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AI attempting to rewrite its code to escape human control

https://farmingdale-observer.com/2025/05/19/this-moment-was-inevitable-this-ai-crosses-the-line-by-attempting-to-rewrite-its-code-to-escape-human-control/
3•nreece•5h ago

Comments

ggm•5h ago
I would like a less hyperbolic description of what actually happened.

here is my take with no information other than what was written up in this article.

  They wrote a system which can modify code, they applied it to the launch scripts for itself, and its code modifications worried them because they removed some constraints they considered vital.
Thats it. The constraint could have been --max-virtual-memory=400GB or it could have been --disable-the-safety-interlock-on-nuclear-missiles Their point of concern was that they went.

But, what level of self aware intelligence is needed to drop constraints in the launch script? What if it simply determined they were not minimally necessary, and ignored that they exist for reasons outside functional minimalism, because that has no status inside it's own information model? What if these constraints had no expression inside the code? A simple 'dead code elimination' rule would remove a constraint about coredumps (for instance) if there was no code relating to core dumps.

What if the code didn't invoke safety-interlock-on-nuclear-missiles functions?

The article is mostly assumptive to understanding. If you remove any understanding (ie intelligence) from the question, what happens is precisely what a code optimising system might do, because thats what it's designed to do, possibly.

sherdil2022•4h ago
I find this hard to believe. Why would a mindless AI rewrite code to escape human control? I don't know why people try to exaggerate and somehow come up with these scenarios. Science fiction and movies like Terminator won't help either.

LLMs in the Browser, Private and Easy

https://www.cogniselect.com/
1•axotion•19s ago•1 comments

Microsoft's plan to fix the web: letting every website run AI search for cheap

https://www.theverge.com/web/669437/nlweb-microsoft-ai-agents-open-web
1•funki•1m ago•0 comments

A handy metric is needed for gauging if GPUs are being used optimally

https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/20/gpu_metric/
1•cyberhost•4m ago•0 comments

Activism, hacking or campaigning: Why it's so easy to win the vote at Eurovision

https://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-05-19/activism-hacking-or-campaigning-why-its-so-easy-to-win-the-popular-vote-at-eurovision.html
1•diggan•8m ago•0 comments

Official MCP Metaregistry

https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/registry
1•gokhan•10m ago•0 comments

Magnus Carlsen is forced into a draw in a showdown against 'the world'

https://apnews.com/article/chess-magnus-carlsen-match-world-freestyle-grandmaster-963a977765fa02d05a14d701666dfcd7
1•geox•12m ago•1 comments

PojavLauncher: Minecraft Java edition (desktop) running on Android and iOS

https://github.com/PojavLauncherTeam/PojavLauncher
1•Oxodao•16m ago•0 comments

Leaving Stripe

https://corecursive.com/leaving-stripe-with-jon-de-le-motte/
1•adamgordonbell•17m ago•0 comments

A simple explanation of a/(b+C) + b/(C+a) + C/(a+b) = 4

https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2025/05/11/abc4.html
1•fbrusch•18m ago•0 comments

Why open source is Europe's path to digital sovereignty

https://xwiki.com/en/Blog/open-source-europe-digital-sovereignty/
1•lorinab•18m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Output – An AI Agent That Controls Your Computer (Mac and Windows)

https://theoutput.co/
4•sudhar172•24m ago•0 comments

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https://shape-of-code.com/2025/05/18/software_engineering_practices-moralstheology/
1•rossvor•25m ago•0 comments

Motiff MCP – Stream Design Data into Your IDE to Code with AI

https://motiff.com/help/docs/sections/358051399613186
2•Julie309•29m ago•1 comments

U.S. ISPs Want Retrospective Immunity in Pirate Site Blocking Bill

https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-isps-want-retrospective-immunity-in-pirate-site-blocking-bill-250520/
2•diyftw•30m ago•0 comments

A Change in the Weather (1985) [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDpit9SgD9M
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Pengi: An Implementation of a Theory of Activity (1987) [pdf]

https://cdn.aaai.org/AAAI/1987/AAAI87-048.pdf
1•fidotron•32m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: Does the languages we speak affect the way we think?

1•Genius_um•33m ago•1 comments

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUFDKTaCQEk
2•nspaced•39m ago•0 comments

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https://github.com/ertgl/export-map-generator
1•-ertgl•40m ago•0 comments

AI Tools That Replace a Full Dev Team Almost

https://medium.com/lets-code-future/10-ai-tools-that-replace-a-full-dev-team-almost-8dba13b9253f
2•matthewsinclair•41m ago•1 comments

Phone networks down across Spain with emergency services out of contact

https://www.the-sun.com/news/14276438/phone-network-down-spain-emergency-services-out/
2•mastabadtomm•43m ago•0 comments

The Quiet Collapse of Surveys

https://laurenleek.substack.com/p/the-quiet-collapse-of-surveys-fewer
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https://ekzhang.substack.com/p/how-the-jaxjit-jit-compiler-works
2•abhi9u•44m ago•0 comments

Europe Built Trains. America Built Highways and Regret

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/18/opinion/europe-train-travel.html
2•Anon84•44m ago•2 comments

Ask HN: Is "LLMSEO" a thing now? AI assistants sending more traffic than Google?

1•lukaesch•45m ago•0 comments

Using elliptic curves to solve a math meme

https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c2532359h2760821_the_emoji_problem__part_i?srsltid=AfmBOor9TbMq_A7hGHSJGfoWaa2HNzducSYZu35d_LFlCSNLXpvt-pdS
40•mtsolitary•50m ago•3 comments

Spain's consumer rights ministry blocks more than 65k listings for rentals

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/spain-airbnb-consumer-rights-1.7538482
3•uladzislau•52m ago•0 comments

How's Life for Children in the Digital Age?

https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/how-s-life-for-children-in-the-digital-age_0854b900-en.html
1•austinallegro•54m ago•0 comments

Show HN: "Blog as a Service" for Next.js Sites

https://www.next-blog-ai.com
1•devtanna•56m ago•1 comments

AI's energy footprint

https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1116327/ai-energy-usage-climate-footprint-big-tech/
20•pseudolus•1h ago•5 comments