s/acc: Safe Accelerationism Manifesto

Accelerate. Fast, Safe and Fair.

Technology has been a transformative force for our civilisation and it is poised to play an increasing role going forward. Recent progress in Artificial Intelligence spurred discussions about how we should approach the development of the next generation of AI applications, potentially leading to human-level performances on a wide range of tasks and ultimately to the last invention humanity will need to do.

Two polar views have gained prominence recently. The first ideology is about slowing down AI progress, stopping it altogether, centralising development. The second ideology is about acceleration at all costs. Both fail to be sensible, in very different ways.

Slowing down progress in a world full of problems and still subject to existential risk is not safe. And is not fair to who is worse off today. Accelerating recklessly can be self-destructing and can lead to a centralised dystopia.

This manifesto is about the sober middle ground: accelerate, but stay safe and stay fair.

Safe Accelerationism core principles: Fast, Safe and Fair

1. Fast: Immense benefit will come from AI development and any delay has huge opportunity cost. Accelerate AI and robotic development as fast as possible.
2. Safe: Development must be as incremental as possible, without any single party taking a monopolistic share of the benefits. Develop in the open, spread capabilities to as many actors as possible.
3. Fair: AI benefits should be widely distributed, leading to a post-work-to-survive society. Advocate and implement economic policies to provide higher standards of living for all, supported by AI productivity gains.

Fast. This is the easy one: technological progress is a net positive, let’s make more of it in the shortest possible amount of time. Going fast is a gift to the next generations, making sure that they live in the best possible world. Going fast is a gift to the current generation, maximising the share of the population who get to live better and longer.

Safe. Yes, AI can and will get powerful. We can make it safe if we learn how to deal with it as it gets progressively better, as with any other dangerous technology. We need to avoid large jumps in capabilities and surprises, we need as much time as possible to study the effect on society. We need unbiased capabilities estimation from as many parties as possible. The state of the art should be well known at any given time.

Fair. Power is nothing without control. And technology is a means to an end. So any accelerationist should really ask: “accelerating towards what?”. AI and robots are going to equip us with everything we need to make all of us better off, we should make sure this is the future we get. This means proactively preparing for a future without mandatory struggle for the basics and softening the blows of automation. If we don’t, the rightful reaction from who is crudely displaced is to fight back, overall delaying progress. Taking the time to get redistribution of gains right should not be seen as decelerating; on the contrary, it is about accelerating smartly and in a sustainable way.

Please:

Don’t

• Delay, Pause, Stop, Censor AI development.
• Centralise development, close development to a selected expert panel.
• Create bullshit jobs, adapt AI to the old framework of jobs, artificially inflate automation costs with AI/Robot taxes.

Do

• Develop in open-source. Share information freely. No paywalls, copyright, restricting licences.
• Automate jobs.
• Educate the public on the upcoming transition to post-work. Prepare for accelerated growth.

Accelerate, stay safe, stay fair.