Live data from Hacker News

Preparing for Malicious Uses of AI

blog.openai.com

81–90 of 233 posts

Re: Preparing for Malicious Uses of AI

#81
post #35
post #30

The disturbing thing about this paper to me - flashy though it may be - is what they left out rather than what they kept in. OpenAI appears to only be thinking of the crimes-against-individuals segment of malicious AI, rather then the crimes-against-humanity type of malicious AI that the surveillance advertising corporations who are supporting OpenAI are building. I am far, far less worried about an assassin's drones…

> I'm more concerned about Google using AI to mine every conversation I've ever had or my browsing history to classify me as a dissiden before I apply for a visa to travel to China or the United States, or as a deadbeat before I apply for a bank loan, or sick before I apply for insurance, or as unrehabilitatable before I apply for parole. I'm quite paranoid about this, yet whenever I speak to people about it either p…

> I'm quite paranoid about this, yet whenever I speak to people about it either people don't care, or already accept it's happening and inevitable.

I have yet to see much in the way of concrete harms from the supposed privacy issues plaguing online advertising. Everyone has a favorite hypothetical situation where Google dobs you in to the Chinese government, but no evidence that anything of the sort is actually happening.

Re: Preparing for Malicious Uses of AI

#82
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is your concern different than what they are calling political security (~1/3 of the paper)? >Political security. The use of AI to automate tasks involved in surveillance (e.g. analysing mass-collected data), persuasion (e.g. creating targeted propaganda), and deception (e.g. manipulating videos) may expand threats associated with privacy invasion and social manipulation. We also expect novel attacks that take ad…

I guess it's the difference between what they're calling "authoritarian states", the mustache-twirling dictators of the 20th century targeting their political opponents (a fetish in papers like this), and the _new_ form of corporate-driven mass surveillance and resulting fascism that is emerging. There is no need for an evil central power targeting threats to itself, but instead we have seen/are seeing the rise perva…

You are right on. To confine this worry to 'authoritarian states' is beyond naive.

Could an A.I. program like you are discussing have prevented the school shooting in Florida by alerting the police of the shooter's state of mind and intentions?

If an A.I. could save kids, is there any way we would not be demanding the A.I. protector be installed on every computer and mobile device today? It would be so easy to see how we would voluntarily give up power to this A.I. protector.

Re: Preparing for Malicious Uses of AI

#83
post #30

The disturbing thing about this paper to me - flashy though it may be - is what they left out rather than what they kept in. OpenAI appears to only be thinking of the crimes-against-individuals segment of malicious AI, rather then the crimes-against-humanity type of malicious AI that the surveillance advertising corporations who are supporting OpenAI are building. I am far, far less worried about an assassin's drones…

At least Google and FB are big-enough targets that operate out in the open that they can be crushed by governments if they throw their weight around too much.

The things that scare me are actors that don't have flashy names. The invisible marketing companies funded by lobbyists. Astroturfers. Russian propagandists.

Re: Preparing for Malicious Uses of AI

#84
post #30

The disturbing thing about this paper to me - flashy though it may be - is what they left out rather than what they kept in. OpenAI appears to only be thinking of the crimes-against-individuals segment of malicious AI, rather then the crimes-against-humanity type of malicious AI that the surveillance advertising corporations who are supporting OpenAI are building. I am far, far less worried about an assassin's drones…

I took a class Sociology class in college called "Killing". Not a single time did we once ever talk about "authoritative" or "legitimate" killings of any sort. It turned out that this class was specifically meant for 'Criminal Justice' majors, people who were going on to be police officers and prosecutors. We didn't ever talk about war, the death penalty, genocide, eugenics, abortion, differential reproductive succes…

When was this?

Back when I was an undergrad, I took one sociology class (on a different topic) and the faculty seemed especially sensitive about that sort of manipulation. I can't find a reference at the moment, but it had something to do with the CIA consulting with academics about their activities in South America in the 70s.

This was in 1987 at UT Austin.

Re: Preparing for Malicious Uses of AI

#85
post #81
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm more concerned about Google using AI to mine every conversation I've ever had or my browsing history to classify me as a dissiden before I apply for a visa to travel to China or the United States, or as a deadbeat before I apply for a bank loan, or sick before I apply for insurance, or as unrehabilitatable before I apply for parole. I'm quite paranoid about this, yet whenever I speak to people about it either p…

> I'm quite paranoid about this, yet whenever I speak to people about it either people don't care, or already accept it's happening and inevitable. I have yet to see much in the way of concrete harms from the supposed privacy issues plaguing online advertising. Everyone has a favorite hypothetical situation where Google dobs you in to the Chinese government, but no evidence that anything of the sort is actually happe…

Here's a simple one that you can try at home. This isn't one of those 'the facebook app listens to me' privacy breaches, it's more concrete and provable. Take a friend you haven't talked to in a couple of years, and start chatting with them over WhatsApp. After some days of this, go to your Facebook feed and watch how their posts now appear prominently, even though they didn't before you started chatting.

