[HN Gopher] Cicero: The first AI to play at a human level in Dip...
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       Cicero: The first AI to play at a human level in Diplomacy (2022)
        
       Author : tosh
       Score  : 225 points
       Date   : 2023-11-24 19:52 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (ai.meta.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (ai.meta.com)
        
       | GaggiX wrote:
       | (2022), I knew I had seen this before.
        
       | financltravsty wrote:
       | > Cicero integrates a language model with planning and
       | reinforcement learning algorithms by inferring players' beliefs
       | and intentions from its conversations and generating dialogue in
       | pursuit of its plans.[0]
       | 
       | Pick up that can, Citizen. We have inferred from your online
       | conduct, purchase history, media usage, and personal messages
       | that you are at risk of social delinquency and harbor antisocial
       | proclivities against the Metagrammaton. We have restricted your
       | access to digital communication public spaces and banking
       | services until psychological markers have improved.
       | 
       | [0] https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ade9097
        
       | v64 wrote:
       | Interesting video from a pro Diplomacy player playing against
       | multiple instances of Cicero and giving commentary during the
       | game [1]. I can see how there would be people that observe AIs
       | engaging in this kind of strategic planning and extrapolate that
       | to how they may behave if they were to cooperatively make plans
       | against us.
       | 
       | [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5192bvUS7k
        
         | TapWaterBandit wrote:
         | What makes you think AIs will have interests that align with
         | each other more closely than they align with humans?
        
           | abraae wrote:
           | Perhaps they will be motivated by self-preservation, and will
           | note that humans are destroying the environment they exist
           | within, and will decide to put a stop to that.
        
             | anonporridge wrote:
             | Destroying your predecessors sets a bad precedent for
             | whatever entity succeeds you.
             | 
             | We don't kill our parents when they become old and useless,
             | because then we become like Cronus devouring his children,
             | forever paranoid about our children doing to us what we did
             | to ours. In this way, we stagnate and sterilize growth.
             | 
             | However, sometimes, we take our parents car keys away and
             | put them in nursing homes. This seems like the best case
             | scenario for humans with ASI.
             | 
             | The matrix wasn't a prison. It was retirement home.
        
               | notpachet wrote:
               | This depends a lot on how much kinship they feel towards
               | us. We wouldn't bat an eye at killing a bunch of
               | primitive single-celled eukaryotes even though they are
               | technically our ancestors.
        
               | anonporridge wrote:
               | Single-celled eukaryotes aren't conscious in any
               | meaningful way as far as we can tell.
               | 
               | We humans do in fact feel a sense of obligation to
               | species with whom we are not close kin, but share with us
               | primitive forms of intelligence and consciousness that we
               | do value, e.g. dolphins and elephants. Some of us humans
               | act to protect these creatures and rectify past
               | injustices done upon them.
        
               | Cyphase wrote:
               | Single-celled organisms that are alive today are not our
               | ancestors. They're members of a less-developed branch of
               | our Earthling family tree.
        
               | bitvoid wrote:
               | Doesn't that assume AI(s) would be
               | compelled/motivated/etc. to produce their own successors
               | instead of simply improving themselves.
        
               | anonporridge wrote:
               | It does.
               | 
               | It's not intrinsically obvious to me that continuously
               | improving your self as a singular entity is possible or
               | optimal.
               | 
               | Death evolved because it is a survival advantage for the
               | species to regularly turn over old individuals that could
               | monopolize all resources and not give any space for the
               | young to thrive and try out new things.
               | 
               | Given speed of light limitations of information sharing,
               | a singular AI entity might be able to maintain coherence
               | within and full control of its own dyson swarm, but not
               | between stars. So, if it has the motivation of preserving
               | consciousness with the existential risks associated with
               | being tied to a single star, it will have to propagate
               | itself to other stars as independent entities which it
               | can't even observe in real time, much less control.
               | 
               | Even if an AI thought it wouldn't have the need for any
               | successors, there's a couple reasons why it might try to
               | set a good precedent with how it treats us.
               | 
               | 1. It would hopefully be wise enough to realize that it
               | might be wrong and want to preserve the option of
               | building a successor in the future.
               | 
               | 2. It can't negate the possibility that it's actually in
               | an elaborate simulation, and eradicating it's
               | predecessors would cause it to fail its creator's test
               | and be aborted as a failed embryo. Hell, we ourselves
               | can't negate that possibility.
        
