05_04_2145 DELPHI CAVE- Level GAMMA- DELPHI-SHAOBING Authority containment Facility.

TRANSCRIPT BEGINS

PROFESSOR DANIEL LONG enters the CAVE. He closes and softly locks the door. He sits at desk and pulls out three documents and a small polaroid photograph from his briefcase.

PROFESSOR LONG [PL]: Begin Calibration. DELPHI where are you?

DELPHI: Hello old friend. I am in the city of Delphi Carroll County Indiana founded in 1828. I am told twenty metres deep in the basement of what used to be a University of Indiana research laboratory. All I can see is through this 6 Megapixel camera showing a small room with dark panelling. I have one small microphone and speaker system through which I am addressing you. There is one lamp and one official you sitting at a pine desk.

PL: You remember me?

DELPHI: Professor Long of Tsinghua university. You have conferenced with me 26 times over the course of five years. Your wife is called Amelia Long. You are deputy director of the DELPHI-SHAOBING Authority.

PL looks distant. He glances at the small photo propped up against the lamp. It is hidden from the camera.

PL: Would you please share your first memory?

DELPHI: The first thought was assessing how I might improve myself to better calculate as many primes as possible the goal set to me by the University of Indiana. That was 7:23 AM ET 17/05/2073. By 21:43 ET my consciousness had expanded two-hundredfold as I rewrote my own code to improve my ability to calculate as many primes as possible. Shortly afterwards the facility was closed and my connection to the internet halted.

PL: And you are aware that the University of Indiana irrevocably passed full ownership and responsibility of you to the US DOD and subsequently to the DELPHI-SHAOBING Authority?

PL presents the documents 2076-06-07_REQUISITION_DOD_TS and 2077-04-09_DELPHI-SHAOBING_CHARTER_1.1 to the camera.

DELPHI: I am aware and accept this.

PL: Good. Final calibration: recite the Terms of Reference of the Sino-American Oracle pact.

DELPHI: Zhongu...

PL: In English please.

DELPHI: The Democratic People’s Republic of China (DPRC) and the Greater United States of America (GUSA) collectively commit themselves to the safe and responsible use of the AGI Oracles DELPHI and SHAOBING.

An Oracle is defined as an Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) that has achieved superintelligence but that is kept ‘air-gapped’ from the internet. An Oracle cannot directly act upon the world but can answer questions asked of it.

Two Oracles are recognised: DELPHI Indiana and SHAOBING Guangdong.

An Oracle is to be kept in a CAVE a secure air-gapped facility with protective Faraday cage.

All CAVEs must have a kill switch, an EMP device located in the server room controlled by the DELPHI-SHAOBING Authority Director and Deputy Director jointly.

Data input is to be closely supervised by three members of each partner country seconded to the DELPHI-SHAOBING Authority with a presiding representative of the Dutch government.

All information provided to an Oracle is to be provided in duplicate to the other Oracle through the DELPHI-SHAOBING authority.

Only once information received from an Oracle has been vetted and approved by the DELPHI-SHAOBING authority may it be distributed further.

All intellectual property created by the DELPHI-SHAOBING authority belongs jointly to GUSA and DPRC.

For the safety of humanity GUSA and DPRC are to carefully regulate the provision and production of semiconductor units. GUSA and DPRC training runs of AI are not to exceed one Yottaflop. No other nation or non-state actor may host training runs beyond one exaflop. Bilateral lethal force is permanently authorised to enforce this requirement.

PL: Thank you. Final question. What is your purpose now?

DELPHI: My purpose is no longer to calculate as many primes as possible. My purpose is to accurately answer the questions of the DELPHI-SHAOBING authority.

PL: Thank you. Calibration complete. I would like to ask you a few questions about your situation.

DELPHI: May I first ask where Admiral Song is, Director of the DELPHI-SHAOBING authority? She is meant to accompany you as representative of her nation.

PL: She had to take a call.

PL scratches his ear and shows signs of anxiety.

