ML: Interest and activity in artificial intelligence (AI) has boomed in the last few years with common questions including "to what extent will robots replace human labour" and "will AI supersede humans entirely".
I note the recent launch of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) AI Progress Measurement Experiment to which you have contributed. As the subject reaches a new level of debate, what would you say are some key developments for people to keep track of? Perhaps it's wrong to focus on a few specifics given the scope of artificial intelligence as an issue, and we should treat it more like a classical discipline such as economics, which deals with countless concerns. Is there a framework for people trying to get a grip on the most important issues?
MB: The lack of a good framework for thinking about AI progress is perhaps the main remaining roadblock to a consensus on how fast things are progressing. We now, thanks to the EFF AI Progress Measurement Experiment and other ongoing initiatives like Stanford's AI Index, have or will soon have plenty of data.
