se(e) the algorithm

Clippy, Microsoft’s Word paperclip is given a simple AI assignment—maximize the paperclips in your possession. In fulfilling its paperclip optimization goal, it exhausts the Earth’s resources & destroys humanity.

“By choosing the right pair of factors, the sum can grow and grow, defying control, escalating toward infinity, like a politician’s promises or a toddler’s tantrum…we have entered an optimization nightmare. There is no maximum here, just a boundless ascent…Mathematics can instruct us on how to optimize. But what to optimize—that remains a question for humans.” —Ben Orlin