Ask HN: Why hasn't there been a company run by AI yet? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why hasn't there been a company run by AI yet?

5 pointsrshashik6 comments

Just some food for thought, with all the developments over regulations to be set over AI, documentaries like Do you trust this computer, Visionaries like Elon Musk all involved in this movement. Wouldn't it be an interesting experiment to have a whole company run by AI, it could be a small company limited to a certain service, but would have everything a real world company would have (employee (threads/resources/downtime), board of directors, advertising decisions, profitablity decisions) I think even on a prototype model this could help us understand the ethics of an AI system programmed for profitability. It could also provide interesting insights to existing business and operations. Let me know your opinions!

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Ray Dalio's Bridgewater seems to be on this track: https://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/22/the-biggest-hedge-fund-in-th...

We are not there yet, but we're on the track. Simple answer. It's especially hard to digest hard-to-quantify / qualified data, like text. And the world is run by people, people are run by emotions and we're not there yet to understand it good enough to let an AI make the right decisions. AI can help to make decisions, manage economically, but AI can not lead.

Hmm but isn't it that AI has always been intended to augment Human actions, to make life easier. In that process, if we look closer it only means that at a deeper level AI has always been able to lead (For example autonomous driving) and it's still under our CONTROL. It's just that the AI actions as of today are limited to a specific sub system and is not aware of the other systems around it. This is what I wanted to propose through this question. Why hasn't anyone built anything like that yet, because regulations are best made when you have an approximate projection of what the Actual behavior is going to be like.

In order to be aware of systems around it those systems have to provide quantified data and make them accessible via API. World is just too complex. And perhaps you should also break down what "running a company" means. Because running a company is a lot... people, politics, customers, financials, investors, paradoxes, ... where should the AI rule and where not? It's just not that simple.

obligatory cstross Accelerando excerpt:

> Manfred is jolted awake by the hotel room phone shrilling for attention.

> "Hello?" he asks, fuzzily.

> "Manfred Macx?" It's a human voice, with a gravelly east coast accent.

> "Yeah?" Manfred struggles to sit up. His mouth feels like the inside of a tomb, and his eyes don't want to open.

> "My name is Alan Glashwiecz, of Smoot, Sedgwick Associates. Am I correct in thinking that you are the Manfred Macx who is a director of a company called, uh, agalmic dot holdings dot root dot one-eight-four dot ninety-seven dot A-for-able dot B-for-baker dot five, incorporated?"

> "Uh." Manfred blinks and rubs his eyes. "Hold on a moment." When the retinal patterns fade, he pulls on his glasses and powers them up. "Just a second now." Browsers and menus ricochet through his sleep-laden eyes. "Can you repeat the company name?"

> "Sure." Glashwiecz repeats himself patiently. He sounds as tired as Manfred feels.

> "Um." Manfred finds it, floating three tiers down an elaborate object hierarchy. It's flashing for attention. There's a priority interrupt, an incoming lawsuit that hasn't propagated up the inheritance tree yet. He prods at the object with a property browser. "I'm afraid I'm not a director of that company, Mr. Glashwiecz. I appear to be retained by it as a technical contractor with non-executive power, reporting to the president, but frankly, this is the first time I've ever heard of the company. However, I can tell you who's in charge if you want."

> "Yes?" The attorney sounds almost interested. Manfred figures it out; the guy's in New Jersey, it must be about three in the morning over there.

> Malice – revenge for waking him up – sharpens Manfred's voice. "The president of agalmic.holdings.root.184.97.AB5 is agalmic.holdings.root.184.97.201. The secretary is agalmic.holdings.root.184.D5, and the chair is agalmic.holdings.root.184.E8.FF. All the shares are owned by those companies in equal measure, and I can tell you that their regulations are written in Python. Have a nice day, now!" He thumps the bedside phone control and sits up, yawning, then pushes the do-not-disturb button before it can interrupt again. After a moment he stands up and stretches, then heads to the bathroom to brush his teeth, comb his hair, and figure out where the lawsuit originated and how a human being managed to get far enough through his web of robot companies to bug him.

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelera...

wow, thanks for reminding me about that. i read it years ago. its exciting that he holds enough rights that he can distribute it himself!

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