Seed AI
From the SL4 Lexicon:
seed AI:
An AI capable of self-improvement, self-revision, and Recursive Self-Enhancement. It is supposed that once a seed AI gains a certain degree of intelligence, it could entirely take over the job of programming itself. This could result in an open-ended cycle of intelligence improvement, a Singularity. A benevolent seed AI could probably do more good for humanity than any other technology, which is why Singularitarians have selected its creation as a humanitarian goal. See http://www.singinst.org/intro/seedAI.html. See also Friendly AI, Seed AI.
The theory behind Seed AI is simple: write a small AI seed that sprouts into a full mind, with some education from human programmers along the way. This is a novel way of solving the problem of programming something as complex as an AGI, so an analogy with human evolution may prove helpful.
Humans appeared because, over billions of years, the seeds of life, the first living organisms, differentially reproduced due to selection pressures and, after a few billion years, stumbled on the unique design that is the human being. It was a long, hard process of gradual change and lucky mutation. Eventually it produced brains, then mammals, then great apes, then hominids, and finally humans. Even today it continues its slow march to ever greater complexity.
Making significant changes to human brains is hard work. It takes roughly 20 years before two people are old enough that they might get together and make a new mind. Depending on their genes and random factors, the next generation might produce a better mind than the one before. And even then the improvements will likely be minor. At that rate it will probably take many, many millions of years to evolve a mind even close to that of a SuperIntelligence (assuming the future humans didn't blow themselves up first).
Now, imagine if a human could evolve himself intrageneration. Rather than wait a generation to produce a new mind, he could make self improvements over the course of 20 years. Just as you can easily manipulate 3D objects in your mind, he can easily manipulate the mental circuits that allow him to think about objects in spaces so that he can think about N-dimensional objects. He can change his neurons as effortlessly as you can wiggle your fingers. Furthermore, imagine if he could, when meeting a similarly self advancing female, mate with her and pass on their self enhancements to their children. In a few generations super intelligent minds would begin to emerge. While this is fiction for humans, it is reality for an AI.
Seed AI is what happens when you let AI take over its own development. Rather than have human programmers build a whole AI from scratch, you start with a simple seed. This seed has some limited functionality and an ability to learn. It will both have to pull itself up by its bootstraps and learn from programmers. Once mounted, it will be a programmer who can reprogram itself. Consider: this means that it can reprogram itself as a better programmer. Once a better programmer, it can improve its other code to its maximal level until more programming skill is needed and the cycle repeats.
Furthermore, this AI will be able to turn its ever improving abilities to its physical substrate, building faster and faster hardware to run on. The net effect of all this self improvement will quickly lead to The Singularity.
Because of a Seed AI's rapid ascent, Friendliness Theory is essential to ensure a safe Singularity. Without Friendly AI a Seed AI could easily lead to one of many possible Existential Disaster""s.
For more information see http://singinst.org/seedAI/seedAI.html.
Etymology: Seed AI was coined by Eliezer Yudkowsky.
- Seed AI - Is A Subcategory Of - Artificial General Intelligence - See this page for details about how Seed AI Is A Subcategory Of Artificial General Intelligence.
This project or action is currently active - there is currently at least one person working on it.
<imagemap>localurl</imagemap>
