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Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance

#141

Post by NemoNobody »

iteratethis wrote: post #137
daft_pink wrote: post #135

I 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.

Right.

So... when the Russian tanks start rolling on the way to Berlin and Chinese troops are marching along that nice new (old) road they finished fixing up - otw to Europe, so if that happens, which looks possible - you think there will be no West??

If the world is to be divided Europe is the lowest hanging and sweetest fruit.

I think there will still be West even if there is a King in the US demanding fealty to part of it - we are the same as they are, it's ridiculous to pretend we are.

Ideology is one thing, survival of people and culture is another.

Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance

#142

Post by 42772827 »

a_shovel wrote: post #2

I 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 are fundamentally unconcerned with goodness or morality, and any appearance that they are is purely a marketing exercise

This is flatly untrue. Corporations are made up of humans who make decisions. They are indeed concerned with goodness and/or morality. Saying otherwise lets them off the hook for the explicit decisions they make every day about how to operate their company. It's one reason why there are shareholder meetings, proxy votes, activist investors, Certified B-Corporations, etc.

Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance

#144

Post by aucisson_masque »

Etheryte wrote: post #72
causal wrote: post #27

One of my chief worries about LLMs for intelligence agencies is the ability to scale textual analysis. Previously there at least had to be an agent taking an interest in you; today an LLM could theoretically read all text you've ever touched and flag anything from legal violations to political sentiments.

This has already been possible long before LLMs came along. I also doubt that an LLM is the best tool for this at scale, if you're talking about sifting through billions of messages it gets too expensive very fast.

> if you're talking about sifting through billions of messages it gets too expensive very fast.

Who's paying for that tho ? The same dumbass who get spied over, i don't see it as a reason why it wouldn't happen. Cash is unlimited.

Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance

#145

Post by gdilla »

barbazoo wrote: post #15
gdilla wrote: post #6

What is a $1M TC when you'll get jacked on your way to the tech bus for turning America into mad max? You're not rich enough to have your own billionaire bunker.

There are plenty of people on here working for Boeing, Ratheon, etc, actively contributing to actual killings of actual people. Those folks don’t get confronted, why would it be different here?

Well, the broligarchy has their site on Americans, for one.

Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance

#146

Post by z2 »

Retric wrote: post #26
a_shovel wrote: post #2

I 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…

> 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…

Historically, unchecked corporate power tends to mirror the flaws of the systems that enable it. For example, the Gilded Age robber barons exploited weak regulations, while tech giants thrive on data privacy gray areas. Maybe the problem isn’t size itself, but the lack of guardrails that scale with corporate influence (e.g., antitrust enforcement, environmental accountability, or worker protections), but what do I know!

I guess corrupt cop vs serial killer is like amorality (profit-driven systems) vs immorality (active malice)? A company is a mix of stakeholders, some of whom push for ethical practices. But when shareholders demand endless growth, even well-intentioned actors get squeezed.

Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance

#147

Post by ckrapu »

tmnvdb wrote: post #143

Good, this idea that all weapons are evil is an insane luxury belief.

There is a wide range of moral and practical opinions between the statement “all weapons are evil” and “global corporations ought not to develop autonomous weapons”.

Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance

#148

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 »

I want to be upset over this in an exasperated expression of oddly naive "why can't we all get along?" frame of mind. I want to, because I know how I would like the world to look like, but as a species we, including myself, continually fail to disappoint when it comes nearly guaranteed self-destruction.

I want to get upset over it, but I sadly recognize the reality of the why this is not surprising to anyone. We actually have competitors in that space, who will do that and more. We already have seen some of the more horrifying developments in that area.. and, when you think about it, those are the things that were allowed to be shown publicly. All the fun stuff is happening behind closed doors away from social media.

Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance

#150

Post by dgfitz »

A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 wrote: post #148

I want to be upset over this in an exasperated expression of oddly naive "why can't we all get along?" frame of mind. I want to, because I know how I would like the world to look like, but as a species we, including myself, continually fail to disappoint when it comes nearly guaranteed self-destruction. I want to get upset over it, but I sadly recognize the reality of the why this is not surprising to anyone. We actu…

Could you imagine how the entire world would look if they took truth serum for an entire year, how different the world might be?

Lies run the planet, and it stinks.

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