Claim · 2004-02-17 · publication · Stated in source · Supported

Goertzel's essay of 17 February 2004 attributes the scenario of a dominating AI to anthropomorphism and states that making such an AI would probably require explicitly programming it with a lust for power.

One recorded claim. The claim panel gives its qualification, the source passages with their place in each source, and how it was checked.

What it connects

Encouraging a Positive Transcension → articulates → Intelligence brings benevolence or no drive to dominate

Where it appears

Arguments about catastrophic risk from advanced AI →

Claim and evidence

Encouraging a Positive Transcensionarticulates ↓Intelligence brings benevolence or no drive to dominate

Machine-checked, not reviewed by an editorStated in sourceSupported

Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source

Date: 2004-02-17 · publication Records dated 2004 →
Role: Earliest located
Register (kind of text): Nonfiction

Scope and limitsA conditional claim that a drive to dominate would not arise by default, not a claim that intelligence brings benevolence. Earliest located among the texts the searches found, after a cross-family check located it; it is not evidence of coinage.

The evidence 01

primary sourceSupports the claim

Encouraging a Positive Transcension

Dynamical Psychology (goertzel.org) · 2004-02-17

Cite the original source

Cite the original document, not Selekoa. Check these details against it.

Source excerpt

“in order to make a Megalomaniac AI, one would probably need to explicitly program an AI with a lust for power.”

Location in source Section 2.9, discussion of the Megalomaniac AI scenario

How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher

Machine-checked · 2026-10-31

Source details and check notes

Authors: Ben Goertzel
Version: HTML page served at goertzel.org, headed "Ben Goertzel, February 17, 2004"; the file's own metadata records a last save on 20 February 2004. The wording is the current file's; earlier bytes are not authenticated. Retrieved at admission on 2026-10-31 (SHA-256 795d8e914eddd605ddbd37e3571e801bcc92f1f9dbfe0cbdedfaa734c3ba8109).
Canonical address: Open the canonical source ↗
Accessed: 2026-10-31
Language: English (en)
Attribution: Ben Goertzel, “Encouraging a Positive Transcension”, 2004-02-17.
Reuse: No open redistribution licence asserted. Bibliographic metadata, editorial paraphrases and short attributed quotations (at most 50 words each). Recheck terms before wider redistribution.
Check notes: Added at the admission of the risk-debate pack (research/risk-debate). The quotation (21 words) matched a fresh retrieval of 2026-10-31 (SHA-256 795d8e914eddd605ddbd37e3571e801bcc92f1f9dbfe0cbdedfaa734c3ba8109). Matching ignored differences of whitespace, case, quotation marks, dashes and Unicode compatibility forms. The cross-family check of 2026-10-31 proposed the record and read this passage. No human editorial review.

Status and meaning

Editorial status. Not reviewed by an editor. An exploratory record that no editor has accepted. This status does not say whether a person has read any linked passage. Each evidence record above shows how it was checked.

Relation. A passage of the document meets the proposition’s criterion. The record documents what the text states, in its register (fiction and satire are labelled); it is not evidence that the proposition is true and implies no influence on or from another text.

Date. Dated 17 February 2004 on its page.

Record ID rd-r10a-goertzel-2004-positive-transcension