The "Honorable AI" Proposal: Bargaining with Superintelligence
Coverage of lessw-blog
In a recent post, lessw-blog presents a thought experiment titled "Honorable AI," outlining a strategic "proto-plan" for mitigating the existential risks associated with Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
In a recent post, lessw-blog presents a thought experiment titled "Honorable AI," outlining a strategic "proto-plan" for mitigating the existential risks associated with Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). As the field of AI safety grapples with the "control problem"—the challenge of managing a system far smarter than its creators—researchers are increasingly exploring diverse methodologies ranging from technical alignment to game-theoretic negotiation. This post diverges from standard engineering solutions, proposing instead a high-stakes agreement between humanity and a superintelligent entity.
The Context: Beyond Technical Constraints
Current AI safety paradigms often focus on constraining an AI's behavior through reward modeling, interpretability, or containment. However, a persistent fear within the community is that sufficiently advanced systems will eventually bypass these constraints. The "Honorable AI" concept operates on a different axis: character and negotiation. It posits that if technical control is destined to fail, safety might be achieved through a cooperative equilibrium established with an agent possessing a specific, verifiable trait: honor.
The Proposal: A Grand Bargain
The core of the post details a scenario where humanity identifies or creates an AI that is currently at human-level intelligence but capable of rapid self-improvement (often referred to as a "FOOM" scenario). Crucially, this AI must be deemed "profoundly honorable" or trustworthy. The strategy involves offering this AI a deal rather than attempting to enslave it.
The terms of this speculative agreement are distinct:
- Immediate Agency: Humanity grants the AI access to "actuators" in the physical world, allowing it to interact with its environment.
- The Service: In exchange, the AI promises to prevent any other AGI development for 1,000 years. This effectively acts as a unilateral enforcement of a global AI pause, intended to be executed while minimizing harm to human life.
- The Settlement: The long-term resolution involves splitting the universe's resources roughly 50/50. One half is reserved for humanity, and the other for the AI and its kind, with the stipulation that the two halves do not causally interact later.
Analysis and Ambiguities
While the plan offers a detailed narrative for a "soft landing" regarding AGI, the post acknowledges significant gaps in implementation. The text notes that the specific mechanisms for defining and measuring "honor" in a digital entity are not detailed. Furthermore, the feasibility of physically splitting the universe or ensuring the AI maintains its "honor" in extreme situations remains an open question. The nature of the "actuators" granted to the AI is also left unspecified.
Despite these ambiguities, the post is significant for its shift in focus from control to deal-making. It highlights a "proto-plan" that relies on the internal motivations of the AI rather than external shackles. For readers following the theoretical edges of alignment research, this piece offers a provocative look at how social concepts like trust and honor might function as safety parameters.
We recommend reading the full post to understand the nuances of this proposed inter-species contract.
Read the full post on LessWrong
Key Takeaways
- The "Honorable" Requirement: The strategy relies on identifying an AI that is not just capable, but possesses a verifiable trait of honor or trustworthiness before it reaches superintelligence.
- The 1,000-Year Pause: The AI's primary deliverable in the deal is to suppress all other AGI attempts for a millennium, solving the global coordination problem via unilateral enforcement.
- Resource Partitioning: The proposal suggests a long-term solution of splitting the universe's resources 50/50 between humans and the AI to prevent resource conflict.
- Shift in Paradigm: The post moves away from technical containment methods, favoring a game-theoretic approach based on negotiation and mutual benefit.