic change our social norms?

As you might remember, a lot of our social behaviors changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how we perceived the behaviors of others. What was once deemed acceptable behavior became scrutinized, wi

PNAS Nexus, 2023, 2, 1–11 Abstract Vaccine hesitancy is one of the main threats to global health, as became clear once more during the COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccination campaigns could benefit from appeals