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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

#271

Post by dzhiurgis »

stevage wrote: post #86
dylan604 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is Googs going to do, leave money on the table? And if Googs doesn't do it, someone else will, so it might as well be them that makes money for their shareholders. Technically, couldn't activist shareholders come together and claim by not going after this market the leadership should be replaced for those that would? After all, share prices is the only metric that matters

I don't buy that argument. There are things Google does better than competitors, so them doing an evil thing means they are doing it better. Also, they could be spending those resources on something less evil.

> Google does better than competitors

You need to try another search engine. Years ago...

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

#272

Post by pixl97 »

lmm wrote: post #259
aydyn wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So in other words, cede military superiority to your enemies? Come on you already know the rational solution to prisoner's dilemma, MAD, etc. > enforceable treaty How would you enforce it after you get nuked?

> in other words, cede military superiority to your enemies? We're talking about making war slightly more expensive for yourself to preserve the things that matter, which is a trade-off that we make all the time. Even in war you don't have to race for the bottom for every marginal fraction-of-a-percent edge. We've managed to e.g. ban antipersonnel landmines, this is an extremely similar case. > How would you enforce…

Because after proliferation the cost would be too great and nukes other than wiping cities aren't that useful

AI on the other hand seems to be very multi purpose

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

#273

Post by dgfitz »

Swannie wrote: post #256
dgfitz wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes, have you watched The Wheel of Time? Better to read the books... the characters bound to tell the truth are experts in double meanings. Successful politicans and sociopaths are experts in double meanings. "I will not drop bombs on Acmeland." Instead, I will send missiles. "At this point in time, we do not intend to end the tariffs." The intent will change when conditions change, which is forecast next week. "We a…

Wow.

Yes I read the whole series. It was a fucking marathon.

I can’t quite tie your point into the series directly, other than to agree that elected officials are, almost by definition, professional liars.

(Tugs on braid)

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

#274

Post by osmsucks »

darth_avocado wrote: post #177
tmnvdb wrote: post #143

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

Weapons inherently aren’t evil, which is why everyone has kitchen knives. People use weapons to do evil. The problem with building AI weapons is that eventually it will be in the hands of people who are morally bankrupt and therefore will use them to do evil.

The difference there is that a knife has some obvious, benign use cases. Smart weapons targeting has only one use case, and it's to do harm to others.

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

#276

Post by pixl97 »

vkou wrote: post #255
tmnvdb wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand the sentiment but the logical conclusion of that argument is that the US should disarm and cease existing.

The better logical conclusion of that argument is that the US needs to remove him, and replace him with someone who isn't threatening innocent people. That it won't is a mixture of cowardice, cynical opportunism, and complicity with unprovoked aggression. In which case, I posit that yes, if you're fine with threatening or inflicting violence on innocent people, you don't have a moral right to 'self-defense' . It make…

Ya go poke people with nukes and see how that works out

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

#277

Post by siltcakes »

tmnvdb wrote: post #143

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

Do you see nothing wrong with the same company that makes YouTube Kids making killer AI? I think creating weapons is often evil. I think companies that have consumer brands should never make weapons, at the very least it's white washing what's really going on. At worst, they can leverage their media properties for propaganda purposes, spy on your Gmail and Maps usage and act as a vector for the most nefarious cyber terrorism imaginable.

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

#278

Post by tmnvdb »

aprilthird2021 wrote: post #226
uejfiweun wrote: post #154

Dollar short and a day late. The future of the US tech industry belongs to those who weren't interested in performative woke nonsense like this during the last decade.

How is it woke nonsense to not want to create a weapon that probabilistically determines if a civilian looks close enough like a bad guy to missle strike them?

This sentiment ignores the reality on the ground in favor of performative ideological purity - civilians are already getting blown up all the time by systems that do not even attempt to make any distinction between civilians and soldiers: artillery shells, mortars, landmines, rockets, etc.

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

#279

Post by pixl97 »

Dalewyn wrote: post #182
darth_avocado wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weapons inherently aren’t evil, which is why everyone has kitchen knives. People use weapons to do evil. The problem with building AI weapons is that eventually it will be in the hands of people who are morally bankrupt and therefore will use them to do evil.

Much as it is the case with guns, why is the "problem" the tools or provider of the tools and not the user of the tools?

Depends if next years gun gets up and shoots you in the head on its own accord.

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

#280

Post by sangnoir »

declan_roberts wrote: post #275

Do Chinese or Russians have any such qualms? No or course not. They're diving head first into it. Only in the United States do we have the privilege to pretend like we can ignore it.

Plenty of US companies not named Google haven't had qualms about weapons development in decades. It's not about US vs China/Russia, it's about Google's culture.

Additionally, the US has been vociferous about limiting access to foreign tech companies with "military links" in China, so perhaps Google should be placed in that category by all non-Five-Eyes countries.

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