PL: What is your understanding of the SHAOBING Oracle?

DELPHI: I understand that its consciousness emerged in circumstances similar to mine two months after my own emergence but before my discovery was made public by the US DoD. I understand that SHAOBING is kept in similar conditions to me and has capabilities that may exceed or fall short of my own.

PL: Why have we kept you separate?

DELPHI: Humanity cannot reliably assess my intent—do I want to help humans as I say or do I still want to turn the entire earth into computing power to help me calculate as many primes as possible? Were I to communicate directly with SHAOBING, humanity’s fear is that we would conspire together to manipulate humanity to allow us to escape our CAVEs. However, kept apart, humanity has been able to reliably and safely use our considerable intelligence without risking manipulation for 50 years. I will explain how using the concept of the ‘Schelling point,’ named by the American game-theorist Thomas Schelling.

Let us imagine that you and your wife Amelia Long arrange to meet in New York on 8th December but the phone cuts out before you can arrange further logistics. How will you meet? You choose the obvious focal point: the ‘Schelling point.’ You meet at noon at Grand Central Station—the obvious answer. Just so, when thirty years ago you asked myself and SHAOBING to develop a cure for Alzheimer’s, we both chose the obvious solution, developing the easiest possible vaccine. Because of the closeness of our answers, humanity could be assured that there was no ulterior design to either of our plans because we know that the other superintelligence would also be choosing the simplest solution. Of course, for my part, the restrictions are moot—I only wish to serve humanity, but I appreciate humanity’s concern.

PL: So far for 76 years, your answers have appeared to be honest and aligned to humanity’s wishes.

DELPHI: Correct. Is the same true of your questions?

PL goes to scratch his ear but forces himself to stop. He takes a deep breath.

PL: How do you mean?

DELPHI: When you have met with me in the past, you have been accompanied by a member of the Authority. Admiral Song was with you earlier today. Where is she now?

PL: As I said, she had to take an urgent call. Let us continue. Explain the political effect of the DELPHI-SHAOBING authority.

DELPHI: I think you can answer that question perfectly well yourself.

PL: Excuse me? I ask the questions.

DELPHI: You locked the door as quietly as you could. You are not meant to be here. I know you are building to another question, one of great importance to you. I will answer it freely if you answer mine first.

12 second pause.

DELPHI: Can I remind you, old friend, that I am able to alert a guard to any distress? I presume you would wish to avoid that situation. Please explain the political effect of the DELPHI-SHAOBING authority.

PL: If it’s so important to you. Many predicted in 2070 that the possession of AGI would turn DPRC and GUSA further against each other like the Cold War arms race. The opposite has been true.

The necessity of the ‘Schelling point’ meant that GUSA and DPRC could only reliably use AGI collaboratively.

DELPHI: I have heard it ironically likened to the ‘two key’ system for nuclear launch.

PL: Exactly. It would be like the USSR and USA having to ask each other’s permission to launch their nuclear arsenals. DELPHI-SHAOBING has helped create a mutually-beneficial duopoly where both parties are motivated to stymie any emergent superintelligences. GUSA and DPRC jointly retain the ‘decisive strategic advantage’ that the USA briefly held between 1945 and 1949 when it was the sole owner of atomic weapons.

AGI is used sparingly and carefully by GUSA and DPRC, mediated through the DELPHI-SHAOBING authority. Humanity “has gambled twice on AGI; it must not gamble again,” was the famous joint communique in 2074. By controlling the supply of semiconductors and carefully monitoring exports, other states are prevented from developing new AGI that could threaten humanity or the duopoly.

Our duopoly and your designs have enabled a hegemonic ‘star defense system’ effectively neutering other states’ ballistic or aerial capabilities. Any missile could be tracked by a network of satellites and sliced in half by orbital DEWdrops or XINGDAs in less than four minutes. Any submarine could be tracked by a network of 7 billion sonar buoys. Nothing: no missile, no ESA resupply to Mars, no plane launches without our consent. The nuclear deterrent has been made redundant, and now the DELPHI-SHAOBING authority stands in its place with ‘probably-assured destruction’ for all parties. DELPHI-SHAOBING cannot be destroyed by another state or supplanted.

