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Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance
131–140 of 567 posts
Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most suggestions of this nature fail to explain how they will deal with the problem of people just seeing there’s no point in trying for more. On a personal level, I’ve heard people from Norway describe this problem for personal income tax—at some point (notably below a typical US senior software engineer’s earnings) the amount of work you need to put in for the marginal post-tax krone is so high it’s just demotivati…
"the amount of work you need to put in for the marginal post-tax krone is so high it’s just demotivating" Sounds like the effort needed for bonuses here in the US. Why try if the amount is largely arbitrary and generally lower than your base salary pay rate when you consider all the extra hours. Everything is a sham.
Which industry? Bonuses in the tech industry tend to be somewhat arbitrary and thus ineffective for motivating employees. Bonuses in other industries like trading or investment banking tend to be larger (sometimes more than base salary) and directly tied to individual performance and so they're highly effective at motivating ambitious employees.
Increasing marginal income tax rates on highly compensated employees might be a good policy overall. But where are we on the Laffer curve? If we go too far then it really hurts the overall economy.
Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance
#133I initially thought that this was an announcement for a new pledge and thought, "they're going to forget about this the moment it's convenient." Then I read the article and realized, "Oh, it's already convenient." Google is a megacorp, and while megacorps aren't fundamentally "evil" (for some definitions of evil), they are fundamentally unconcerned with goodness or morality, and any appearance that they are is purely…
They’re not evil, they’re amoral and are designed to maximize profits for their investors. Evil is subjective.
Paperclip maximizing robot making the excuse that it's just maximizing paperclips, that's what it was designed to do, there's even a statute saying that robots must do only what it was designed to do, so it's not evil just amoral.
Weird thing is for corporations, it's humans running the whole thing.
Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
> while megacorps aren't fundamentally "evil" (for some definitions of evil), I think megacorps being evil is universal. It tends to be corrupt cop evil vs serial killer evil, but being willing to do anything for money has historically been categorized as evil behavior. That doesn’t mean society would be better or worse off without them, but it would be interesting to see a world where companies pay vastly higher tax…
Most suggestions of this nature fail to explain how they will deal with the problem of people just seeing there’s no point in trying for more. On a personal level, I’ve heard people from Norway describe this problem for personal income tax—at some point (notably below a typical US senior software engineer’s earnings) the amount of work you need to put in for the marginal post-tax krone is so high it’s just demotivati…
Higher taxes is the wrong solution to the very valid problem.
We all recognize that a democracy is the correct method for political decision making, even though it's also obvious that theoretically a truly benevolent dictator can make better decisions than an elected parliament but in practice such dictators don't really exist.
The same reasoning applies to economic decision making at society level. If you want a society whose economics reflects the will and ethics of the people, and which serves for the benefit of normal people, the obvious thing is the democratize economic decision making. That means that all large corporations must be mostly owned by their workers in roughly 1/N fashion, not by a small class of shareholders. This is the obvious correct solution, because it solves the underlying problem, not paper of the symptoms like taxation. If shareholder owned corporations are extracting wealth from workers or doing unethical things, the obvious solution is to take away their control.
Obviously, some workers will still make their own corporations do evil things, but at least it will be collective responsibility, not forced upon them by others.
Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance
#135I feel like we’re just in that period of Downtown Abbey where everyone is waiting for the World War I to start. Everyone can feel that it’s coming and no one can do anything about it.
Reality is in a war between the West vs Russia/Iran/North Korea/China whomever we end up fighting, we’re going to do whatever we can so the Western civilization and soldiers survive and win.
Ultimately Google is a western company and if war breaks out not supporting our civilization/military is going to be wildly unpopular and turn them into a pariah and anything to the contrary was never going to happen.
Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance
#136Corporations turn evil when their founders lose power or leave. Google used to be a genuinely wonderful force for good. But finance people can borrow money at extremely cheap interest rates from government cronies due to the US fractional reserve system. Then the MBAs offer so much money founders basically can't refuse. Then the companies end up publicly traded and only work on pushing up their next quarters earnings, this becoming evil.
Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance
#137I feel like we’re just in that period of Downtown Abbey where everyone is waiting for the World War I to start. Everyone can feel that it’s coming and no one can do anything about it. Reality is in a war between the West vs Russia/Iran/North Korea/China whomever we end up fighting, we’re going to do whatever we can so the Western civilization and soldiers survive and win. Ultimately Google is a western company and if…
The reason war may be coming is because the West is falling apart. The US is isolating itself and bullying its allies. Alternative powers wanting to do something expansive never had a better moment in time to do so.
There was no war forthcoming between an integrated West and any other power. War is coming because there no longer is a West.
Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance
#138I initially thought that this was an announcement for a new pledge and thought, "they're going to forget about this the moment it's convenient." Then I read the article and realized, "Oh, it's already convenient." Google is a megacorp, and while megacorps aren't fundamentally "evil" (for some definitions of evil), they are fundamentally unconcerned with goodness or morality, and any appearance that they are is purely…
I mark when they changed their motto as the turning point.
Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're taking about pre-Clinton consumerism. That system is dead. It used to dictate that the company who could offer the best value deserved to take over most of the market. That's old thinking. Now we have servitization. Now the business who can most efficiently offer value deserves the entire market. Basically, iterate until you're the only one left standing and then never "sell" anything but licenses ever again.
The bait-and-switch model is absolutely amazing as well. Start by offering a service covered with ads. Then add paid tier to get rid of ads. Next add tier with payment and ads. And finally add ads back to every possible tier. Not to forget about keeping them in content all the time.
If you have ever seen the prank interview between Elijah Wood and Dominic Monaghan, "Do you wear wigs? Have you worn wigs? Will you wear wigs?" and Elijah breaks down laughing in total shock at how hilariously bad the interview is...
...I just picture a similar conversation with a CEO going: "Sir, shareholders want to see more improvement this quarter." CEO: "Do we run ads? Have we run ads? Will we run ads this time?" (The answer is inevitably yes to all of these)
Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance
#140It's a far cry from the days where employees were threatening to mass quit Google when it changed its policies to avoid bans in China. A lot of what is going on in the world right now makes me think we are in a war that hasn't yet been officially acknowledged.
I have a lot of respect for people who would resign, or wouldn't work in such companies.
Me too, it is just a shame that the path from earning respect to eating bread isn't as straight forward in our current world as the path from earning money.