Ethics Is the Skill That Matters Most Now • Hacker News Board

Re: Ethics Is the Skill That Matters Most Now

#21

Post by mrtesthah » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 5:22 PM UTC

kimjune01 wrote: post #2

[flagged]

Child labor pays. Sex trafficking pays. Slavery pays. What kind of person do you want to be?

Re: Ethics Is the Skill That Matters Most Now

#22

Post by tbrownaw » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 5:24 PM UTC

Ethics as opposed to morality is about codified rules. This seems to be somewhat conflating the two.

Also this sounds like it's talking about both designing those rules and also applying existing rules, without noticing much distinction between those aspects.

For applying existing rules, is there any reason that can't be mechanized aside from "the tools just aren't that capable yet"?

Designing the rules does have a "will this work as intended" component that can probably be machine-enhanced, but is largely about preferences / "should" questions.

Re: Ethics Is the Skill That Matters Most Now

#23

Post by andy99 » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 5:26 PM UTC

kimjune01 wrote: post #2

[flagged]

Real morality doesn’t pay, shallow “ethics” for business, tech, etc. has a whole industry that pays very all.

Re: Ethics Is the Skill That Matters Most Now

#24

Post by speak_plainly » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 5:27 PM UTC

[dead]

Re: Ethics Is the Skill That Matters Most Now

#25

Post by andy99 » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 5:29 PM UTC

This AI written article seems to be substituting ethics for “taste” and making similar arguments to those from the past. Choosing what to do is more important than doing it is a taste problem, of which ethics is an aspect but one of many.

Re: Ethics Is the Skill That Matters Most Now

#26

Post by nyeah » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 5:30 PM UTC

tbrownaw wrote: post #22

Ethics as opposed to morality is about codified rules . This seems to be somewhat conflating the two. Also this sounds like it's talking about both designing those rules and also applying existing rules, without noticing much distinction between those aspects. For applying existing rules, is there any reason that can't be mechanized aside from "the tools just aren't that capable yet"? Designing the rules does have a…

>Ethics as opposed to morality is about codified rules

That's not accurate. See e.g. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-theory/ section 1.2.1 "Morality and Ethics"

Re: Ethics Is the Skill That Matters Most Now

#27

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 5:32 PM UTC

cryo32 wrote: post #3

Well I guess the industry is fucked then!

[deleted]

Re: Ethics Is the Skill That Matters Most Now

#28

Post by bnfcl » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 5:39 PM UTC

The bottom line of the article:

    Intelligence is being automated. Judgment is not.

This is true. Like with a lot of similar takes on AI, tacit knowledge is not easy to add to the AI’s training set.

Re: Ethics Is the Skill That Matters Most Now

#29

Post by mrhottakes » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 5:41 PM UTC

Incorrect, "ethics" is a good way to get laid off

Re: Ethics Is the Skill That Matters Most Now

#30

Post by embedding-shape » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 5:42 PM UTC

bnfcl wrote: post #28

The bottom line of the article: Intelligence is being automated. Judgment is not. This is true. Like with a lot of similar takes on AI, tacit knowledge is not easy to add to the AI’s training set.

> tacit knowledge is not easy to add to the AI’s training set.

Is it even possible? Different people do different judgements for the same things, there is no right or wrong really, just the choice you made in that moment, based on whatever you cared about at that point.