ClaimsEliezer Yudkowsky

“Wherever the first artificial general intelligence is from, it’s going to be in a research lab specifically dedicated to doing it, for the same reason that the first airplane didn’t spontaneously assemble in a junk heap.”

Eliezer Yudkowsky, MIRI senior researcher, podcast guest 28 February 2018 Sam Harris and Eliezer Yudkowsky on "AI: Racing Toward the Brink" (MIRI)

Prediction AI timelines and forecasting

The first artificial general intelligence will be built in a research lab specifically dedicated to building it, not arise spontaneously from an unrelated system.

Unresolvable The public record could not settle it.

Prediction: Statements about events outside the person's control, checked once they fell due: did they come true?

Reasoning

A prediction about how the first AGI will arise with no horizon; AGI hasn't clearly been built, and the claim could still come true at any time.

Cite this claim

Eliezer Yudkowsky, “The first artificial general intelligence will be built in a research lab specifically dedicated to building it, not arise spontaneously from an unrelated system.” (said 28 February 2018). Verdict: unresolvable. Reliability API, claim c_d57875735397, method 0.1.0+c876030c, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_d57875735397

This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.

Reply to this claim

For Eliezer Yudkowsky, or someone speaking for them: a correction or counter-evidence. Replies are read before anything is shown; an approved reply shows your name, role, date, statement and link. Your email address is never shown and is deleted 30 days after the decision (privacy).

More prediction claims by Eliezer Yudkowsky

  1. Mostly false Prediction 6 April 2023
    “So probably Paul’s going to win, but slight moral victory.”

    Paul Christiano will probably win his forecast disagreement with Yudkowsky on an AI getting IMO gold by 2025, with prediction-market odds then running around 30%.

  2. Mixed Prediction 5 March 2024
    “Beating GPT-4 on GI just forces OpenAI to release 4.5.”

    If a rival AI developer beats GPT-4 on general intelligence, OpenAI will be forced to release GPT-4.5.

  3. Resolved false Prediction 6 April 2023
    “The current crop of people will not try it.”

    The current AI developers will not try the alignment approach he described (filtering training data to nice examples and training on it).

  4. Resolved true Prediction 6 April 2023
    “Alignment will not be solved in a few years.”

    AI alignment will not be solved within a few years.

  5. Resolved true Prediction 6 April 2023
    “even if GPT-5 doesn’t end the world, which I agree is like more than 50% of where my probability mass lies”

    GPT-5 will not end the world, with more than 50% of Yudkowsky's probability on that outcome.

All of them

Verdicts are made automatically; how verdicts are made.