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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

#501

Post by fransje26 »

kombine wrote: post #470

Well, Google have already been collaborating with a certain state that uses AI for weapons and surveillance against a repressed population with the goal of maintaining ethnic supremacy and domination.

And they wash their hands after a deadly strike, saying the AI that made the decision.

It eerily reminds me of a research piece I read recently detailing how the Nazis turned to automation for their mass exterminations because most of them couldn't bear the mental toll that came with their direct action.

Unfortunately, I couldn't quickly find that series of articles back.

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

#502

Post by theoreticalmal »

zeroq wrote: post #417
normalaccess wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Advertising is just the surface layer—the excuse. Digital ads rely on collecting as much personal data as possible, but that data is the real prize. This creates a natural partnership with intelligence agencies: they may not legally collect the data themselves, but they can certainly buy access. This isn’t new. Facebook, for example, received early funding from In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital arm, and its origins…

Years ago a friend working in security told me that every telco operator in Elbonia has to have a special room in their HQ that's available 24/7 to some goverment officials. Men in black come and go as they please, and while what is actually happening in that room remains a mystery, they can tap straight to the system from within with no restrictions or traceability. Growing up in soviet bloc I took that story at fac…

Elbonia? How much mud did the men in black have to wade through to get to the secret room?

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

#504

Post by leoc »

I’m not complaining about the headline, but it is necessary to remind people that really, “Google” never does anything and never makes any high-level decision. Those decisions are all made or at least approved by the two individuals who together have full control over Alphabet and Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Object persistence is real: the fact that Page and Brin are not constantly drawing attention to themselves on social media does not mean that they somehow are no longer there.

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

#505

Post by bbqfog »

uejfiweun wrote: post #367
bbqfog wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They're not "outsider activists", they're customers affecting the bottom line.

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

#506

Post by bbqfog »

tmnvdb wrote: post #365
bbqfog wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's absolutely no reason to attack anyone.

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

#507

Post by AndyNemmity »

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 totalitarian. Orders come from the top, and are taken from below.

Seems fundamentally evil.

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

#508

Post by AndyNemmity »

ericmay wrote: post #47
Retric wrote: post #26

Earlier 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…

My problem with this take is that you forget, the corporations are made up of people, so in order for the corporation to be evil you have to take into account the aggregate desires and decision making of the employees and shareholders and, frankly, call them all evil. Calling them evil is kind of a silly thing to do anyway, but you can not divorce the actions of a company from those who run and support it, and I woul…

Corporations are totalitarian systems. Just because the dictatorship has people, doesn't indicate anything about it.

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

#509

Post by perryizgr8 »

1024core wrote: post #88
r00fus wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So "if I don't steal it someone else will"? I'd rate that as evil.

Maybe it's more like "If I don't do this job, someone else will"...

Then let them do it. You don't do what you consider immoral.

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

#510

Post by rixed »

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…

> our civilization

There is no such thing as "our" or "their" civilization. We have only one. Maybe such concept had some ground a few centuries ago still, but by now this idea that "we" are significantly different than "them" is a dangerous fantasy for most people.

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