This is simple and harmless, but this same information has other uses that are not so harmless. They may not be being used right now, but they may start to be used in the future

Re: Preparing for Malicious Uses of AI

#86
post #11
post #2

You can have 1000 of companies that act fair and don't use AI for malicious purposes, but there it that one company or community that doesn't... and then someone sends you gay porn with your face in it.

I'm not too worried about that. The moment that type of technology becomes widely available is the moment this type of blackmail loses all edge. You might even actually start doing gay porn IRL and people will assume that it's been "deepfaked". The corollary is a little more worrying: any kind of incriminating document about a politician or public figure will be dismissed as a fake immediately. I mean, they already d…

I know that "why not blockchain" has become a cliche and I agree that majority of proposed use-cases seem like hammer desperately looking for the nail, but maybe this is an area where it could be indeed useful?

- Create a special "evidence camera" that allows photos taken with this camera to be used as an evidence.

- When you take the photo, the camera posts digital fingerprint of the photo on the blockchain.

- To prove that camera internals have not been tampered with, it also signs the fingerprint with the "camera private key". The private key is destroyed when the camera case is opened: for the sake of the argument let's say that the value of the air pressure inside the tightly locked camera case is the private key.

- The public key of the camera is publicly known, so everyone can verify the validity of the private key.

Re: Preparing for Malicious Uses of AI

#87
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm more concerned about Google using AI to mine every conversation I've ever had or my browsing history to classify me as a dissiden before I apply for a visa to travel to China or the United States, or as a deadbeat before I apply for a bank loan, or sick before I apply for insurance, or as unrehabilitatable before I apply for parole. I'm quite paranoid about this, yet whenever I speak to people about it either p…

already accept it's happening and inevitable I've almost given up. I'm pretty much despondent at this point. There is a booth on my way to work where they give out free Lays chips in exchange for your photo. The gimmick is that it's like a photo booth. I asked the attendant to read the privacy policy, and it's frightening, to say the least. I have no doubt that they are contracting with some AI consultant to be able…

Have you ever stood in line for passport/ID control at an airport or anywhere else any time in the past decade? If yes, that government's security and intelligence services (and anyone they share data with) have enough video frames of your your face to build a high fidelity facial recognition model. And it's linked to your name, nationality and passport number.

Re: Preparing for Malicious Uses of AI

#88
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> privacy concerns is rather an interesting intellectual problem, and not a real one. if it was a real problem, people would change their use of those tools but they don't. It is a real problem and plenty of people do change their use of their tools.

i dont believe so. can you give an example? duck duck go, for example, has 0.3% market share. you need to look at the typical john and mary on the street.

I may have been incorrect to use the word 'plenty.' So let me rephrase: people do change their use of those tools. I don't see how those people being insignificant statistically makes a problem any less real.

Re: Preparing for Malicious Uses of AI

#89
post #30

The disturbing thing about this paper to me - flashy though it may be - is what they left out rather than what they kept in. OpenAI appears to only be thinking of the crimes-against-individuals segment of malicious AI, rather then the crimes-against-humanity type of malicious AI that the surveillance advertising corporations who are supporting OpenAI are building. I am far, far less worried about an assassin's drones…

I found out Google has been logging my location since I got an Android in 2014. You can see what Google has on you here: https://www.google.com/maps/timeline

My guess is normal people don't know or care enough to turn it off.

Re: Preparing for Malicious Uses of AI

#90
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm more concerned about Google using AI to mine every conversation I've ever had or my browsing history to classify me as a dissiden before I apply for a visa to travel to China or the United States, or as a deadbeat before I apply for a bank loan, or sick before I apply for insurance, or as unrehabilitatable before I apply for parole. I'm quite paranoid about this, yet whenever I speak to people about it either p…

already accept it's happening and inevitable I've almost given up. I'm pretty much despondent at this point. There is a booth on my way to work where they give out free Lays chips in exchange for your photo. The gimmick is that it's like a photo booth. I asked the attendant to read the privacy policy, and it's frightening, to say the least. I have no doubt that they are contracting with some AI consultant to be able…

It's the same as the Microsoft "How old are you?" and Google "What painting do you look like?" apps. People don't think about what's going on behind something that seems trivial.
Post reply on HN