Live data from Hacker News

Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance

washingtonpost.com

11–20 of 567 posts

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

#11
If you work for big tech now, you’re working for a defense contractor, no different to Boeing, Lockheed Martin or Northrop Grumman.

Ultimately every sufficiently large company seems to become an arms dealer, a drug dealer or a bank.

We need look no further than Lavender [1] to see where this ends up.

[1]: https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/

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

#12
> "There’s a global competition taking place for AI leadership within an increasingly complex geopolitical landscape. We believe democracies should lead in AI development..."

This is extremely disconcerting.

Google as a tool of surveillance is the kind of thing that could so easily be abused or misused to such catastrophic ends that I absolutely think the hard line should be there. And I only feel significantly more this way given the current geopolitical realities.

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

#15
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?

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

#16
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…

this, but broader. Goodness and morality is a subjective and more importantly relative measure, making it useless in many situations (as this one).

while knowing this seems useless, it's actually the missing intrinsic compass and the cause for a lot of bad and stupid behavior (by the definition that something is stupid if chosen knowing it will cause negative consequences for the doer)

Everything should primarily be measured based on its primary goal. For "for-profit" companies that's obvious in their name and definition.

That there's nothing that should be assumed beyond what's stated is the premise of any contract whether commercial, public or personal (like friendship) is a basic tool for debate and decision making.

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

#17
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…

I guess a question becomes, how does dropping these self-imposed limitations work as a marketing exercise? Probably most of their customers or prospective customers won't care, but will a cheery multi-colored new product land a little differently? If Northrop Grumman made a smart home hub, you might be reluctant to put it in your living room.

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

#18

Other countries will use AI for weapons - shouldn’t the EU and US also do that to remain competitive?

It's not exactly unheard of for certain weapons to be declared off-limits by most countries even if the "bad guys" are using them - think chemical and biological agents, landmines, cluster munitions, blinding weapons and so on. I doubt there will ever be treaties completely banning any use of AI in warfare but there might be bans on specific applications, particularly using it to make fully autonomous weapons which select and dispatch targets with no human in the loop, for similar reasons to why landmines are mostly banned.

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

#20
post #17
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…

I guess a question becomes, how does dropping these self-imposed limitations work as a marketing exercise? Probably most of their customers or prospective customers won't care, but will a cheery multi-colored new product land a little differently? If Northrop Grumman made a smart home hub, you might be reluctant to put it in your living room.

Marketing doesn't matter to oligarchs.
Post reply on HN