Peter McCluskey

Jan 23, 2025 | lesswrong.com | Peter McCluskey

I recently read Darren McKee's book "Uncontrollable: The Threat of Artificial Superintelligence and the Race to Save the World". I recommend this book as the best current introduction to AI risk for people with limited AI background. It prompted me to update my thinking about Asimov's Laws and related risks in light of recent evidence about AI capabilities. I've written a longer review that explains my thoughts in more detail. The author has a LW account here.

Dec 2, 2024 | lesswrong.com | Peter McCluskey

Two months ago I attended Eric Drexler's launch ofMSEP.one. It's open source software, written bypeople with professional game design experience, intended to catalyzebetter designs for atomically precise manufacturing (or generativenanotechnology, as he now calls it). Drexler wants to draw more attention to the benefits of nanotech, whichinvolve large enough exponents that our intuition boggles at handlingthem.

Oct 18, 2024 | lesswrong.com | Peter McCluskey

I see widespread dismissal of AI capabilities. This slows down theproductivity gains from AI, and is a major contributor to disagreementsabout the risks of AI. It reminds me of prejudice against various types of biological minds. I will try to minimize the moralizing about fairness in this post, andfocus more on selfish reasons to encourage people to adopt an accurateview of the world. This post is mainly directed at people who think AIis mostly hype.

Oct 8, 2024 | lesswrong.com | Peter McCluskey |Nathan Helm-Burger |Roger Dearnaley |Start AtTheEnd

How can we make many humans who are very good at solving difficult problems? Summary (table of made-up numbers)I made up the made-up numbers in this table of made-up numbers; therefore, the numbers in this table of made-up numbers are made-up numbers. Call to actionIf you have a shitload of money, there are some projects you can give money to that would make supergenius humans on demand happen faster.

Sep 30, 2024 | lesswrong.com | Peter McCluskey

TL;DR: AI will soon reverse a big economic trend. Epistemic status: This post is likely more speculative than most of myposts. I'm writing this to clarify some vague guesses. Please assumethat most claims here are low-confidence forecasts. There has been an important trend over the past century or so for humancapital to increase in value relative to other economically importantassets.