Lifeboat Foundation

Plus! ‘Strongest ever’ gamma ray blast over Earth.

Does artificial general intelligence pose an existential risk?

David Chalmers analyzes consciousness in AI, probing cognitive science and philosophical ramifications of sentient machines.

TIMESTAMPS:
- 00:00:00 Introduction.
- 00:02:10 Talk by David Chalmers on LLMs.
- 00:26:00 Panel with Ben Goertzel, Susan Schneider, and Curt Jaimungal.

Continue reading “David Chalmers: When Will ChatGPT Become Sentient?” »

OpenAI plans to secure further financial backing from its biggest investor Microsoft as the ChatGPT maker’s chief executive Sam Altman pushes ahead with his vision to create artificial general intelligence—computer software as intelligent as humans.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Altman said his company’s partnership with Microsoft’s chief executive Satya Nadella was “working really well” and that he expected “to raise a lot more over time” from the tech giant among other investors, to keep up with the punishing costs of building more sophisticated AI models.

Continue reading “OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wants to build AI ‘superintelligence’” »

Breaking: sam altman will not return as CEO of openai.

Sam Altman won’t return as CEO of OpenAI, despite efforts by the company’s executives to bring him back, according to co-founder and board director Ilya Sutskever. After a weekend of negotiations with the board of directors that fired him Friday, as well as with its remaining leaders and top investors, Altman will not return to the startup he co-founded in 2015, Sutskever told staff. Emmett Shear, co-founder of Amazon-owned video streaming site Twitch, will take over as interim CEO, Sutskever said.

The decision—which flew in the face of comments OpenAI executives shared with staff on Saturday and early Sunday—could deepen a crisis precipitated by the board’s sudden ouster of Altman and its removal of President Greg Brockman from the board Friday. Brockman, a key engineer behind the company’s successes, resigned later that day, followed by three senior researchers, threatening to set off a broader wave of departures to OpenAI’s rivals, including Google, and to a new venture Altman has been plotting in the wake of his firing.

Continue reading “Emmett Shear Becomes Interim OpenAI CEO as Altman Talks Break Down” »

On the 17th of August 2021, the EU authorized the use of insects as feed for farmed animals such as chickens and pigs. This was a disastrous decision for sentient beings, as it may greatly increase the number of beings who will suffer in animal agriculture. Sadly, this was just one in a series of disastrous decisions that the EU has made regarding insect farming in the last couple of years. Most recently, in February 2022, they authorized the farming of house crickets for human consumption, after having made similar decisions for the farming of mealworms and migratory locusts in 2021.

Many such catastrophic decisions probably lie ahead, seeing that the EU is currently reviewing applications for the farming of nine additional kinds of insects. This brief posts reviews some reflections and potential lessons in light of these harmful legislative decisions.

In an article published yesterday in MIT Technology Review, Rachel Nuwer wrote a thought provoking piece exploring the boundaries between life and death.

Beyond the brain and brain death itself, related efforts are studying and attempting to develop techniques for restoring metabolic function in a number of organs other than the brain after death, including the heart and kidneys, which could greatly enhance organ donation capabilities.

While these developments are promising, researchers caution against overpromising. The path to these medical advancements is paved with years of research and ethical considerations. The exploration into the dying process will surely challenge not only scientific and medical fields but also societal, theological, and legal considerations, as it reshapes our understanding of one of life’s most profound phenomena. At some point, policy and regulations will need to follow—further adding to the complexity of the topic.

Continue reading “Re-Thinking The ‘When’ And ‘How’ Of Brain Death” »

Meta has been investing heavily in generative AI, as it sees it as a key area of innovation and growth in the competitive tech industry.

IStock/COM & O

Responsible AI and layoffs.

Continue reading “Meta’s responsible AI team disbanded as company shifts focus” »

The material will reduce structural material costs by approximately 40 times.

The University of Hong Kong.

In terms of steam methane reforming, the material is used in the construction of reformers, heat exchangers, and other components of the process as it is particularly well-suited to withstand high temperatures and corrosive environments.

Continue reading “New stainless steel boosts green hydrogen production from seawater” »