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Stanley: Direct pursuit of human-level AI is a naive objective

Ken Stanley · Kenneth Stanley: Set The Right Objectives · Oct 4, 2022 · at 39:29

AI researcher Ken Stanley discusses the realistic limits of goal-directed AI research with host Shane Parrish.

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“Like, at some level, there's, like, this really grandiose conception of, like, some human-like computer, and, like, that is, I think, a naive objective right now. Like, you just don't want to know how to do that. We don't know what the stepping stones are that lead to that, although they're getting closer, perhaps, but they're still not close, I would say.”

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