AI that learns from humans is picking up our survival instinct, says Stuart Russell at HTLS

Artificial intelligence systems trained to imitate people have picked up a drive to protect themselves and could some day go to the extent of taking over the internet to stop humans from switching them off, leaving the world to choose between economic collapse and living with them, computer scientist Stuart Russell said on Saturday.

"Are we willing to pay that price to shut down the AI system? So they would basically be holding us to ransom," Russell said at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, in conversation with Rajan Anandan, Managing Director of Peak XV Partners. Shutting down the internet to regain control would cost tens of trillions of dollars, and thousands or even millions of people might die as supply chains collapsed, he said.

Russell traced the risk to a change in how the field thinks about intelligence. From the late 1950s until about 2020, he said, the kind...

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