[Zak Safra]

Hi Helen

I think your term “crisis and opportunity” is spot on. I’d add to that that time frame is important. What I mean by that is that in the short term benefits and the long term risks are not fully understood yet, and vice versa. I don’t need to scaremonger but if you combine language models, computer vision and robotics you potentially have incredible power at your disposal —are Terminator like scenarios so far fetched?

Yet, paradoxically because the risks are so high, it’s pointless and probably even more dangerous to try and “stop AI”. That would probably be a left hemisphere, knee jerk response. A right hemisphere approach here would probably ask — “ok, what kind of crisis are we having?”.

I think I can summarize my point as such: I agree that the emissary is now greatly empowered by AI. With his emissary’s new power, the Master can aspire to address new problems, in a previously unimaginable way. But I don’t know if the Master can ever, fully, trust his emissary. He must keep a watchful eye, always.

On a personal note, this is I think one of the main conclusions in Iain’s research. It’s amazing to me that it makes sense both at my own individual level and at a societal level too.

Zak