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Microsoft president: Orwell’s 1984 could happen in 2024

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Microsoft president: Orwell’s 1984 could happen in 2024

#11

Post by redis_mlc »

chmod775 wrote: post #6
hliyan wrote: post #2

Was Schmidt not the same person who said "If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place." in 2009?

Opinions and attitudes can change a lot in ten years.

Just so people have a ready response for Schmidt's thoughtless statement:

1) I don't want potentially naked fotos or conversations of my family online. Do you?

2) Regulations and customs change over time. Something ok 10 years ago can be damning tomorrow.

3) How do you maintain privacy of medical and lawyer conversations when anything can be released without permission?

Ironically, I had the same conversation with a lawyer ("I have nothing to hide.") who had teenage daughters. It really didn't sink in until I gave him those examples.

Re: Microsoft president: Orwell’s 1984 could happen in 2024

#12

Post by personasdfghjkl »

I think it's important to note here that new technologies that have the potential for oppression can be used not only by authoritarian governments but by liberal-democratic ones as well (see: CIA programs, Snowden leaks, etc) and private companies.

Re: Microsoft president: Orwell’s 1984 could happen in 2024

#13

Post by AlexandrB »

natrik wrote: post #4

"Welcome to BBC News, America's most trusted news source". A low quality hodgepodge of words, masquerading as an article promoting the BBC's Panorama's Are you Scared Yet, Human? A few low quality choice of quotes: Speaking to BBC's Panorama, Brad Smith said it will be "difficult to catch up” with the rapidly advancing technology. Eric Schmidt, former Google chief executive who is now chair of the US National Securit…

> Eric Schmidt, former Google chief executive who is now chair of the US National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, has warned that beating China in AI is imperative.

Ah yes, Eric "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place" Schmidt. I'm sure he has my best interests at heart when he advocates for an AI arms race with China.

Re: Microsoft president: Orwell’s 1984 could happen in 2024

#14

Post by AlexandrB »

chmod775 wrote: post #6
hliyan wrote: post #2

Was Schmidt not the same person who said "If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place." in 2009?

Opinions and attitudes can change a lot in ten years.

Is there any indication that his has changed? Did he apologize for his previous remarks or recant them in any way? If someone tells me they want to undermine my rights, I'm not in the habit of later giving them the benefit of the doubt because "attitudes can change".

Re: Microsoft president: Orwell’s 1984 could happen in 2024

#18

Post by tryonenow »

>“Well, that didn’t come to pass in 1984, but if we’re not careful that could come to pass in 2024.”

I refuse to participate in social media because the tech is already here, and at this rate it's only a matter of time before our government or big tech itself nefariously taps into the the massive data ocean that is being collected. It only takes a handful of seemingly innocuous data points to uniquely identify a person, and from location data alone one may infer a host of private identity markers - race, religion, political affiliation, sexual preference...especially with a bit of machine learning magic.

Combining this with the political polarization we are increasingly witnessing in the US pushes us onto the precipice of a techno-authoritarian, dystopian nightmare. Imagine how much worse the Soviet Union would have been if the government had access to the breadth and depth of personal information that is merely an access key away from our own government right now. After Snowden we know that even the NSA is vacuuming up enough a massive store of potentially dangerous data.

I don't know that there's any practical solution, as I doubt the average person will care enough until it's too late. Our current economy is built on data collection. Mitigation of this threat would effectively require reengineering of society.

Re: Microsoft president: Orwell’s 1984 could happen in 2024

#19

Post by klyrs »

AlexandrB wrote: post #14
chmod775 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Opinions and attitudes can change a lot in ten years.

Is there any indication that his has changed? Did he apologize for his previous remarks or recant them in any way? If someone tells me they want to undermine my rights, I'm not in the habit of later giving them the benefit of the doubt because "attitudes can change".

This story is about Brad Smith. Attitudes can change, but he probably didn't body-swap Schmidt

Re: Microsoft president: Orwell’s 1984 could happen in 2024

#20

Post by scrps »

userbinator wrote: post #8

Is AI really the threat, or is it really the increasingly authoritarian nature of Big Tech itself?

The latter. AI is like any other technology, it can make the world a better place in the right hands or destroy it when it is in the hands of children like governments and greedy corporations.
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