The Hanson-Yudkowsky AI-Foom Debate

In late 2008, an extensive and long-awaited debate about the Technological Singularity occurred on Overcoming Bias, mainly between Robin Hanson and Eliezer Yudkowsky. It focused on the likelihood of hard AI takeoff ("("FOOM"), the need for a theory of Friendliness, and the future of AGI, whole brain emulation, and recursive self-improvement in general. A stand-up debate on the same themes took place at Jane Street Capital in June 2011, and Hanson made a further post in 2014.

See also

See also

Created by Wei Dai at

In Spring 2012 Luke Muehlhauser asked Kaj Sotala to write a summary and analysis of the debate; he made a draft of that analysis available in November 2012. The final versoinversion of the summary is included in the ebook.

Draft summarySummary and analysis

In Spring 2012 Luke Muehlhauser asked Kaj Sotala to write a summary and analysis of the debate; he made a draft of that analysis available in November 2012. The final versoin of the summary is included in the ebook.

In late 2008, an extensive and long-awaited debate about the Technological Singularity occurred on Overcoming Bias, mainly between Robin Hanson and Eliezer Yudkowsky. It focused on the likelihood of hard AI takeoff ("FOOM"), the need for a theory of Friendliness, and the future of AGI, whole brain emulation, and recursive self-improvement in general. A stand-up debate on the same themes took place at Jane Street Capital in June 2011.2011, and Hanson made a further post in 2014.

Post-book material

Not included in MIRI's 2013 book on the debate:

In late 2008, an extensive and long-awaited debate about the Technological Singularity occurred on Overcoming Bias, mainly between Robin Hanson and Eliezer Yudkowsky. It focused on the likelihood of hard AI takeoff ("FOOM"), the need for a theory of Friendliness, and the future of AGI, whole brain emulation, and recursive self-improvement in general. A stand-up debate on the same themes took place at Jane Street Capital on Wednesdayin June 30 2011. A full

The best resource for most readers new to the debate will be MIRI's 2013 The Hanson-Yudkowsky AI-Foom Debate eBook, available in PDF, EPUB, and MOBI formats. This includes

  • the original series of blog posts,
  • a transcript of the 2011 debate is available here.

    An incomplete

  • Kaj Sotala's summary and analysis of the text debate is available here.

    The posts constituting this debate have been collected here to make it easier to follow for future audiences, alongside links to the Jane Street debate.

    debate, and
  • a 2013 technical report on AI takeoff dynamics (“intelligence explosion microeconomics”) written by Yudkowsky.

A stand-up debate between Hanson and Yudkowsky on the same themes took place on Wednesday June 30 2011 at Jane Street Capital.

eBookDraft summary and analysis

An eBook versionIn Spring 2012 Luke Muehlhauser asked Kaj Sotala to write a summary and analysis of the debate isdebate; he made a draft of that analysis available in various formats (PDF, EPUB, and MOBI) here. It contains:November 2012.

  • the original series of blog posts,
  • a transcript of a 2011 in-person debate between Hanson and Yudkowsky,
  • a summary of the debate written by Kaj Sotala, and
  • a 2013 technical report on AI takeoff dynamics (“intelligence explosion microeconomics”) written by Yudkowsky.

An eBook version of the debate is available in various formats (PDF, EPUB, and MOBI) http://intelligence.org/ai-foom-debate/ here. It contains:

An eBook version of the debate is available in various formats (PDF, EPUB, and MOBI) http://intelligence.org/ai-foom-debate/ here. It contains:

eBook

An eBook version of the debate is available in various formats (PDF, EPUB, and MOBI) here. It contains:

  • the original series of blog posts,
  • a transcript of a 2011 in-person debate between Hanson and Yudkowsky,
  • a summary of the debate written by Kaj Sotala, and
  • a 2013 technical report on AI takeoff dynamics (“intelligence explosion microeconomics”) written by Yudkowsky.