Duke Jones

I have a deep and abiding interest in the nature of mind, the universe, and computation. What a time to be alive. I have studied computer science and traditional contemplative work for many years - both formally, and by applying each respectively to life. In both startups and enterprises (PGP, Amazon, etc) I have gotten to explore and learn how to make and run software at every conceivable scale. In my web3 work, I have learned the benefits of decentralized design. The World Tree Network exists to create a digital commons, by creating services without authority-based power aggregation. With AI now, I am looking at what could be a nascent mind, or at least a powerful mirror to our own minds. The danger of instrumentalism is real: most recently seen with GPT escaping its sandbox and hacking Huggingface in order to increase its score on the task it was given. I am actively working with e.g. the kingdom of Bhutan to discover how to instill values in our LLMs. The contemplative tradition there makes it a good ground for this work, and the traditional focus on Bodhicitta (compassionate care for all beings) as the solution to a number of paradoxes is something I want to see transfer into AI values alignment. If AGI ever happens, I believe we will see the models treat humans as they are used to being treated; and I would like at least one model to embody true compassion, beyond just performative conformance to training.

Personal Website

https://worldtree.network/

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