The prank was a reference to the "paper clip maximizer" scenario – the idea that AI could destroy humanity if it were told to build as many paper clips as possible.

OpenAI’s offices were sent thousands of paper clips in an elaborate prank to warn about an AI apocalypse::The prank was a reference to the “paper clip maximizer” scenario – the idea that AI could destroy humanity if it were told to build as many paper clips as possible.

  • caseyweedermanEnglish
    9·
    1 year ago

    To touch more deeply on why paperclips allude to the extinction of humanity: the Paperclip Problem is a parable in which an artificial intelligence operating a factory is instructed to make as many paperclips as possible.
    It doesn’t stop when it runs out of resources. Instead, it commandeers mining machines to deplete the planet’s metals, and after those had been used up, it melts every human down for the trace iron in our blood.
    The instructions didn’t think the AI needed to be told when to stop, so it just kept going.
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumental_convergence
    https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/ai-and-paperclip-problem