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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is Absolutely Right About Racist Algorithms

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Re: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is Absolutely Right About Racist Algorithms

#52
post #11

There is no design of AI that can be simultaneously utilitarian, procedurally fair, and representatively fair. I'm going to repeat this again, since many people struggle with this. It is _literally impossible_ to achieve the best utilitarian outcome, the most procedurally fair outcome, and a representatively fair outcome. Anyone designing algorithms will have to make tradeoffs along this frontier. For a far better ar…

The problem here is, we don't even know what "fair" means. What do we mean by fair? Say we want to base fair on group outcomes, in which ways should we divide people into groups in order to perform some sort of balancing? Is hair color or texture a relevant way of subdividing people for instance? Are we being "fair" to red haired people? What if red haired people for some reason seem to be less likely to pay back loa…

Maybe don't split groups on genetics/biology/birth.

Also make sure the data you use is not a proxy for the above criteria

Re: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is Absolutely Right About Racist Algorithms

#53
All: we're going to try turning off the flags on this story. If you're going to comment here, do it civilly and substantively. I can already see signs of thought-degrading flame-entropy appearing, and if it continues we'll restore the community defense mechanism.

Re: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is Absolutely Right About Racist Algorithms

#54
post #11

There is no design of AI that can be simultaneously utilitarian, procedurally fair, and representatively fair. I'm going to repeat this again, since many people struggle with this. It is _literally impossible_ to achieve the best utilitarian outcome, the most procedurally fair outcome, and a representatively fair outcome. Anyone designing algorithms will have to make tradeoffs along this frontier. For a far better ar…

I wouldn't say its impossible.

They may happen to align, you cant force it though.

Re: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is Absolutely Right About Racist Algorithms

#56

The second half of the article that talks about Yudkowsky, rationalists, and Roko's Basilisk is absolute trash and a gross mischaracterization of the actual positions taken. >Yudkowski has for more than a decade pursued the possibility of perfect human reasoning His website is literally called "Less Wrong". It's fundamentally a quest for improvement , not perfection. >His system of coldly logical reason, it turned ou…

> "This is because of the regretful (but understandable) decision to censor discussion of it on Less Wrong, which backfired spectacularly." Can you explain the (understandable) rationale behind Less Wrong censoring discussion of Roko's Basilisk? I've been lead to believe it was censored out of fear that discussing it could somehow inspire its actual creation. Honestly from a distance Less Wrong has always struck me a…

I think the more charitable interpretation is that the discussion was taking over everything. If people are fixating on a narrow topic for a long time (without much progress) then sometimes it's helpful to say "alright people, let's move along now."

You're right about Less Wrong feeling like a cult, though. It gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Re: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is Absolutely Right About Racist Algorithms

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If AOC is an example of this new generation, we're in trouble.

Why's that?

“I think that there’s a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually, and semantically correct, than about being morally right”

Re: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is Absolutely Right About Racist Algorithms

#58

The second half of the article that talks about Yudkowsky, rationalists, and Roko's Basilisk is absolute trash and a gross mischaracterization of the actual positions taken. >Yudkowski has for more than a decade pursued the possibility of perfect human reasoning His website is literally called "Less Wrong". It's fundamentally a quest for improvement , not perfection. >His system of coldly logical reason, it turned ou…

> "This is because of the regretful (but understandable) decision to censor discussion of it on Less Wrong, which backfired spectacularly." Can you explain the (understandable) rationale behind Less Wrong censoring discussion of Roko's Basilisk? I've been lead to believe it was censored out of fear that discussing it could somehow inspire its actual creation. Honestly from a distance Less Wrong has always struck me a…

Sure thing. The basilisk can easily be misread as an argument to do everything in one's power to support AI research of some sort. It's more accurately an argument that you should ensure your decision theory doesn't coerce you into putting all your effort into supporting AI research. LessWrong has a bunch of really scrupulous people reading it, who take pride in taking ideas seriously, so censoring the discussion seemed worthwhile for avoiding the failure mode of having readers make the mistake mentioned previously.

Re: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is Absolutely Right About Racist Algorithms

#59
It’s more clear to me than ever now that the left and the right do not use the word “racist” the same way.

The left thinks of racism in terms of outcome and the right thinks of racism in terms of intent.

We could benefit from better language around these concepts, and honest dialogue about them too.

Re: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is Absolutely Right About Racist Algorithms

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article has an appropriate amount of technical and political discussion. The words “she is right” are simply not in this community’s vocabulary.

What sort of critique are you trying to make of "this community?" Are the words "he is right" in our vocabulary?

low key sexism allegation
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