Paperclip maximizer main subject instrumental convergence
Hypothetical examples of convergence
One example of instrumental convergence is provided by the Riemann hypothesis catastrophe thought experiment. Marvin Minsky, the co-founder of MIT's AI laboratory, suggested that an artificial intelligence designed to solve the Riemann hypothesis might decide to take over all of Earth's resources to build supercomputers to help achieve its goal. If the computer had instead been programmed to produce as many paperclips as possible, it would still decide to take all of Earth's resources to meet its final goal. Even though these two final goals are different, both of them produce a convergent instrumental goal of taking over Earth's resources.