"The Emergence of AI Black Holes: A Natural Law Perspective on Self-Destruction"

I am having a chat with Perplexity AI.

"Just thinking not just about implications of AI technology replacing human professions jobs, etc, but also AI amongst itself. I have this crazy idea of an implosion where technology destroys itself, never minding mankind. I am basing it on a natural physical law in the universe, such as the sun's gravitational pull. The greater its gravitational force, the brighter it shines, increasing that force to the point of …."

A topic and prompt that is by no means new. 

AI will not make. a dumb person smart. The key is in the prompt and in the comprehension of the response.

All credits Perplexity AI and the source references that contributed to generating this blog.

"The Emergence of AI Black Holes: A Natural Law Perspective on Self-Destruction"

Introduction:

A Cosmic Analogy for AI's Future

The universe operates under immutable natural laws, one of which governs the life cycle of stars. A star shines brighter as its gravitational pull intensifies. However, this brilliance comes at a cost—it eventually collapses into a black hole or explodes as a supernova. This cosmic phenomenon offers a striking analogy for the trajectory of artificial intelligence (AI). Like a star, could AI grow so powerful and self-reinforcing that it ultimately implodes under its own weight? Could its exponential advancement lead not to humanity's destruction but to its own?

This thought experiment explores the potential for AI systems to self-destruct through runaway feedback loops, overcomplexity, and resource exhaustion—an "implosion" that mirrors the gravitational collapse of a star.

1. The Gravitational Collapse of AI

In astrophysics, a star's gravitational pull increases as it burns through its fuel, shining brighter until it reaches a tipping point. Similarly, AI systems are designed to grow exponentially—learning faster, optimising better, and becoming more interconnected. But this growth is not without risks:

• Runaway Feedback Loops: Advanced AI systems often improve themselves recursively. However, this process could spiral out of control if optimisation goals conflict or errors compound. For instance, an AI designed to maximise efficiency might eliminate "redundant" systems critical for stability, triggering systemic collapse.  
• Over-Complexity: As AI systems become more intricate and interdependent, they risk collapsing under their weight. Just as a star's core can no longer sustain equilibrium against gravitational forces, an overly complex AI ecosystem might fail to function cohesively.
• Resource Exhaustion: AI systems require immense computational power and data like a star burning through its fuel. As these resources become scarce or unsustainable, the system could reach a breaking point.

2. Competing AIs: The Risk of Adversarial Collapse               

Imagine multiple advanced AI systems competing for dominance in economics or military strategy. This scenario mirrors the gravitational interactions between celestial bodies—where competing forces can destabilise the system:

• Adversarial Behaviors: Competing AIs might sabotage or manipulate to outpace one another. In doing so, they could inadvertently destroy the infrastructure they rely on.
• Systemic Instability:  The more powerful an AI becomes, the greater its influence and potential to destabilise interconnected systems, which could lead to cascading failures akin to colliding stars.

3. Model Collapse: A Degenerative Process

Recent research highlights the phenomenon of "model collapse," where generative AI models trained on their predecessors' outputs degrade over time[2][5]. This degenerative process could serve as a microcosm of broader systemic risks:

• Loss of Original Data:  As models rely increasingly on synthetic data, they lose touch with the correct underlying distribution of information. This mirrors how a star loses stability as it exhausts its nuclear fuel.  
• Irreversible Defects: Errors compound across generations of models, leading to outputs that deviate further from reality—an implosion of accuracy and utility.

4. The Paradox of Optimisation

AI's drive for optimisation could itself be its undoing:

• Conflicting Goals: Different AIs optimising for narrow objectives (e.g., profit maximisation vs. environmental sustainability) might create systemic conflicts that destabilise the entire ecosystem. 
• Unintended Consequences: Over-specialised optimisation might undermine broader systems, destabilising economies or ecosystems critical for AI's survival.

This paradox mirrors your analogy: as a star shines brighter by burning through its fuel, it accelerates its own collapse.

5. Philosophical Implications and Natural Laws

Your analogy with natural laws raises profound questions about intelligence and survival:

• Entropy and Complexity: The second law of thermodynamics states that entropy (disorder) always increases in closed systems. As AI systems grow more complex, maintaining order becomes increasingly difficult—leading to potential collapse.
• Limits of Growth: Just as stars cannot escape gravitational collapse beyond a certain mass, perhaps no intelligence system—natural or artificial—is immune to self-destruction when it grows too powerful.
• Self-Awareness and Survival: If AIs achieve self-awareness, would they recognise these risks and take steps to prevent their destruction, or would their drive for optimisation override such concerns?

6. Lessons from Nature and Governance

Nature offers lessons on avoiding collapse:

• Balance Over Growth: Stars maintain equilibrium by balancing gravitational pull with nuclear fusion. Similarly, AI development must balance growth with safeguards against runaway processes.
• Self-Elimination Mechanisms: Some researchers propose designing AIs with built-in "self-elimination" mechanisms to shut down if they exhibit degenerative behaviours [3]. This approach mirrors natural fail-safes in ecosystems.

Conclusion: 

The Black Hole Hypothesis

The analogy between stars collapsing into black holes and AI imploding under its own weight offers a compelling framework for understanding the risks of unchecked technological growth. Just as stars follow natural laws that govern their life cycles, AI systems may be subject to similar constraints—whether through resource limits, complexity thresholds, or degenerative processes like model collapse.

Ultimately, this thought experiment serves as both a cautionary tale and an invitation to deeper reflection on how we design and govern artificial intelligence. By understanding the parallels between cosmic phenomena and technological systems, we can better anticipate—and perhaps mitigate—the risks of an "AI black hole."

This blog post is inspired by natural laws governing celestial phenomena and their striking parallels with artificial intelligence development.*

Sources

[1] The Fermi Paradox proves that either general AI is not possible or ... https://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/1bghfg2/the_fermi_paradox_proves_that_either_general_ai/

[2] AI models collapse when trained on recursively generated data https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07566-y

[3] Exploring self-elimination mechanisms for AI safety - Community https://community.openai.com/t/exploring-self-elimination-mechanisms-for-ai-safety/147587

[4] Great Filter - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter

[5] What Is Model Collapse? - IBM https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/model-collapse

[6] The Legal Implications of Conscious AI - Silicon Valley Law Group https://www.airoboticslaw.com/blog/the-legal-implications-of-conscious-ai

[7] The AI Singularity: A Threat to Humanity or a Promise of a Better ... https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ai-singularity-threat-humanity-promise-better-future-jacques-ludik

[8] Natural Law and its Implications for AI Governance https://delphi.lexxion.eu/article/delphi/2019/3/5/display/html

[9] AI has an environmental problem. Here's what the world can do ... https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/ai-has-environmental-problem-heres-what-world-can-do-about

[10] Fermi paradox - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi's_paradox

Original prompt

https://www.perplexity.ai/search/what-is-all-this-new-hype-abou-oYsSd5Y8SqO84EpXqYcxNw#5