Important to know: > Anna Makanju, the company’s vice president of global affairs ... added that it will retain its ban on developing weapons
Is astroturfing a weapon? It seems like the natural use... To sway opinion in foreign countries.
OpenAI drops ban on military tools to partner with The Pentagon
191–200 of 509 posts
Re: OpenAI drops ban on military tools to partner with The Pentagon
#192Nicolas M. Chaillan, Former U.S. Air Force and Space Force Chief Software Officer (CSO), has been running Ask Sage for a little over a year now. It's a very clever way to benefit from relationships and timing the market on Generative AI buzz. It's not that hard to see where this could go for Ask Sage.
Re: OpenAI drops ban on military tools to partner with The Pentagon
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
I personally welcome cooperation with the Pentagon for OpenAI and other American companies. The disdain that seems to infest so many when it comes to working with our national defense organizations is both annoying and bewilderingly naive and that's even when we take into consideration all of the bad things that happen. Strengthening partnerships with our government certainly doesn't make me mistrust OpenAI.
> The disdain that seems to infest so many when it comes to working with our national defense organizations is both annoying and bewilderingly naive and that's even when we take into consideration all of the bad things that happen. I think yor phrase "our national defense organizations" summarizes the counterargument: a lot of readers/commenters on HN live in other countries.
"10 out of 10 dictators disapprove of the free world improving their defense capabilities!"
Re: OpenAI drops ban on military tools to partner with The Pentagon
#194I was brought up in a household that was anti military. Only as an adult was I able to form my own opinion. Without a strong military in the past we would certainly not be here today and without a strong military now, who knows what other nation might decide to attack our sovereignty. It's childish to be anti military - it shows you do not understand the interconnectedness of our society - good and bad.
I could make literally the opposite argument. Other countries antagonize the US because of its military interventionism. If the US had lower military spending, other countries wouldn't feel the need to be aggressive. It's childish to be pro military. It shows you think arbitrary lines on a map determine who's good or bad.
> Other countries antagonize the US because of its military interventionism. If the US had lower military spending, other countries wouldn't feel the need to be aggressive.
You've conflated two different things here:
1. Military interventionism. Presumably the unjustified sort, like invading Iraq (and not the first time, when the US was pushing Iraq out of Kuwait).
2. Military spending.
These are totally different things. You can spend a lot on your military and not go on military adventures.
Re: OpenAI drops ban on military tools to partner with The Pentagon
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t think that opposite argument works given the current geopolitical situation which has nothing to do with the US being aggressive. Russia would have very likely completed its conquest of Ukraine by now and moved on to the Baltic states (NATO relies on US military spending to compensate for lack of spending of other NATO members). Taiwan would belong to China yesterday, along with the rest of the Indo-Pacific.
It's disingenuous to ignore the effect the aggression of the cold war and its aftermath had on the current Russian situation. With Taiwan, it's a delicate situation and I'm not familiar enough with it to comment on it. But I notice you conveniently left out all the times the US just did interventionism because it was convenient. Iraq? Most recently Venezuela? If we go back long enough, how about literally all of Sout…
What military interventionism in Venezuela? The US applied sanctions when Maduro started suppressing democracy, sure, but that's not the same thing as airstrikes or invading. This sounds like goalpost moving, since we were talking specifically about military force.
The US has a shit history of intervening in Latin America from the 20th century, no argument there, but it's been several decades now at least since the US overthrow a democracy in that region.
Re: OpenAI drops ban on military tools to partner with The Pentagon
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 levelli…
I'm sure the environment is fine, it's just a question of economics. The comp for mere software engineers these days is more than the commander in chief gets paid. Usually what organizations like USDS try to do to attract coders is get them interested in a "tour of duty" where they rough it for a few years on a major general's salary before going back to their old jobs generating text, managing cat videos, and getting people to click on ads. It's a busted system.
Re: OpenAI drops ban on military tools to partner with The Pentagon
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
I personally welcome cooperation with the Pentagon for OpenAI and other American companies. The disdain that seems to infest so many when it comes to working with our national defense organizations is both annoying and bewilderingly naive and that's even when we take into consideration all of the bad things that happen. Strengthening partnerships with our government certainly doesn't make me mistrust OpenAI.
The US has a fascist running for president right now(who was previously elected!). There is every reason to be worried about new tech adoption by the US military.
Then you will be pleased to learn that the US military takes an oath to the Constitution, not to whoever happens to be the current President. Exactly because the dangers of assholes assuming the Presidency isn't some kind of genius insight that you're the first person to ever consider.
Re: OpenAI drops ban on military tools to partner with The Pentagon
#198Ok so a few weeks ago, virtually every OpenAi employee signed a letter saying “reinstate Altman or I quit”.
Is any OpenAi employee wanting to sign a “don’t use OpenAi for war or I quit”?
Or was everyone in on betraying all OpenAi’s founding principles from the start?
Re: OpenAI drops ban on military tools to partner with The Pentagon
#199The 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 how that works in Yemen or Gaza. Do they have any networking infrastructure left?
Re: OpenAI drops ban on military tools to partner with The Pentagon
#200The second OpenAI stopped being a not for profit it opened itself up to the highest bidder namely the military industrial complex ... this danger motivated it's corporate structure which explicitly detailed it did not wish to be a pawn of big corporations
so sad