Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

OpenAI drops ban on military tools to partner with The Pentagon

semafor.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 509 posts

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

#61

Post by AYBABTME »

dogman144 wrote: post #37
baron816 wrote: post #26

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 US is the most benign empire one could wish for. History makes that plain, and just peeking over the fence at contender's tendencies and track record further reinforces that. Easy moral justification backed by actual moral justification.

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

#62

Post by throwawaysleep »

ptelomere wrote: post #48

Google's "don't be evil", removed when it was against profit. Silicon Valley's "We're all family" culture, screw that, company profit first, you're all laid off! Now this. When did "liberal" becomes synonymous with liberally removing/adding a moral value when they no longer works for your profit ? It's not a wonder why half of the country no longer believe in "liberalism".

When it no longer works in reality. A lot of values in incompatible with changing facts.

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

#63

Post by racketcon2089 »

tartuffe78 wrote: post #23
hahnchen wrote: 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

"They are not weapons, they are enhanced tools for war."

"All we did was fulfill a contract for a government agency" is the enterprise tech Nuremberg defense.

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

#66

Post by racketcon2089 »

AYBABTME wrote: post #61
dogman144 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 US is the most benign empire one could wish for. History makes that plain, and just peeking over the fence at contender's tendencies and track record further reinforces that. Easy moral justification backed by actual moral justification.

Would the abstract "one" you're thinking of happen to be a middle class college educated American who has never been on the receiving end of American benevolence in the form of saturated bombing of civilian areas, nor been at risk of being drafted to fight overseas?

Is your point that those people's lives are somehow inherently less valuable or is your point that you're willing to sacrifice as many of them as it takes to get a good outcome for you?

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

#67

Post by AYBABTME »

autoexec wrote: post #33
primitivesuave wrote: post #16

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.

The best brains don't go work for the CIA or the DoD, or at least they don't stay. It's not an environment in which you can strive and do your best work. Nothing against what they do, I'm ex-military, but the culture in these institutions just doesn't cut it for the Vibes required. In addition, one's career is much better served working in the free market than submitting yourself to the government's arbitrary levelling/career ladder.

The government is just structurally incapable of attracting this type of top A+ talent at scale. They get and keep smart people but not the smartest people. For this, they absolutely need to use industry relations.

Just picture yourself in a position to work at either OpenAI, or GE, the DoD or GM. The average tech worker will much prefer the hip SV company than the old quasi-government dinosaur corporation or the government's agency.

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

#68

Post by Footkerchief »

gremlinunderway wrote: post #28
baron816 wrote: post #26

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…

[flagged]

Among the countries interested in joining NATO during the 90s was Russia itself, even as it began waging brutal wars against its neighbors, who thereby have earned far more right to be paranoid than Russia has.

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

#69

Post by Kerb_ »

FpUser wrote: post #58
Waterluvian wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a period of time last year where TikTok really wanted me to see the Canadian government as an unmitigated disaster. Just endless scrolls of random mouth frothers screaming about it. Not opining on the matter specifically; just that TikTok had a very clear opinion on what I ought to think.

[flagged]

[flagged]

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

#70

Post by sebzim4500 »

fourside wrote: post #21
KaoruAoiShiho wrote: post #4

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.

I've noticed that, in my circles at least, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine working in defence is no longer considered inherently immoral.

Maybe they don't see anything wrong with it either.

Post reply on HN