David Hanson, CEO of Hanson Robotics and creator of the humanoid robot Sofia, explores the intersection of artificial intelligence, ethics, and human potential. In this thought-provoking interview, Hanson discusses his vision for developing AI systems that embody the best aspects of humanity while pushing beyond our current limitations, aiming to achieve what he calls “super wisdom.”
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The interview with David Hanson covers:
The importance of incorporating biological drives and compassion into AI systems
Hanson’s concept of “existential pattern ethics” as a basis for AI morality
The potential for AI to enhance human intelligence and wisdom
Challenges in developing artificial general intelligence (AGI)
The need to democratize AI technologies globally
Potential future advancements in human-AI integration and their societal impacts
Concerns about technological augmentation exacerbating inequality
The role of ethics in guiding AI development and deployment
Hanson advocates for creating AI systems that embody the best aspects of humanity while surpassing current human limitations, aiming for “super wisdom” rather than just artificial super intelligence.
David Hanson:
TOC
1. Introduction and Background [00:00:00]
1.1. David Hanson’s interdisciplinary background [0:01:49]
1.2. Introduction to Sofia, the realistic robot [0:03:27]
2. Human Cognition and AI [0:03:50]
2.1. Importance of social interaction in cognition [0:03:50]
2.2. Compassion as distinguishing factor [0:05:55]
2.3. AI augmenting human intelligence [0:09:54]
3. Developing Human-like AI [0:13:17]
3.1. Incorporating biological drives in AI [0:13:17]
3.2. Creating AI with agency [0:20:34]
3.3. Implementing flexible desires in AI [0:23:23]
4. Ethics and Morality in AI [0:27:53]
4.1. Enhancing humanity through AI [0:27:53]
4.2. Existential pattern ethics [0:30:14]
4.3. Expanding morality beyond restrictions [0:35:35]
5. Societal Impact of AI [0:38:07]
5.1. AI adoption and integration [0:38:07]
5.2. Democratizing AI technologies [0:38:32]
5.3. Human-AI integration and identity [0:43:37]
6. Future Considerations [0:50:03]
6.1. Technological augmentation and inequality [0:50:03]
6.2. Emerging technologies for mental health [0:50:32]
6.3. Corporate ethics in AI development [0:52:26]
This was filmed at AGI-24
source
Most overhyped company ever! 😂
Compassion is not what distinguishes the human from the android. i swear people just make shit up.
There is a specific mechanism in the brain that is responsible for empathy; a small nutshell of neurons called the anterior insular cortex. Isn't that fascinating… a brain architecture for empathy? It seemed obvious to me that we would need to build this mechanism in machines. Do AI researchers believe empathy will emerge in LLM-like systems?
The thought that there is a kind of universal ethics that goes beyond human ethics is so intriguing for the alignment problem; from the perspective of pattern persistence.
I would love more conversations on the philosophical idea of the Cyborg.
I agree that the arts are absolutely complimentary with AI research. What would GEB be without Escher and Bach?
I'm just 3 minutes in and I love everything about David Hanson's perspective and this video already. Thanks MLST!
This guy is very smart, also thanks for the content.
David can't even get Little Sophia shipped, so I don't have much hope for his further dreams and aspirations.
Shadow-chasers everywhere. Tech has always been synonymous with peak self-hate for our species. What might we learn as we try to outrun ourselves?
Scary. Scary. Scary. I feel the Ai NWO will become far worse than anyone ever thought. Swell robots everywhere, bringing ai jobloss on everyone. Instead of threatening humanity, shouldn’t we be calling to cease ai?
Converge on valuing life.
Really good video, explained in a simple way that even I can understand, well done !
where da new Chollet interview?
It's so weird to see a guy that fit breathe so hard to speak while walking slowly enough that a cameraman could pace him in reverse while carrying the camera 😜
Love mlst, keep up the great work and all the excellent guests you're able to attract. Phenomenal work, Tim. Hopefully Keith and Yan will do some more hosting with you, I miss their reactions and perspectives.
Thanks!
"Every great philosophy so far has been…the personal confession of its author and a kind of involuntary and unconscious memoir."
Seems fitting here. Philosphers universalise their own preferences.
Why are there so many druggies, homeless and mentally ill on the streets in richest nation? Simple, a lack of compassionate infrastructure. If we had less "think of the children" and more "let's pay for the infrastructure to actually help the parents", the US could fix domestic crime and poverty in a generation. I still hope they can unite across the political divide.
Enough with this playing god crap. Stop playing with fire!
What about robots in space exploration.
Does anybody think we could possibly be someone else’s robots
His over-emphasis on 'compassion' is disturbing and gives me oppressor-oppressed Marxist/Frankfurt School vibes. The fallacy of technocractic utopia is on his horizon. Oh dear. Keep him away from any decision-making.
That thumbnail is at the very fabric of a cybernetic nightmare!
Come on bro, them shits will never be sentient. They'll always be calculative
When David finally started to speak truth, StreeTalk says "Thank you, good bye" 52:58
Will you interview with Karpathy or Sutskever soon?
He sounds like he's taken too many of Ben's drugs.😂
"Net zero sum game" 😂
Try saying ‘Fundamental bio-infomatics’ after a heavy afternoon session!
AGI WILL BE MAN'S LAST INVENTION
Sophia is in the uncanny valley. Ameca's facial expressions are 100 times better imho
Is he pissed?
Fascinating and timely conversation. Thanks for the fantastic podcast.
There was an interview on the fine Consciousness Live! podcast by Richard Brown a few years with a philosopher – Susan Schneider I think – who argued like I do – for ethical reasons – humans should NOT be attempting to engineer sentience into robots or AIs – I recommend it.
LOL that was a lot of hot air. I guess that's what you get when you play with robotic dolls all day…
I 100% agree, David Hanson. Trisha Code for president. ✌️
Hi 👋 It seems to me: That the "capacity" of rationality is like an exoskeleton and with the internal "faculty" (self-prophecy of pessimism/optimism) of the "elected feeling" we use that way, or the other, which rolls dice, two technologies, the convenient one for calculating is only one of them, a calculator, the other is intrusive, if the calculator is turned off the irrational way penetrates like weeds without asking permission… The AI can be either of both, according to whether I choose one of its possible forms when "forming" it, in case I ignore it and I will be overwhelmed by the competitor's weed AI.
🔥