factual

Alchemy vs Chemistry Stage of AI

We are in the position of alchemists with respect to building aligned superintelligence: machine learning is in the alchemy rather than chemistry stage, where practitioners mix ingredients and observe results without understanding, and being able to build a superintelligence is as far from being able to align it as melting gold is from transmuting lead into gold.

factualpending

Speaker

Eliezer Yudkowsky

Evidence Quote

the alchemist were very impressed with themselves for knowing how to make an acid so strong that it could even melt noble metals like gold but from there to transforming lead into gold... that's kind of the situation that we are with building super intelligence versus aligning super intelligence

Source

434 - Can We Survive AiMaking Sense with Sam Harris
Created: 6/14/2026, 2:10:11 AM

My Notes

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