Well this is it, n'est ce pas? Is google really about "do no evil" or will capitalism melt the snowflakes. Either way, googles fate is of its own making.
Google Workers Urge C.E.O. To Pull Out of Pentagon A.I. Project
861–870 of 1001 posts
Re: Google Workers Urge C.E.O. To Pull Out of Pentagon A.I. Project
#862Earlier quoted context omitted.
Almost any technology can be weaponized. It's not about the particular technology you work on, but who it's being built for and the intended application.
please help me understand how a substance that turns sand into soil, developed to green the deserts, can be used as a weapon. To me this argument that "anything can be used in evil ways" is a poor excuse used to distract from the issue.
Depends on whether you see this 'greening the desert' as destructive to the environment or not I suppose.
And then perhaps there's a question of who owns this now greened and more usable desert?...
Re: Google Workers Urge C.E.O. To Pull Out of Pentagon A.I. Project
#863From the movie "Flash of Genius" about Robert Kearns, the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper: "I can't think of a job or a career where the understanding of ethics is more important than engineering," Dr. Kearns continues. "Who designed the artificial aortic heart valve? An engineer did that. Who designed the gas chambers at Auschwitz? An engineer did that, too. One man was responsible for helping save ten…
> incredibly valid for Silicon Valley engineers these days If one could engineer a solution to save lives, but instead uses his/her talents to build the nth iteration of, say, a food delivery app, does he/she bear any ethical culpability? Because it seems the bigger challenge for engineers is not avoiding overt evil, but in the opportunity cost of spending their time on work of significantly lesser consequence than t…
I think you're taking the idea too far. look at what the civil engineers have:
https://www.asce.org/code-of-ethics/
Yes, yes, we have a responsibility to not defraud people, and to not work on obviously evil projects, and even to speak out if your employer is, say, building a bridge that is not up to the clearly defined, established standards. (which is super different from when you think a bridge will collapse, but can't explain why in a way that other people can understand. This parenthetical part is particularly important, I think.)
But we are free humans, and if we want to waste our lives on trivial things, so long as those trivial things don't hurt others, that's our choice. We are humans, and humans need entertainment, we need play.
Re: Google Workers Urge C.E.O. To Pull Out of Pentagon A.I. Project
#864Earlier quoted context omitted.
Almost any technology can be weaponized. It's not about the particular technology you work on, but who it's being built for and the intended application.
please help me understand how a substance that turns sand into soil, developed to green the deserts, can be used as a weapon. To me this argument that "anything can be used in evil ways" is a poor excuse used to distract from the issue.
Just because you can't see the destructive nature of a technology does not mean it doesn't have one. Sometimes it's a matter of perspective and context.
When gunpowder was invented the purpose was medicinal, three centuries later we had cannons.
Many things in our world seem positive on the onset, but give it some time and start looking from different angles and you're bound to find some potentially detrimental use.
Granted some inventions like nuclear energy and nitroglycerin, both intended for constructive purposes, have a more obvious destructive potential. An example that better connects with your question is a company such as Monsanto.
Re: Google Workers Urge C.E.O. To Pull Out of Pentagon A.I. Project
#865Earlier quoted context omitted.
have you watched "Good Kill" or maybe even are familiar with the work of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung's research on US military drone program at Ramstein airbase? I guess not, because what you're proposing are further crimes against humanity. If the US wants AI/autonomous weapons then they should agree to have their troops held accountable at the The Hague International Court of Justice. - The Global Assassination Gri…
> If the US wants AI/autonomous weapons then they should agree to have their troops held accountable at the The Hague International Court of Justice. Why would US agree to that if Russia or China couldn't care less about it? That'd be just handicapping the military.
because it'd be less hypocritical when playing "world-police"
Re: Google Workers Urge C.E.O. To Pull Out of Pentagon A.I. Project
#866From the movie "Flash of Genius" about Robert Kearns, the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper: "I can't think of a job or a career where the understanding of ethics is more important than engineering," Dr. Kearns continues. "Who designed the artificial aortic heart valve? An engineer did that. Who designed the gas chambers at Auschwitz? An engineer did that, too. One man was responsible for helping save ten…
The reason Rome was so influential was its military. Ditto for the US. Are you sure it's a good idea to become less influential on the world stage?
The reason US is so influential is its the most powerful world's economy and the issuer of world's reserve currency. Having big military is a consequence of that - if you can afford to have big military, you get it. And, also, if you have a big economy, you may need some ways to defend it from all kinds of threats - before they become so serious that they can hurt your economy.
Re: Google Workers Urge C.E.O. To Pull Out of Pentagon A.I. Project
#867Earlier quoted context omitted.
Almost any technology can be weaponized. It's not about the particular technology you work on, but who it's being built for and the intended application.
please help me understand how a substance that turns sand into soil, developed to green the deserts, can be used as a weapon. To me this argument that "anything can be used in evil ways" is a poor excuse used to distract from the issue.
It somehow makes sand vulnerable to microorganisms? Great, but what would that do to cement bridges and dams?
Re: Google Workers Urge C.E.O. To Pull Out of Pentagon A.I. Project
#868Where does one draw a line these days among the personal, the moral, the legal, and the political? The military application in question is legal and is approved by a duly elected government that supports it politically. In earlier days, employees generally would see this as just doing their jobs in developing technology that their employers wanted developed and would not concern themselves about ultimate uses and app…
>if I help develop A.I. that can be used for all sorts of things, one of which happens to be military-related, is the effort "evil" There's a famous quote for this: It should be noted that no ethically-trained software engineer would ever consent to write a DestroyBaghdad procedure. Basic professional ethics would instead require him to write a DestroyCity procedure, to which Baghdad could be given as a parameter. ht…
It's relatively easy to prevent the unlicensed practice of medicine. But anyone can buy a computer and start programming. There's no practical way to require that all programmers adhere to a code of professional ethics.
Re: Google Workers Urge C.E.O. To Pull Out of Pentagon A.I. Project
#869Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The reason Rome was so influential was its military. Ditto for the US. I think people often have that twisted. A lot of the U.S.'s expansion is cultural, not military. That is to say: people liked what they were doing, and became a fan. Think: music, movies, and to some extent, literature, and now you might add software and consumer electronics to that list. And even when looking at Rome, can you imagine how much h…
Who can project force like the U.S. military? No one. For the most part it's used to enable people to have more say in how they're governed, modulo certain constraints. That's not to say we do it perfectly but we shouldn't underestimate how positively influential that military power is.
In USSR, before it collapsed, young people dreamt of having jeans (not everybody could get or afford them), listened to Western music and watched Western movies. Not because US army has secretly occupied USSR, but because Western culture was more attractive to them. Not everything is done with the military.
Re: Google Workers Urge C.E.O. To Pull Out of Pentagon A.I. Project
#870Anybody looking forward to the captchas asking us to identify drone targets?