Ethics

At one level: yes. At another: maybe.

In The Moral Landscape, Sam Harris describes a framework which allows for strictly rational conversations about morality. In this post we explore the possibility of applying this framework to serve as the basis of ethical artificial intelligence, and show that although The Moral Landscape might work well for humans, it's a poor choice for machines.

Existential risk is hard to weigh up versus other priorities we see around us in the world. When we look at the data, however, I think it's clear that this deserves more of our attention, and is generally under-funded when compared to shorter-term charitable causes.

… in which I weigh in on a sensitive debate from a uniquely privileged and blithely ignorant perspective.