Biologically Inspired AI Alignment & Neglected Approaches to AI Safety, with Judd Rosenblatt and Mike Vaiana of AE Studio

"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders, Researchers, and Live Player Analysis

In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan explores unconventional approaches to AI safety with Judd Rosenblatt and Mike Vaiana from AE Studio. Discover how this innovative company pivoted from brain-computer interfaces to groundbreaking AI alignment research, producing two notable results in cooperative and less deceptive AI systems. Join us for a deep dive into biologically-inspired approaches that offer hope for solving critical AI safety challenges.

Self-Modeling: https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.10188

Self-Other Distinction Minimization: https://www.alignmentforum.org/posts/hzt9gHpNwA2oHtwKX/self-other-overlap-a-neglected-approach-to-ai-alignment

Neglected approaches blog post: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/qAdDzcBuDBLexb4fC/the-neglected-approaches-approach-ae-studio-s-alignment

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CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) About the Show

(00:00:22) Sponsors: WorkOS

(00:01:22) About the Episode

(00:05:18) Introduction and AE Studio Background

(00:11:37) Keys to Success in Building AE Studio

(00:16:57) Sponsors: Weights & Biases Weave | 80,000 Hours

(00:19:37) Universal Launcher and Productivity Gains

(00:24:44) 100x Productivity Increase Explanation

(00:31:46) Brain-Computer Interface and AI Alignment

(00:38:05) Sponsors: Omneky

(00:38:30) Current State of NeuroTech

(00:44:00) Survey on Neglected Approaches in AI Alignment

(00:50:41) Self-Modeling and Biological Inspiration

(00:57:48) Technical Details of Self-Modeling

(01:06:17) Self-Other Distinction Minimization

(01:12:44) Implementation in Language Models

(01:19:00) Compute Costs and Scaling Considerations

(01:24:27) Consciousness Concerns and Future Work

(01:40:24) Evaluating Neglected Approaches

(01:55:56) Closing Thoughts and Policy Considerations

(01:59:25) Outro