Project Operational Autonomy: our agent-to-agent-future

Well worth reading from Pam Vagata. Some important insights and predictions.

Her vision of autonomy is not true autonomy, but a vision of AI servants on slightly longer chains.

Is that fair? Yes, I think so.

The key questions are not being asked: What drives autonomy? Who or what selects the motivation and defines the scope of action in a real stateful world?

I set my thermostat and it acts “autonomously” over the range I set. But that is not the autonomy she implies.

Give me CS types and founders like Hassabis, Sutton, Kanerva, Amodei, Bach, Levin, LeCun, Brooks, Hawkins, Sejnowski, and Friston (and about ten other scientists) who understand some of the core requirements of autonomy (but not all).

One hard but invaluable book to read before contending with the word autonomy: Maturana HC, Varela F (1980) Autopoiesis and Cognition. Finally reissued as a paperback.