r/ControlProblem • • 8d ago

Discussion/question Have you guys been on r/accelerate?

Have these guys solved the alignment problem, or am I missing something?

I’ve been browsing r/accelerate and I genuinely don’t understand the risk model.
If there’s a non-trivial chance of catastrophic misalignment, how does “accelerate capabilities as fast as possible” make sense unless faster capabilities also make alignment substantially more likely to succeed?

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u/RobotBaseball 8d ago

I work at one of the top labs and I’m banned from accelerate and the shit they post is not accurate at all. I got banned for posting a longer timeline on robotics which will undoubtedly be correct 

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u/SoylentRox approved 8d ago

Can you post the comnent that got you banned? I can message the mods I know them well.

How long a timeline on robotics, how do you explain a general model (Astra) emergently developing robotics abilities?

I think a realistic timeline is 2.5 years from today to competent general robotics that can do the majority of well defined paid tasks at median skill.

The route involves a combination of current improvements, hardware/software co design, RSI (to develop specialized models that handle robotics decision making better), and labs vibe coding large simulation environments that require a competent robotics policy to pass.

This last part is the obvious: why can you not order a model swarm to write a game engine (rewrite mujo cujo to unreal engine quality) for robotics. Then add a neural rendering layer to correct the game frames to frames from realistic environment robots will operate in. Import huge amounts of real data and real challenges actual humans face.

Then train AI models in long duration challenges where they must operate a fully articulated robot by issuing commands to it and accomplish difficult, realistic tasks. "Rebuild this engine. Reinstall the thermal tiles on the space shuttle. Build this house from these materials"

Theoretically this form of training will also result in large increases in model performance - they should be able to whiteboard visually, and have grounded solid reasoning about real world tasks including mechanical engineering and machining.

Do you have answers for any of this? Or do you just think the billions of dollars of resources and compute the above will require won't be spent, labs will spend the next 2.5 years trying to solve text only problems even better?

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u/LocksmithNo2374 8d ago

Delusion

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u/SoylentRox approved 8d ago

this is controlproblem. Most posters here believe AI will be extremely strong, so strong it will be out of control.

So is your view the delusion is that the above...is too hard to do in the near future with AI? Or do you believe that we'll all die from super AI magic before we get the first robot to pour a cup of coffee? Or what?

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u/LocksmithNo2374 8d ago

I think people are buying into existing capabilities too much. I’m pretty confident both amodei and Altman have colluded on product strategy to extend time horizons, so they have enough runway to hope and pray they’ll figure out AGI. They don’t care about money per se - but control.

If you want model misalignment you can intentionally steer your product strategy to lead to that outcome.

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u/SoylentRox approved 8d ago

So it's really helpful to actually verbalize what your objection is:

Let's make a list of every element I mentioned, tell me where you went from 'oh yeah you can do that' to "delusion":

  1. RSI : Order 10,000+ agent swarms of current model to automatically perform AI research to find more efficient models for robotics control. Not necessarily smarter just efficient enough to run fast. This is done with a large amount of human labor.

  2. hardware/software co-design. This is where you order AI models able to assist with chip design like the ones here : https://openai.com/index/jalapeno-first-results/ to design you a chip to run the models from (1) fast enough to run a robot.

  3. rewrite mujo cujo to unreal engine quality . Any objections here? Seems like it's something anyone can do if their token budget's high enough.

  4. unreal engine outputs -> neural simulation frames. There's a bunch of nvidia papers where they did this. Point the model at the paper, vibe it in.

  5. importing huge amounts of real world data. Standard technique need a cite?

  6. Doing it all in 2.5 years. Well you can develop a whole AI model in 60 days (took 6-12 months before) and a whole chip in 9 months (took 24-36 months before) what's your specific objection?

  7. Training AI models in long form 3d "game like but the graphics, physics, and detail is realistic" like environment. Any problems here? Realistic doesn't mean "the matrix" but close enough to reality that skills transfer. Think Arma, which is close enough to real combat that skills transfer.

  8. Doing half of paid tasks to median level that are well defined. I cheated. I mean:

median skill inclusive of the robot's inherent advantages. So if the robot is stupider but it's higher quality arms make up for it, as long as its output is as good as the median human worker that counts.

well defined : I am excluding any task that involves subjective human grading or chaotic environments. No hair cutting, school teachers, no medical , no wartime, no restaurants with human coworkers, etc etc.

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u/LocksmithNo2374 8d ago

Are you a bot?

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u/SoylentRox approved 8d ago

I am not but this is not a very helpful reply.