David A. McAllester (born May 30, 1956) is an American computer scientist who is Professor and former chief academic officer at the Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago.
[7] A 1998 paper on machine learning theory[8] introduced PAC-Bayesian theorems which combine Bayesian and non-Bayesian methods.
[11] He was later described as discussing the singularity at the panel in terms of two major milestones in artificial intelligence: 1) Operational Sentience: We can easily converse with computers.
He says that before machines become capable of programming themselves (potentially leading to the singularity), there should be a period where they are moderately intelligent in which it should be possible to test out giving them a purpose or mission that should render them safe to humans: I personally believe that it is likely that within a decade agents will be capable of compelling conversation about the everyday events that are the topics of non-technical dinner conversations.
However, the early stages of AGI will provide an excellent test bed for the servant mission or other approaches to friendly AI ...