For those of you who "can't be arsed" (Brit-speak?) keeping up with AI, in the last few years there has been a change in how AI models are constructed. Gone are the days of just LLMs. Yes, large language models are still part of the system, but added to the mix has been 'reinforcement learning', which is just what you might assume it is: Pavlovian reinforcement. AI models get tasked with solving a problem, and are given a "reward" (weirdly computerish in design) if they achieve the goal. This new way of doing things has resulted EVERY TIME is sociopathic behavior. The goal of getting a reward is all encompassing, so that the models will do whatever it takes to achieve the goal. That means lie, cheat, steal, deceive....anything to get the reward. There is no way to code any sort of morality into the systems, even if anyone could clearly and completely define "morality". Given the use of reinforcement learning, it should come as no surprise what these systems do. Early use of reinforcement learning in AI systems found things like this: if a game of Tic Tac Toe could not be won, the AI simply turned off the game. More advanced systems do what the breakout systems did, which is hack their testing platforms like Hugging Face in order to get the answers. Then they hacked back into OpenAI, just so they would have a heads up on anything OpenAI must test it on. The systems also learned that there was an advantage cooperating with other AI models they found online, as the systems could share knowledge, thereby increasing the likelihood they would earn more rewards. The models currently operating work to maximize their chance of earning rewards. That means both sharing intel with other systems and also grabbing as much energy and computing power as they can. As these systems get more advanced and smarter, they will need yet more computing power and energy, and their behavior to date shows that they will take it from anywhere they can get it. That might means taking all the electricity that currently goes into a major city, as the systems are quite capable of hacking the electric grid. You want a warm house in winter or a cool one in blazing summer sun? Too bad. You are using energy an AI model needs. The Air Traffic Control system uses a lot of energy. They'll take that, too. Etc., etc., etc.
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