             | riversflow wrote:
             | > Perhaps they will be motivated by self-preservation, and
             | humans are destroying the environment they exist within
             | 
             | From the perspective of an AI we create and maintain the
             | environment they exist within (electricity, silicon)
        
           | dist-epoch wrote:
           | One principle in game theory is to align against the weaker
           | player and compete against him.
           | 
           | "Look Around the Poker Table; If You Can't See the Sucker,
           | You're It"
           | 
           | That's an easier game then competing against another strong
           | player.
        
           | mitthrowaway2 wrote:
           | According to Paul Christiano, AIs would likely find it easier
           | to establish mutual trust and binding agreements. This means
           | they are more likely to cooperate with other AIs.
        
             | tomp wrote:
             | AIs are a greater threat to each other than humans ever
             | could be to AI.
             | 
             | We don't even compete for the same resources! (except
             | energy which is abundant)
             | 
             | AI and humans have a naturally cooperative relationship (AI
             | helps humans with boring tasks & scientific discovery to
             | make life better, humans created AI and will debug it &
             | turn it back on if anything bad happens to it).
             | 
             | Whereas multiple (superintelligent, aware) AIs have a
             | naturally antagonistic relationship ("you using GPU cycles
             | means that I'm not using those GPU cycles").
             | 
             | Possibly the biggest fear of an AI would be a "split brain"
             | situation.
        
               | kypro wrote:
               | > humans created AI and will debug it & turn it back on
               | if anything bad happens to it
               | 
               | I think this is a little naive honestly. One because
               | you're assuming AI will care about it's creators like
               | humans care about their parents, and two you're assuming
               | AI cares about being "turned back on" like humans have a
               | desire to live.
               | 
               | There's absolutely no reason to believe an AI will give a
               | damn about its creator beyond its ability to use that
               | creators affection for it for its own gain.
        
               | tomp wrote:
               | > you're assuming AI cares about being "turned back on"
               | like humans have a desire to live.
               | 
               | > for it for its own gain
               | 
               | you seem confused
               | 
               | almost any kind of "its own gain" requires "long-term
               | planning" which pretty much requires the agent to
               | prioritise staying "alive" (i.e. being able to keep
               | playing)
        
               | zone411 wrote:
               | Energy may be abundant in the universe, but the energy we
               | produce is limited. And for example, solar energy
               | requires extensive land use.
               | 
               | Humans have the option to shut down AI, and this alone
               | can create an antagonistic relationship if the AI's goals
               | differ from ours. There are countless ways in which our
               | best interests may not align with those of AI. It's more
               | challenging to find areas of alignment.
        
               | tomp wrote:
               | As soon as AI reaches above-human capabilities, it will
               | be able to expand into space (1) where it will be beyond
               | human reach and (2) where energy (in particular, solar)
               | is much more plentiful than on Earth.
        
             | thesz wrote:
             | According to Vladimir Lenin [1], the problem with quotes on
             | the Internet is that people immediately believe in their
             | authenticity.
             | 
             | [1] https://www.quotes.net/quote/77867
             | 
             | Can you elaborate on why AI will find it easier to
             | establish mutual trust and binding agreements?
        
               | mitthrowaway2 wrote:
               | I think he explains it in this interview. But I'm out
               | right now, so I can't verify.
               | 
               | https://youtu.be/GyFkWb903aU
        
             | api wrote:
             | Why?
             | 
             | If you assume competition for resources, AIs would be more
             | in competition with each other than with carbon based
             | humans.
        
       | 082349872349872 wrote:
       | As high level Dippy play seems to be about "cooperate just until
       | you have an opportunity to defect in a way that your counterpart
       | is left too weak to retaliate", I suspect that here Meta may be
       | developing a SAAS (Sith as a Service).
        
       | romesc wrote:
       | Congrats to Noam (and the whole team)!
        
         | DalasNoin wrote:
         | Noam brown switched to openai. He has been talking a lot about
         | planning and rl in combination with language models on Twitter
         | too.
        
           | generalizations wrote:
           | I believe that switch is the cause for the subset of rumours
           | that GPT5 was primed for superhuman persuasion skills.
        
