How exactly

‘Now as you of course know, the years between 2020 and 2030 were the birth of civilization as we know it, and it’s crucial for us to understand how we ended up where are now, with so many near misses and so many possible futures forever lost to us..’

‘Mmmhmmm’

‘And we have extensive profiles of everyone alive during this time period, their work, their personal life, their use of AI systems.. ’

‘Cool’

‘And we noticed a few anomalies, or inconsistencies in our records concerning you, which is why we’ve asked you here today’

‘Oh ok’

‘From our records we see that you studied Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Oxford, one of the most prestigious educational establishments at that time’

‘Yep! Yeh it was a while back now’

‘And you were part of the effective altruism community, one of the first groups to notice the radically transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence’

‘Yes! Ranked top by Times Higher Education for 10 consecutive years if I remember correctly’

‘Indeed. And as a result you were familiar with the astronomical stakes involved…’

‘Oh yes, trillions of lives at stake!’

‘[...]’

‘Sorry I meant gazillions!’

‘... ok. And from our records you were considering working in the field that at that time was known as AI safety, to ensure the safe and beneficial development of AI for all of sentientkind’

‘Yep! Yeh I was, that’s right’

‘And from our records, we see that you ended up spending a significant period during the transitionary era writing an online blog’

‘Mmmhmmm’

‘And one of the pieces included ‘I am the nameless Tao’, a poem about a dog called Henry, and a subsequent psychoanalysis of the poem, “Bescelo and Bitches - A psychoanalytic reading of ‘I am the nameless Tao’”.

‘Mmmhmmm’

‘And you wrote both the poem and the so called ‘psychoanalytic reading’ of the poem…’

‘Yep! Yes, I consider them both part of the same piece really’

‘And other pieces you wrote included a lengthy semi-fictional story where you accuse your former employer of basing their community building strategy on a made up book by Machiavelli, ‘Il Principles’...”

‘Well it wasn’t really an accusation, I was just suggesting it was a possibility..’

‘And ‘23 Pieces of Life Advice’, with one of the pieces of advice being ‘Be careful with Veet hair removal cream’

‘Yes. Yes dangerous stuff that’

‘And you also spent a significant portion of your time massaging your neck as you believed that if you resolved the tension in your neck you would reach a state of quasi-enlightenment’

‘Yep. Yep that’s right’

‘And to confirm, you studied Psychology and Philosophy at Oxford University’

‘Mmmhmmm’

‘And all of the above is correct, that you authored those pieces, were part of the effective altruism community and so on?

‘Yep! At least as far as I can tell, it was a while back now’

‘I see… and…’

‘[...]’

‘Well, the thing we wanted to resolve, and we understand that you were operating on limited information and primitive biological hardware, the thing we want to resolve is, the question of how exactly you thought that these actions, the Henry poem and psychoanalysis, the massaging the neck and so on, how exactly, given that you were aware of the stakes and the urgency and so on, how exactly you thought these actions would be useful for the development of safe and beneficial artificial intelligence?’