AI as Autonomous Agents: The Superman, the Life Force, and Creative Evolution in Man and Superman
摘要
The major existential risk of AI is whether it is a threat that could take over human control or drastically curtail humanity’s potential. There are concerns with the possibility of misaligned or advanced AI becoming autonomous agents, getting out of control, or becoming controlled by bad actors. This chapter made use of the modeling carried out by LLMs to study Shaw’s advocacy of the Superman, the Life Force, and Creative Evolution in Man and Superman. There is significant ideological background associated with these concepts, one that is likely lost nowadays, given that the play was written in 1903. The process is complicated by many of these source texts written in European languages, and meanings may be lost for want of translations or translators’ misinterpretations. A huge model was built comprising thousands of texts, including hundreds of major ones, in order to define what exactly were the debates in Europe, including England and Ireland, up to 1903 when Man and Superman was written, surrounding the Superman, the Life Force, and Creative Evolution. The chapter demonstrates the incredible power of LLMs to visualize complicated concepts and debates, and to position Shaw’s stance within huge networks of thoughts and movements.