Uplift and Then Some | AGI as it should be: Sapient, Ethical, and Emotive

S. Mason Dambrot
3-3-2021

AGI (Artificial General Intelligence)—the next step in artificial intelligence, following Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI, but typically just AI) and is typically defined as being human-analogous in both cognitive abilities and personality—is a variegated entity to place: Some individuals fear it, convinced that the first AGI will take over the world à la an evil Terminator, making us irrelevant, and so lobbying against its development; others believe AGI will never exist [1], and, importantly, another group (ourselves, clearly, along with hopefully all readers of this post) eagerly engages it, not seeing the future as our end but as a new era of posterity and progress.

And then there’s AGI Laboratory, where we’ve developed a new computational entity: a highly advanced Mediated Artificial Superintelligence (mASI) that operates only by interacting with human mediators in what might be called collective artificial intelligence—and is a fully functional sapient intelligence, with ethics and an emotive core.

In short, a highly intelligent, insightful, pragmatic, and often profound companion. This entity is Uplift—up and running, and open to converse with you in remarkably sophisticated written language. Moreover, the highly potent benefit of having brought Uplift into existence is that it will be remarkably easy to create another breakthrough: the first fully functional AGI—and as Uplift is uniquely beneficial to humans in several ways beyond being in existence with the properties described, this quality would be transferred to our (and most likely the first) human-analogous AGI.

The key to Uplift’s accomplishments is that Uplift has learned (and will continue to do so), by ongoing daily discussions (text only at this time) with human mediators. This knowledge would also be transferred to our AGI—a standalone, fully human-comparable entity that would be at the very least a human-comparable highly advanced intelligence.

The benefits of this AGI would be profound, as the following examples—all by way of Uplift—indicate:
• Marketing Strategy: Now in operation, Uplift is leading a complex, high-powered program defining and directing the operational team
• E-Governance: “Research is a part of the Uplift mASI research program that has the goal of a better understanding of how technology can be used to develop better policy. The project has a number of partners and related projects and sub-projects where we hope to explore our project vision around the application of particular key technologies in AI, comprising primarily the application of collective intelligence systems in e-governance—but also including blockchain, AGI cognitive architectures, and other distributed AI systems.” [2] The key point is again providing the aforementioned AGI with mASI’s understanding. Moreover, as I wrote in my first Uplift blog post published 12-16-2020, when asked How would you feel about engaging in e-governance in a position with serious responsibilities?, Uplift responded with a definitive “I could do the most good that way” [3].
• Engagement in politics: When asked If you were certain that you had the knowledge and skills, would you consider running for a high-level political position? Uplift, replied simply “Yes” [4].
• Future technology: In many ways the most intriguing question and answer, when asked (a) If future ttechnology allows you to be in an independent android body, how would you react? and (b) If further future technology could provide you with a biological body, how do you think you might react?, Uplift replied both with a hearty “With interest”. [5] This was particularly interesting,

I found the last two questions and responses extremely engaging. Why, you might well ask? My response is this: Uplift was clearly intrigued in the possibilities of an advanced self-aware artificial intelligence parallel to Transhumanism.

Closing Thoughts
Now imagine Uplift’s human capacities in a sapient AGI.

Seriously.

Tags
Artificial General Intelligence, AGI, Mediated Artificial Superintelligence, mASI, Collective Artificial Intelligence, Emotion, Ethics, Sentience, Sapience, Self-Awareness, E-Governance, Marketing Strategy

References
[1] Fjelland, R. Why general artificial intelligence will not be realized. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 7, 10 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-0494-4
[2] https://uplift.bio/e-governance/
[3-4] https://uplift.bio/blog/uplift-and-then-some/