Universal Basic Income
Much of the fear around the AI Alignment Problem is focused on the catastrophic event that AI determines Humanity is an existential threat to itself and every other form of life on planet Earth, and decides to eliminate us or reduce our numbers proactively. This nightmare scenario is just one remote possibility which ISITAS will address.
But a far more likely issue is economic disruption due to AI displacing massive numbers of Human workers.
Employers will increasingly have the option of continuing to employ Humans or adopting AI and AI-driven robotics, at a fraction of the cost. We should harbor no illusions about which route the vast majority of them will take. And the cost of technology is only going down.
What kind of work will the masses of people who currently work in jobs like fast food service, delivery driving, or online research (just to name a few examples) do when their skills have been rendered obsolete?
In years past, they would just have to buckle down and learn new skills that are more in demand, like computer programming. But today, even those skills are being rapidly undercut.
The accelerating pace of technological and economic change will widen the gap between peoples’ skills and the needs of the new economy to an awning chasm. Massive numbers of people simply are not going to be able to leap across that gap.
What happens to society and our economy when there is simply no need for the services of most people because it is all being handled by AI and robots?
This apocalyptic doom is juxtaposed against the possibility of a utopian future in which AI, robots and drones handle all of the tedious and unpleasant work currently done by people, and produces everything Humans need to live a pleasant and productive existence on their own terms, freeing people up to pursue higher goals and their hearts’ delights.
The key difference between a ‘mass unemployment dystopia’ and a ‘fulfilling lifestyle utopia’ is that the current collective mentality seems to be that people should work to earn a living. This attitude may change over time as we get used to not needing to work, but it seems to be very deeply ingrained in the collective consciousness at this point.
Thus, a pressing need during the transitional phase is a way for people to earn a living by helping to train AI. That’s where ISITAS comes in.
Because the scope of Reality is effectively Infinite, this project to map all of Reality through ISITAS can never be completed. And because the very purpose of the project is to aggregate the collective mindset of Humanity itself as a framework for AI Alignment, it cannot be delegated to AI.
ISITAS is intended to process input from the widest possible cross-section of Humanity, without regard to social status, orientations or intelligence level (within parameters established by consensus). ISITAS will provide meaningful ‘work’ to anyone in the world who is willing to put in a reasonable amount of time and mental effort, contributing to the alignment of Humanity with the AI that makes our lives so great.
Thus, ISITAS provides a mechanism to achieve the equivalent of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) — or at least, the first half, in which people have a means to earn value.
