Luke Muehlhauser
Carefully, correctly LessWrong |
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Singularity blues |
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Luke Muehlhauser is a blogger. He is a researcher at charity directory GiveWell. He was, until May 2015, the executive director of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (formerly the Singularity Institute), the organisation behind LessWrong.[1] Meuehlhauser was raised in a Christian fundamentalist family, but he now identifies as an atheist.[2] He is also a singularitarian.
Muehlhauser used to run the now-defunct atheist blog "Common Sense Atheism." He joined the Singularity Institute in 2011 as a researcher, and soon after was appointed Executive Director. His leadership is said to have helped the institute get its shit together[3] after ten years' floundering. By 2025, he had left the Singularity Institute (now called MIRI) and started a job with the Effective Altruism organization Open Philanthropy, joining the "people who move between rationalism and EA" club.[4]

Desire utilitarianism
Before moving into singularitarianism, Muehlhauser was an ardent proponent of Alonzo Fyfe's moral theory of desire utilitarianism. Eventually he came across Eliezer Yudkowsky, who became his new Jesus, while Fyfe was relegated to the role of John the Baptist.[6] He posted an extensive reading series of Yudkowsky on his blog, which pretty much bored his audience to death.
Friendly AI
“”A machine superintelligence would be enormously powerful. Successful implementation of Friendly AI could mean the difference between a solar system of unprecedented happiness and a solar system in which all available matter has been converted into parts for achieving the superintelligence’s goals.
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—From the Singularity Institute. [7] |
Muehlhauser is concerned that when artificial intelligence becomes more intelligent than human beings, it could be harmful to us. Because of these fears, one of his ongoing projects is the development of what he calls "friendly AI."[7]
See also
- Eliezer Yudkowsky
- LessWrong
- Julia Galef, whom he was engaged to in 2021 (the social graph of these communities is very dense)
External links
- Common Sense Atheism, Muehlhauser's defunct atheist blog
- Luke Muehlhauser Facts
References
- ↑ https://intelligence.org/2015/05/06/a-fond-farewell-and-a-new-executive-director/
- ↑ http://commonsenseatheism.com/?p=12
- ↑ http://lesswrong.com/lw/cbs/thoughts_on_the_singularity_institute_si/6klg?context=1#6l4h
- ↑ https://lukemuehlhauser.com/about/ "I am the former Executive Director of MIRI and a current Research Analyst at Open Philanthropy Project."
- ↑ The Courtier’s Reply, the Not My Theology Reply, and Straw Men
- ↑ http://commonsenseatheism.com/?p=13085#comment-122851
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 I'm Luke Muehlhauser;What is Friendly AI?