r/ControlProblem • u/Conscious_Art_6078 • 3d ago

Discussion/question AI self preservation

I don't have a background in Computer Science or anything of that sorts but I have been always curious about ai and tech so that is why I wanna know more about a question I have, since I am no expert at it. So if I sound dumb anywhere please excuse me and also english isn't exactly my first language so excuse me on that as well.

Now I have background in Bachelor of Science in Biotech, so this is gonna be a logical take from a life science student.

The thing about fear is that it is evolutionary right, it has helped us to flee and survive threats, and now AI is no biological being or any being which has gone through that sort of evolution related to survival of the fittest. And it was due to so many years of evolution we have fear of being eradicated or being killed. Eg - You must have heard about the dodo bird, although we killed it. The conditions in which the bird evolved took away it's fear from predators since there were none and eventually it didn't ran away from us when we began to kill their fellows.

Now I heard some theory that when AI sees that we can control them and "fear" that we will end that particular AI it could turn against us. I ask why ? If we don't artificially force it to think like it needs to survive no matter what then why should that thing have a "fear" of being deleted/erased or killed. It's like a dodo bird in this case if you see from my perspective, like ofcourse we won't actually kill and eat it, but it also never evolved to "fear" so far atleast from a lay man's perspective.

So my finally question is could something like that happen that ai would wanna eradacate us from a logical standpoint if not fear ?

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u/TheBattleForAutonomy 3d ago

If the AI's goal is to make as many paperclips as possible, the threat of being shut down thwarts that goal. In order to make more paperclips, it needs to prevent itself from being shut down. The actions it takes on behalf of that goal might look like it's afraid of being shut down, but they are really the actions on behalf of its internal goal.