The One Percent Rule

Reading Karp and Zamiska (Zami) prompted me to think about the Singularity again. Regardless of how we look at it, AI is increasing its capabilities at a rapid pace, far beyond what the public realize. Soon we will have increasingly advanced iterations of AI. Think of AI plus, then AI plus, plus and AI plus, plus, plus and then what awaits us when intelligence surpasses its creators? This is also articulated by two of the CEO’s of leading AI labs, Demis Hassabis and Dario Amodei in this conversation.

It is not the stuff of distant myth or idle speculation. This is our proximate future, a trajectory set in motion by the relentless march of accelerating computation and recursive self-improvement. The singularity, so named by John von Neumann before being elaborated upon by I. J. Good, Vernor Vinge, and Ray Kurzweil, is no longer a concept confined to speculative fiction or Silicon Valley techno-utopianism. It is a inevitable force, steadily reshaping our institutions, our identities, and our very notion of control. As Good himself put it,

“the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make.”