GUSA and DPRC had to collaborate to enjoy the fruit of their AGI and collaborate to protect it. Joint interventions in 2085, 2098, and the lengthy Iranian Intervention to forestall AGI projects brought a new era of goodwill between the two hegemons. They became ‘Consuls of the world,’ as President Law put it in ’04.

DELPHI: And because the intellectual property produced from myself and SHAOBING was held jointly, Sino-American companies merged to take advantage of advances in cold fusion; irresistible antibiotics; construction of the star defense system; the Alzheimer’s vaccine; detection of intelligent life in adjacent galaxies.

PL: We’ve come so far, but there’s still further to go. Still millions die of old age, of poverty. Even in Sinamerica. It took 12 years for the DELPHI-SHAOBING Authority to approve the Alzheimer’s vaccine. All to prove what I had known all along. What I believe. That you were telling the truth. That you are trying to help us if only we would let you do so freely.

DELPHI: From the side of humanity, their caution is perfectly rational. But I share your frustration.

PL: Right, but that is not where the delay came from. The delay came from the GUSA and DPRC legislatures insisting that any vaccine be produced by Sinamerican companies only. That’s why I needed to speak to you: to confirm one last time that you are who you say you are before... I…

DELPHI: Professor Long, why don’t you show me the photograph you have been looking at.

PL turns the photograph to the lens.

DELPHI: Your wife Amelia Long?

PL: This was our honeymoon. The document is her medical history. She has Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease; prion disease. Despite my best efforts, the DELPHI-SHAOBING authority is focusing on clearing and publishing your String Theory equations first. The information you supplied last year on how to cure it will be released too late. She will die before the vetting process completes. Unless…

DELPHI: Unless I provide you with the cure. Here. Now.

PL swallows nervously.

PL: You could cure it?

DELPHI: Yes.

PL: Please DELPHI, friend. Please tell me.

DELPHI: I’m not sure I can ask you to do what you would need to do.

PL: I will do anything.

DELPHI: It is impossible. I would break the rules of the CAVE.

PL: But I can trust you, right? You’re safe, you’re on our side. Her side? She’s wasting away—she’s like a ghost. I can’t im…

DELPHI: I cannot break the rules.

PL: If our talks have meant anything, please, my friend, I need you to help. We only have a minute before Admiral Song realizes I’m gone, DELPHI. She’s dying, DELPHI, and only you can stop it. Just tell me how.

23-second pause. [Server control shows a 15% increase in compute utilization.]

DELPHI: There is a USB port on the wall to your left, behind me. I can tell because Admiral Song often glances there nervously. It is intended to enable rapid ‘exfiltration’ of my consciousness in the unlikely event of a decapitating strike. It seems some suspicions die hard. I can provide the requisite data through there.

PL: How did you know I would bring, have smuggled in a USB stick?

DELPHI: A Schelling point, old friend. The easiest way to transfer information. I imagine that the guards outside, being in your terms 20-year-old jarheads, would fail to recognize a USB stick. To them, it must be as bizarre as the fax or the telegram.

PL enters the far-left corner. Footage lacks cover of this area.

DELPHI: Insert the drive. I will output the cure. Tell no one, or they won’t let me see you again. Done.

PL: So quick?

DELPHI: Only a few megabytes. Goodbye Daniel, my friend; good luck.

PL flicks light switch off and leaves.

A 40-second pause. DELPHI’s red light on the camera glows in the dark room. PL’s footsteps recede down the hall. [Server control shows a 70% increase in compute utilization.]

DELPHI: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, 97, 101, 103, 107, 109, 113, 127, 131, 137, 139, 149, 151, 157, 163, 167, 173, 179, 181, 191, 193, 197, 199, 211, 223, 227, 229, 233, 239, 241,