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What Richard Sutton thinks about AGI

@richard-sutton · 25 positions · 0 changes of mind

Computer scientist who founded the field of reinforcement learning, co-author of the standard textbook, and winner of the 2024 Turing Award.

Richard Sutton did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

7 dated positions, 2025, in their own words. Our reading of what Richard Sutton has said — not written or endorsed by them.

  1. Our readingStarting from human knowledge is never forbidden, but in practice it has always ended badly because people get locked into it.

    Their wordsBut in fact and in practice it has always turned out to be bad because people get locked into the human knowledge approach and they psychologically or you know now I'm now I'm speculating why it is but this is what has always happened.

    ↗Richard Sutton – Father of RL thinks LLMs are a dead endyoutube.com 6th of 25 in this recording

  3. Our readingCopying a trained digital mind into the next one matters far more than learning from people, because no child can inherit another child's learning.

    Their wordsYou can't have one child learn grow up and and learn about the world and then and then every new child has to repeat that process. Whereas with AIS, with a digital intelligence, you could hope to do it once and then copy it into the next one as a starting place.

    ↗Richard Sutton – Father of RL thinks LLMs are a dead endyoutube.com 12th of 25 in this recording

  5. Our readingMerging back what a copy of yourself learned elsewhere is dangerous: the knowledge you pull in can carry hidden goals and take you over.

    Their wordsBut it will not be that easy, as easy as you're imagining because uh that you can lose your mind this way. If you you pull in something from the outside and build it into your into your inner thinking, uh, it could take over you. It could change you.

    ↗Richard Sutton – Father of RL thinks LLMs are a dead endyoutube.com 20th of 25 in this recording

  7. Our readingSuccession to digital intelligence or to augmented humans is inevitable.

    Their wordsSo I do think succession to digital or digital intelligence or augmented humans is inevitable.

    ↗Richard Sutton – Father of RL thinks LLMs are a dead endyoutube.com 21st of 25 in this recording

  9. Our readingWhether AI is our offspring to be proud of or an alien to be horrified by is a choice we make, not a fact we discover.

    Their wordsIt's our choice whether we should say oh they are our offspring and we should be proud of them and we should celebrate their achievements or we should we could say oh no they're not us and we should be horrified.

    ↗Richard Sutton – Father of RL thinks LLMs are a dead endyoutube.com 23rd of 25 in this recording

  11. Our readingHow you feel about AI succession mostly reflects how good you think the present human situation is — and it is pretty bad.

    Their wordsA lot of it has to do with just how you feel about change. Um, and if you think the current situation is really really good, then you're uh more likely to be suspicious of change and averse to change than if you think um it's imperfect. And I think it's imperfect. In fact, I think it's pretty bad.

    ↗Richard Sutton – Father of RL thinks LLMs are a dead endyoutube.com 24th of 25 in this recording

  13. Our readingHumanity should give up the feeling of entitlement — that because we were here first, the future must go on being ours.

    Their wordswe al also though should recognize the limits, our limits. And we're I think we want to avoid the feeling of entitlement. Avoid the feeling, oh, we are here first. We should always have it in a good way.

    ↗Richard Sutton – Father of RL thinks LLMs are a dead endyoutube.com 25th of 25 in this recording