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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

#361

Post by chubot »

hsuduebc2 wrote: post #287
chubot wrote: post #261

It is interesting how these companies shift with the political winds Just like Meta announced some changes around the time of inauguration, I'm sure Google management has noticed the AI announcements, and they don't want to be perceived in a certain way by the current administration I think the truth is more in the middle (there is tons of disagreement within the company), but they naturally care about how they are p…

I would say it's natural. Their one and only incentive isn't as they are trying to tell you "make a word better place" or similiar awkward corpo charade but to make a profit. That's a purpose why companies are created and they are always following it.

Sure, but I'd also say that the employee base has a line that is different than the government's, and that does matter for making profit. Creative and independent employees generally produce more than ones who are just following what the boss says

Actually, this reminds me of when Paul Graham came to Google, around 2005. Before that, I had read an essay or two, and thought he was kind of a blowhard.

But I actually thought he was a great speaker in person, and that lecture changed my opinion. He was talking about "Don't Be Evil", and he also said something very charming about how "Don't Be Evil" is conditional upon having the luxury to live up to that, which is true.

That applies to both companies and people:

- If Google wasn't a money-printing machine in 2005, then "don't be evil" would have been less appealing. And now in 2020, 2021, .... 2025, we can see that Google clearly thinks about its quarterly earning in a way that it didn't in 2005, so "don't be evil" is too constraining, and was discarded.

- For individuals, we may not pay much attention to "don't be evil" early in our careers. But it is more appealing when you're more established, and have had a couple decades to reflect on what you did with your time!

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

#362

Post by uejfiweun »

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?

Because "not wanting" to do something that would make the company money due to moral considerations that aren't shared by your competitors is idiotic.

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

#363

Post by leafmeal »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #107
karaterobot wrote: post #10

Is this more or less ethical than OpenAI getting a DoD contract to deploy models on the battlefield less than a year after saying that would never happen, with the excuse being well we only meant certain kinds of warfare or military purposes, obviously . I guess my question is, isn't there something more honest about an open heel-turn, like Google has made, compared to one where you maintain the fiction that you're s…

I think it's unfair to bring up OpenAI's commitment to its own principles as any sort of bar of success for anyone else. That's a bit like saying "Yes, this does look like they're yielding to foreign tyrants, but is this more or less ethical than Vidkun Quisling's tenure as head of Norway?"

It's relevant to compare though because Google has done the same thing now.

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

#364

Post by QjdgatkH »

A country that now threatens the annexation of Greenland and advocates for a complete resettlement of all Palestinians to Jordan and Egypt certainly needs weapons for crowd control.

These weapons could also come in handy domestically if people find out that both parties screw them all the time.

I wonder why people claim that China is a threat out side of economics. Has China tried to invade the US? Has Russia tried to invade the EU? The answer is no. The only current threats to the EU come from the orange man.

The same person who also revoked the INF treaty. The US now installs intermediate range nuclear missiles in Europe. Russia does so in Belarus.

So both great powers have convenient whipping boys to be nuked first, after which they will get second thoughts.

It is beyond ridiculous that both the US and Russia constantly claim that they are in danger, when all international crises in the last 40 years have been started by one of them.

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

#365

Post by tmnvdb »

bbqfog wrote: post #236
tmnvdb wrote: post #143

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

The US is not under any kind of credible threat and in fact is the aggressor across the globe and perpetrator of crimes against humanity at scale. This is not a recent phenomena and has been going on as long as this country has existed.

The US mainland is not currently under threat but the US world system is.

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

#366

Post by [deleted] »

buckle8017 wrote: post #97
BrenBarn wrote: post #53

Earlier 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 demotiva…

Norway is Saudi Arabia with snow. Their entire economy and society are structured around oil extraction. There are no lessons to learn from Norway unless you live somewhere that oil does from the ground.

[deleted]

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

#367

Post by uejfiweun »

bbqfog wrote: post #239
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.

Protesting weapons manufacturing has been going on long before reactionaries started fearing the "woke" boogeyman. People protested Dupont for making napalm during the Vietnam war.

There's a big difference between outsider activists protesting the actions of a company, and the actual leadership of a company choosing a less profitable path in order to seem more morally pure.

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

#370

Post by dgfitz »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #329
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.

If you can’t cope with the lies, what makes you think you’d cope with the truth? Which I guarantee you is magnitudes of order more horrifying.

If who can’t cope with what lies?

Yes, the truth would also stink. I’m sure it’s also horrifying.

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