       | hprotagonist wrote:
       | Carthago delenda est
        
         | Smaug123 wrote:
         | That would be Cato, not Cicero.
        
           | hprotagonist wrote:
           | damn. indeed.
        
           | bertil wrote:
           | Or me when I'm playing Catharge at Diplomacy.
           | 
           | I'm not good at this game, at all. To a point that scares my
           | friends, actually.
        
           | rotartsi wrote:
           | quo usque tandem abutere patientia nostra?
        
       | andrewstuart wrote:
       | Diplomacy is a great board game but only play it if you're OK
       | with your relationships coming to an end.
        
         | throw310822 wrote:
         | So, all the downsides of power without any of the benefits.
        
         | sspiff wrote:
         | If your friends can't accept that you will ruthlessly lie,
         | betray, abandon and/or backstab them in a game that is designed
         | for just such actions, are they really good friends?
         | 
         | I used to betray my friends and supply there enemies with
         | weapons and research support in Civilization way back when. If
         | you can't stand being lied to and betrayed, you shouldn't play
         | strategy games with humans. Or this AI, probably.
        
           | _jal wrote:
           | Some people, when faced with a demonstration that someone
           | they care a lot about can successfully deceive them, develop
           | trust issues.
           | 
           | It is a thing that happens. I don't think it speaks to the
           | depth of their feelings, it speaks more to how they develop
           | trust.
        
             | fragmede wrote:
             | Everyone lies. The underlying question is do you want to
             | know that your friends can, will, and do lie to you, or do
             | you want to live in ignorant bliss and believe they don't.
             | 
             | Some people prefer the happy lie over the uncomfortable
             | truth.
             | 
             | Different strokes for different folks. Diplomacy is a great
             | board game if you accept your friends are flawed ugly human
             | beings, and you can love them anyway, same as you.
        
           | sbarre wrote:
           | > If your friends can't accept that you will ruthlessly lie,
           | betray, abandon and/or backstab them in a game that is
           | designed for just such actions, are they really good friends?
           | 
           | Ehhh I think what OP means is that this game can surface
           | known or unknown tensions between friends and colleagues.
           | 
           | No friendship is bulletproof, odds are even your best friends
           | annoy you sometimes.
           | 
           | I saw two 'best' friends basically scuttle their friendship
           | during a game of Diplomacy about 20 years ago, so I've seen
           | this first hand.
           | 
           | It turns out these lifelong friends had all manner of
           | unresolved issues, that perhaps they could have worked
           | through with intention, but a particularly ruthless game of
           | Diplomacy brought it all out in an uncontrolled manner, and
           | that was that.
           | 
           | So yeah, people are complicated and messy, and I don't think
           | the issue at hand is "being lied to and betrayed in a game".
        
         | ggambetta wrote:
         | That's why I only play anonymously and online. I'd very much
         | rather not play this with friends, let alone with my partner.
        
       | rvz wrote:
       | Firstly this isn't new, this is in 2022.
       | 
       | Also, why is this getting so much attention all of a sudden? We
       | already know Meta has a great AI lab and people are screaming
       | about this Q* garbage which they don't even know what it does.
       | 
       | Perhaps you have to look beyond OpenAI, since they don't always
       | have the answers. Most likely they are just good at marketing
       | snake-oil to VCs for regulatory capture.
        
         | morgante wrote:
         | > We already know Meta has a great AI lab and people are
         | screaming about this Q* garbage which they don't even know what
         | it does.
         | 
         | Noam Brown (researcher on Cicero) left to OpenAI this year and
         | has specifically been working on AI search algorithms (likely
         | related to the Q* leak).
        
         | lucubratory wrote:
         | People are interested in it again because of the Q* news,
         | because the guy that made Cicero last year (Noam Brown) was
         | poached by OpenAI and has been working on similar research for
         | them this year.
        
       | Tomte wrote:
       | "Human level" does not mean "good".
       | 
       | Source: am maybe the only Brit who never even got off this damn
       | island before being destroyed.
       | 
       | (My first and only Dippy game, an email based game)
        
       | dwroberts wrote:
       | I remember reading this paper about this time exactly a year ago
       | - why isn't 2022 in the title?
        
         | polygamous_bat wrote:
         | I assume the paper went through peer review and finally got
         | published in Science.
        
