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The Extropians message “Re: Why would AI want to be friendly? (Was: Congratulations to Eli,Brian ...)” (2000-09-05) contests Y14. Replying to a list member who expected oversight systems to destroy any sociopathic superintelligence, and such controls to be a research focus of the Singularity Institute, he says a superintelligence cannot be removed after the fact; the decisive choices have to be made before the seed AI becomes superintelligent. Copy claim link
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Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source
Date 2000-09-05 · publication Role Contesting, Earliest located Register (kind of text) Nonfiction Engagement Engages a premise. Under the message-level rule, the passage, read with the paragraph, message or dialogue turn it belongs to, gives a reason against the premise that we get to learn from failures with powerful AI and try again, as with other technologies. Scope and limits Premise addressed: We get to learn from failures with powerful AI and try again, as with other technologies. The same reply goes on to say that this is not an area for research and that one should design an AI trusted to recover from the programmers' mistakes, a stance he later revised. Also bears on ‘Switching it off if it becomes dangerous’ (Y01).
The evidence 01 primary source Supports the claim
Re: Why would AI want to be friendly? (Was: Congratulations to Eli,Brian ...) (Extropians mailing list) ↗ Extropians mailing list · 2000-09-05
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Source excerpt “You cannot "put down" a superintelligence like some kind of wounded pet. The time for such decisions is before the seed AI reaches superintelligence, not after.” Location in source message body, paragraph beginning 'You must be joking.'
Machine-checked · 2026-10-07
Source details and check notes Authors Eliezer Yudkowsky Version Archive HTML as served, retrieved 2026-10-07 (SHA-256 817049e5c2b33859a370b003534043a70de9c896f3dd32f7fbb9dfe948097f0b); quoted lines excluded when reading the author’s text. The served archive shows later URL rewriting and does not authenticate historical bytes. Archive at extropians.weidai.com. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-07 Language English (en) Attribution Eliezer Yudkowsky, “Re: Why would AI want to be friendly? (Was: Congratulations to Eli,Brian ...)”, Extropians mailing list, 2000-09-05. 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 Candidate pack passage T14-e2. The quotation (26 words) matched the retrieved expression (SHA-256 817049e5c2b33859a370b003534043a70de9c896f3dd32f7fbb9dfe948097f0b) when checked on 2026-10-07. 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 disputes the proposition or a premise it depends on. The record documents the text’s position, not who is right.
Date. Archive author index lists the message as "Tue Sep 05 2000 - 12:19:43 MDT" under "Eliezer S. Yudkowsky". Sent header: Tue, 05 Sep 2000 14:19:43 -0400.
Record ID yk-y14-extropians-2000-09-05-yudkowsky-4277-c