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OpenAI drops ban on military tools to partner with The Pentagon

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Re: OpenAI drops ban on military tools to partner with The Pentagon

#31

The CIA probably realizes it doesn't need to fund rebel groups [1] or use local journalists/clergy [2] to instigate a regime change these days - they can just flood a target country's social media with AI-generated propaganda. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Contra_affair 2. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/hear...

I sure hope so, Russia has 100% been doing it, with multiple documented „botfarms” (more like fake identity verification farms)

Re: OpenAI drops ban on military tools to partner with The Pentagon

#32

The CIA probably realizes it doesn't need to fund rebel groups [1] or use local journalists/clergy [2] to instigate a regime change these days - they can just flood a target country's social media with AI-generated propaganda. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Contra_affair 2. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/hear...

I would wager a whole lot of money that the CIA is very much on top of this one.

World peace incoming

Re: OpenAI drops ban on military tools to partner with The Pentagon

#33

The CIA probably realizes it doesn't need to fund rebel groups [1] or use local journalists/clergy [2] to instigate a regime change these days - they can just flood a target country's social media with AI-generated propaganda. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Contra_affair 2. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/hear...

I don't know why they'd need OpenAI though. Our government's three letter agencies must have a one hell of a data set to train their own AI on.

Re: OpenAI drops ban on military tools to partner with The Pentagon

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would wager a whole lot of money that the CIA is very much on top of this one.

World peace incoming

Phew. I was getting scared that someone would use it to cause instability.

Re: OpenAI drops ban on military tools to partner with The Pentagon

#35

This is the sort of thing that becomes possible after dropping the ethical members of their board.

I wonder how the OpenAI employees feel about this after their full throated support for reinstating Altman and the shuffling of the previous board.

Nothing a few million can’t make better with some effective altruism sprinkled about.

Re: OpenAI drops ban on military tools to partner with The Pentagon

#36

The CIA probably realizes it doesn't need to fund rebel groups [1] or use local journalists/clergy [2] to instigate a regime change these days - they can just flood a target country's social media with AI-generated propaganda. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Contra_affair 2. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/hear...

I sure hope so, Russia has 100% been doing it, with multiple documented „botfarms” (more like fake identity verification farms)

Russia doesn't need fancy "AI" to do this. Human operators and a few well-designed scripts make botting very easy.

Re: OpenAI drops ban on military tools to partner with The Pentagon

#37

As a liberal raised during the backlash to the Iraq War, my attitude towards the Military Industrial Complex has really changed in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s seemingly inevitable invasion of Taiwan. Add in the possibility that the US could be dragged into new wars in the Middle East and even possibly South America, and I really don’t think we have the luxury to say “weapons bad, let’s n…

Unless you’re willing to help police or let your kids do it, I wouldn’t be so quick to forget the lessons of armchair patriot’ing wrapped up in saving the world mythologies as to give the US’s international military policy carte blanche, was the main lesson from Iraq. War sucks, but what sucks more is a public giving itself license to disengage bc of an easy moral justification. Approaches like this are why the AUMF (the… only legal approval for going to war) wasn’t authorized, let alone voted on for 10+ years.

Re: OpenAI drops ban on military tools to partner with The Pentagon

#38

This is the sort of thing that becomes possible after dropping the ethical members of their board.

I wonder how the OpenAI employees feel about this after their full throated support for reinstating Altman and the shuffling of the previous board.

It's a very comfy feeling to fall asleep on top of piles of cash.

Re: OpenAI drops ban on military tools to partner with The Pentagon

#39

The CIA probably realizes it doesn't need to fund rebel groups [1] or use local journalists/clergy [2] to instigate a regime change these days - they can just flood a target country's social media with AI-generated propaganda. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Contra_affair 2. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/hear...

I sure hope so, Russia has 100% been doing it, with multiple documented „botfarms” (more like fake identity verification farms)

TikTok algo can do it more subtly through prioritizing other people’s media, selectively amplifying legitimately generated content

Re: OpenAI drops ban on military tools to partner with The Pentagon

#40
post #5

Important to know: > Anna Makanju, the company’s vice president of global affairs ... added that it will retain its ban on developing weapons

Where's the binding part of that? In a world where they just remove the language that says they won't work with the military at all, what reassurance should a verbal promise by a VP provide?

Assume that the parenthetical "(... for now)" is implied in all such promises.

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