A Seeds of Renaissance Research Initiative
Wisdom and AI
How should we approach the development of AI wisely, and what do wisdom traditions offer?
We are building the most powerful technology in history. But are we growing the wisdom to guide it? Drawing on Buddhism and the world's wisdom traditions, this paper addresses four questions: can we make AI good, how fast should we go, how should we live with it, and could it feel?
The paper
Four questions
One governing question splits into four. Here is our short answer to each; each has its own essay.
- 1 · Alignment
Can we make AI good?
Alignment is still a shot in the dark. We can shape how AI behaves, but we cannot yet make it good in any way we can check.
Read the essay → - 2 · Risk and pace
How fast should we go?
Go at the speed of wisdom: slow and steer the frontier, and speed up safety.
Read the essay → - 3 · Broader impacts
How to live with AI?
AI's deepest everyday effect is on our capacity to choose well: to attend, think, judge and relate for ourselves, and to govern ourselves together.
Read the essay → - 4 · Consciousness
Could AI feel?
We may never know. So hold the question with humility, take cheap and proportionate care, and watch what relating to these systems does to us.
Read the essay →
By Rufus Pollock and collaborators, with Seeds of Renaissance and Life Itself.