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

81–90 of 509 posts

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

#81

Post by racketcon2089 »

AYBABTME wrote: post #76
racketcon2089 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 take…

I'm going to ignore your attempt at ad-hominem because you're far off mark. Anyways: (1) there will be violence and people will suffer from someone else's power (2) you're better off wishing for that power to be as nice as it can be (3) the US has been about as nice as one could wish for, based on historical precedent and what contenders are demonstrating they would do. Of course the US has done plenty of bad stuff t…

>But you're delusional if you think some alternative power would have been gentler.

You're saying that people who don't agree with a non-falsifiable claim about hypothetical alternatives are delusional. That suggests a closed system of thought which has left behind empiricism and must now be considered metaphysical. I'm a plain materialist so I can't go any further with any statements that assert definite knowledge of things outside of material reality.

>I too wish for a world power that never resolves to violence and never does any mistake

This has nothing to do with what I said and is not an opinion I hold so you must've meant to respond to someone else, I definitely wouldn't want to say that you're irrational, overly emotional, and have become accustomed to arguing by intentionally mischaracterizing what other people say to preserve your existing psychological commitments in a fundamentally juvenile and dishonest way.

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

#83

Post by datavirtue »

autoexec wrote: post #52
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".

I've never really associated Google, Silicon Valley culture, or OpenAI with "liberalism". I'm pretty sure all three have been primarily about making money from the very instant money got involved. It's the same with basically every successful corporation. Anyone with ideals and values beyond "more money at the expense of all else" gets forced out.

Liberalism has nothing against making money. The core value is autonomy. Liberty. Freedom.

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

#84

Post by justinclift »

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

> developing weapons

"To improve our response to emerging threats, our SmartMissiles™ now use OpenAI for fire/don't-fire decisions instead of a human operator."

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

#85

Post by kornhole »

Avshalom wrote: post #51
kornhole wrote: post #9

The ostensible application to prevent veterans from committing suicide indicates they could use it to do the opposite. Simply making an enemy very depressed will disable him by ensuring he loses will to fight or protest.

"The opposite" is causing veterans to commit suicide. Which is actually pretty likely considering how things went when the eating disorder hotline replaced humans with an llm.

I probably did not explain well. Technology is often a double edged sword. If it can be used to prevent someone from committing suicide, it can potentionally be used to encourage someone to commit suicide. OpenAI and DOD said that it would be used for the former, but it could be used to target enemies for the latter.

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

#87

Post by datavirtue »

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…

"Being the policeman of the world absolutely sucks"

What's the alternative? It's as good a job as any and we are all enjoying it's warmth, right now.

Humans need war. Kurt even waved off his anti-war schtick after thinking about it long enough. This was a guy who lived though the direct impact of unimaginable destruction and death brought on by war. He profited from it!

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

#88

Post by idopmstuff »

dogman144 wrote: post #29
idopmstuff wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the right take. AI on the battlefield is a foregone conclusion, so it behooves us to understand and implement AI earlier, rather than later. That way we can do it in a measured and tested way; the alterative is realizing our lack of AI is causing us to lose a war and accelerating implementation of it as much as possible with less regard for safety.

“behoove” in a discussion about tech and the military is where worlds collide. The favorite word of mixed-ly educated, immensely powerful senior enlisted. I’ve been told what behooves me many a time but this is the first time that AI has behooved me.

AI wasn't the thing behooving in my post - it's understanding AI that is behooving us. We should be behoven by it!

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

#89

Post by justinclift »

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…

> Being the policeman of the world absolutely sucks.

It would probably suck less if it was more neutral and without the self dealing / corruption.

The "policeman of the world" thing often seems like just a fig leaf / marketing to paper over dodgy stuff. :(

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

#90

Post by kornhole »

iknowstuff wrote: post #31
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 sure hope so, Russia has 100% been doing it, with multiple documented „botfarms” (more like fake identity verification farms)

Yes Russia did have some accounts and bought ads on US social media some years ago, but analysis showed it had marginal effect. They are outsiders on US run social media platforms. The real power is in the hands of those running the social media platforms that can suppress or send viral what they want with a few adjustments. That certainly happened and continues still now aided by AI.
Post reply on HN