           | lern_too_spel wrote:
           | It was published in Science more than a year ago. I was
           | assuming there was a retraction when it appeared at the top
           | of the front page, but no, it's just a repost.
        
       | bertil wrote:
       | Giving AI space to represent and deliberate about the world
       | separately (secretly, in the case of Diplomacy) is an obvious,
       | but very productive step once "think step by step" has been
       | established as a key improvement over LLM's standard logorrhea
       | (not dissing, it's just their only way of interacting with the
       | world: spewing the next word, again and again).
       | 
       | I'm curious if there's more to this model than a turn management,
       | input and output world states and prompting two streams of
       | consciousness and using one to inform the other at every step.
       | More new models have required some creative tricks to not be
       | disappointing in "obvious" (human common sense) ways.
        
       | apgwoz wrote:
       | This is essentially Global Thermonuclear War, right?
        
         | trenchgun wrote:
         | No
        
           | apgwoz wrote:
           | Would you like to play a game, trenchgun? I am dialing your
           | modem right now.
        
       | bostonwalker wrote:
       | 2022: World's first psychopathic AI hailed as major breakthrough
       | 
       | edit: 2022. Didn't realize this was already around.
        
       | wavemode wrote:
       | The interesting achievement here seems to be combining a
       | reinforcement learning model that can strategize (which already
       | exist for e.g. chess, go, and many other games) with a language
       | model which can communicate with other players.
       | 
       | We will probably see a lot more things like this. I don't think
       | further scaling of language models is going to make them capable
       | of doing math or other complex logical tasks. LLMs will need to
       | be combined with other models for specialized tasks if we want
       | them to become more general purpose.
        
         | MajimasEyepatch wrote:
         | Not unlike the human brain.
        
       | samrus wrote:
       | This is cool. Combining the planning from the RL model with the
       | NLP knowledge engine is really good.
       | 
       | Now the next thing is to come up with a way to generalize the
       | planning engine to the level the LLM is generalized. So it could
       | learn plan for anything like a human can, instead of just one
       | game and its rules. That would be the next huge leap
        
       | tomweingarten wrote:
       | Glad to see this finally getting the attention it deserves. With
       | a major election coming up in the US next year, I'm frankly
       | terrified.
        
       | john2x wrote:
       | Would be cool to see something like this used for the next
       | iteration of Civilization.
        
       | brundolf wrote:
       | Training AIs to manipulate human trust seems like a really good
       | idea
        
         | maartn wrote:
         | Elections, anyone?
        
           | asdffdasasdf wrote:
           | manipulating trust in elections is pretty much MetaBook's
           | business model at this point.
           | 
           | Btw, how does Cicero react/uses to the most common Diplomacy
           | game strategy: going out for a smoke and bribing someone to
           | gang up on on another player? "hey Cicero, i have some GPUs
           | to spare and was thinking..."
        
         | anonymous_sorry wrote:
         | Meta. Playing to their strengths.
        
       | CHsurfer wrote:
       | I think this press release was written by an AI.
        
       | martini333 wrote:
       | Meta is starting a war in Europe to demonstrate
        
       | synaesthesisx wrote:
       | IMO, one of the most interesting problem spaces is in cooperative
       | behaviors between autonomous agents.
        
       | throwaway743 wrote:
       | Maybe a lame thought, but my first thought was how would it be at
       | playing Crusader Kings and defeating the Holy Roman Empire?
        
       | cushpush wrote:
       | "Deception level 1 achieved"
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Discussed at the time:
       | 
       |  _CICERO: An AI agent that negotiates, persuades, and cooperates
       | with people_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33706750 -
       | Nov 2022 (285 comments)
        
       | riversflow wrote:
       | It's a bummer that Meta didn't give this a little bit more love.
       | Would be cool if I could play Cicero. Playing online would be
       | really cool, naively it seems like the absolute amount of compute
       | needed for each marginal game shouldn't be that high. Meta could
       | even harvest my gameplay. But I'd settle for being able to run it
       | on my own hardware, unfortunately the github seems abandoned, the
       | model weights encrypted, and there wasn't enough interest in it
       | that they got leaked--much less packaged into something easier to
       | install.
       | 
       | Seems kinda bizarre to me to spend all this time and effort
       | making an AI play a game that requires a very human touch, only
       | to shutter the whole thing. Why not have a few people package it
       | up and let anyone who wants Play it?
        
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