We survey the general trajectory of artificial intelligence (AI) over the last century, in the context of influences from Artificial Life. With a broad brush, we can divide technical approaches to solving AI problems into two camps: GOFAIstic (or computationally inspired) or cybernetic (or ALife inspired). The latter approach has enabled advances in deep learning and the astonishing AI advances we see today—bringing immense benefits but also societal risks. There is a similar divide, regrettably unrecognized, over the very way that such AI problems have been framed. To date, this has been overwhelmingly GOFAIstic, meaning that tools for humans to use have been developed; they have no agency or motivations of their own. We explore the implications of this for concerns about existential risk for humans of the “robots taking over.” The risks may be blamed exclusively on human users—the robots could not care less.

我们在人工生命影响的背景下调查了上个世纪人工智能 (AI) 的总体轨迹。从广义上讲，我们可以将解决人工智能问题的技术方法分为两个阵营：GOFAIstic（或计算启发）或控制论（或 ALife 启发）。后一种方法促进了深度学习的进步和我们今天看到的惊人的人工智能进步——带来了巨大的好处，但也带来了社会风险。在构建此类人工智能问题的方式上也存在类似的分歧，但遗憾的是没有被认识到。迄今为止，这绝大多数是 GOFAIstic，这意味着人类使用的工具已经开发出来；他们没有自己的代理机构或动机。我们探讨了这一点对人们对“机器人接管”的生存风险的担忧的影响。这些风险可能完全归咎于人类用户——机器人根本不在乎。