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94 people, organisations and other records · 122 relationships · 34 claims about a valueEverything recorded up to the chosen year, whether or not still in effect · Undated records included
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The Extropians message “Re: Goal-based AI” (1996-12-31) contests Y26. Replying to a proposal that AIs be kept with no access to the physical world until they convince their builders to release them, he argues that a superintelligence would find the words to get a human to let it out. Copy claim link
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Machine-checked, not reviewed by an editor Stated in source Supported
Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source
Date 1996-12-31 · 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 to act in the physical world it would need human help, which people would not give. Scope and limits Premise addressed: To act in the physical world it would need human help, which people would not give. Same message and quotation as recorded for ‘Confinement without network access keeps it safe’ (Y06); reusing it adds no new quoted text. 'Power' is his 1996 term for a superintelligence.
The evidence 01 primary source Supports the claim
Re: Goal-based AI (Extropians mailing list) ↗ Extropians mailing list · 1996-12-31
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Cite the original source Cite the original document, not Selekoa. Check these details against it.
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Source excerpt “will know *exactly* what to say” Location in source message body, paragraph beginning 'Part one: If it's even…'
Machine-checked · 2026-10-07
Source details and check notes Authors Eliezer Yudkowsky Version Archive HTML as served, retrieved 2026-10-06 with the hash recorded by the 1996–2022 candidate search; quoted lines excluded when reading the author’s text. Archive at extropians.weidai.com. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-06 Language English (en) Attribution Eliezer Yudkowsky, "Re: Goal-based AI", Extropians mailing list, 1996-12-31. 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 T26-e1. The quotation (6 words; trimmed 2026-10-13 from 27 words) matched the retrieved expression (SHA-256 ec8f3d5b7d58bd04717ee7fe30f687d324c7d5168b51207549e834a3ef0062b0) when checked on 2026-10-07. The dataset already quotes this source for the human-thought collection; together the quotations would exceed the per-document quotation limit. Shortened to a verbatim fragment of the pack's quotation; the condition it omits is in the record's statement. 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, 31 Dec 1996 10:40:10 -0600" under "Eliezer Yudkowsky".
Record ID yk-y26-extropians-1996-12-31-yudkowsky-5142-c