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Historically, these fears emerged during the Cold War era, a time fraught with existential threats from nuclear warfare. The narrative echoes a broader anxiety about humanity losing control over creations with potentially irreconcilable power and intelligence.
What Is the Control Problem?
At its core, the control problem deals with managing machines whose intelligence grows exponentially and becomes embedded across global infrastructure:
AI is in your cars, phones, refrigerators, and the internet — ubiquitous and advancing rapidly.
Eventually, AI may surpass human intelligence, raising the question: How do we contain or align these superintelligent systems?
The dilemma includes scenarios where AI might be: