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OpenAI backs Illinois bill that would limit when AI labs can be held liable

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101–110 of 343 posts

Re: OpenAI backs Illinois bill that would limit when AI labs can be held liable

#101

I am not sure what the other side of this argument looks like: Unlimited liability (i.e. liability no matter how poor an implementation and use of the tech is)? The would be quite a novel burden, that no other tech (afaik) had to carry so far. We always assumed some operator responsibility. It's interesting to think of AI as a tech that could feasible be able to internally guardrail itself, and, maybe more so with in…

Every other field in history considers it de rigeur that you're liable for the failure of quality in the products you produce. You make drugs that hurt people? You're liable. You build a building that falls down? You're liable. You serve coffee that literally burns the people drinking it? You're liable. It's also not new--the Code of Hammurabi (some 6000 years ago) prescribes the death penalty for people who build houses that fall down and kill the inhabitants inside.

It's only computer scientists who think it's some unreasonable burden to be held liable for the consequences of their work.

Re: OpenAI backs Illinois bill that would limit when AI labs can be held liable

#103

I have made both GPT 5.4 and Opus 4.6 produce me content on creating neurotoxic agents from items you can get at most everyday stores. It struggled to suggest how to source phosphorus, but eventually lead me to some ebay listings that sell phosphorus elemental 'decorations' and also lead me towards real!! blackmarket codewords for sourcing such materials. It coached me how to: stay safe, what materials I need, how to…

You can buy books on how to make and obtain chemicals on your own.

Hell here's an Internet Archive book on making explosives

https://archive.org/details/saxon-kurt.-fireworks-explosives....

If you ever chat with older folks pre-90's much of this information was accessible fairly easily. It only changed with the push by the government to crackdown on Waco, Oklahoma City bombing, militias and other related groups. There was then a campaign to make it "normal" to limit free speech on the subjects, where as these books were available before.

I think the whole thing where AI should make information less available is a difficult battle and one which I personally oppose, but do understand. Free speech and information isn't the problem, it's the people, actions and substances they create.

After the age of the internet, I think it's been a forever loosing battle to limit information, it's why we couldn't stop cryptography, nuclear weapon proliferation, gun distribution, drug distribution, etc. The AI is just another battle ground, one which, if they actually do manage to control could definitely create some walls to this information, but not stop it.

More scary, is that the AI as it becomes pervasive and stop people from asking certain questions, because they don't know they should ask... but that's unrelated to the risk of mass death.

Re: OpenAI backs Illinois bill that would limit when AI labs can be held liable

#104

So they did the math and worked out it's cheaper and easier to lobby the government instead of working to make their product safe. And these are the people that a lot programmers want to give the keys to the kingdom. Idiocracy really is in full effect.

That has been the methodology of businesses since the mid 20th century. And you know what? It works! Really well!

Re: OpenAI backs Illinois bill that would limit when AI labs can be held liable

#105
post #19

I forget, wasn't OpenAI the company that was formed as a nonprofit to limit the risks of LLMs? Founded by a bunch of visionaries scared of what they had wrought and anxious to lead so they could make sure it was only used responsibly?

That was before it was discovered that these LLM have incredible monetary potential.

The writing was on the wall when they feigned horror at an early GPT being able to play poker in the 2010s, and failed to release the model

Re: OpenAI backs Illinois bill that would limit when AI labs can be held liable

#106

I have made both GPT 5.4 and Opus 4.6 produce me content on creating neurotoxic agents from items you can get at most everyday stores. It struggled to suggest how to source phosphorus, but eventually lead me to some ebay listings that sell phosphorus elemental 'decorations' and also lead me towards real!! blackmarket codewords for sourcing such materials. It coached me how to: stay safe, what materials I need, how to…

When my brother started to study Chemisty, he was told a) that it was easy to make meth b) the profit he would make and c) that the police would no doubt catch him, as only university students would make meth so pure.

By the time he was done, he knew enough to commit mass murder in half a dusin different very hard to track ways. I am sure doctors know how to commit murder and make it look natural.

My brother never killed anyone, or made any meth. You simply cannot have it so that students don’t get this type of knowledge, without seriously compromising their education and its the same way with LLMs.

The solution is the same: punish people for their crimes, don’t punish people for wanting to know things.

Re: OpenAI backs Illinois bill that would limit when AI labs can be held liable

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Craigslist invented prostitution, Facebook invented suicide, and OpenAI invented terrorism. Ask any trial lawyer in America! The world was perfect in the 1990s without any of these things.

Replace ‘invented’ with ‘facilitated’

Doesn't google facilitate all those things? Doesn't internet itself facilitate?

Re: OpenAI backs Illinois bill that would limit when AI labs can be held liable

#109
post #66

Quoting the original bill [0]: > "Critical harm" means the death or serious injury of 100 or more people or at least $1,000,000,000 of damages to rights in property caused or materially enabled by a frontier model, through either: (1) the creation or use of a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapon; or (2) engaging in conduct that: (A) acts with no meaningful human intervention; and (B) would, if commit…

I think my favorite part is that, because it only applies to "frontier models", if a smaller model is blamed for such harm, it seemingly doesn't immunize the creators at all. That makes very little sense unless you specifically want to make it illegal to not be OpenAI (et al). Similarly, if a frontier model kills merely 99 people, they aren't covered by this. So go big or go home I guess?

> unless you specifically want to make it illegal to not be OpenAI [...]

If that is an "unintended" consequence, I am certain OpenAI wouldn't be opposed. Preventing competition whilst keeping any potentially profit risking regulations at bay has been a clear throughline in OAIs lobbying efforts.

Re: OpenAI backs Illinois bill that would limit when AI labs can be held liable

#110

I have made both GPT 5.4 and Opus 4.6 produce me content on creating neurotoxic agents from items you can get at most everyday stores. It struggled to suggest how to source phosphorus, but eventually lead me to some ebay listings that sell phosphorus elemental 'decorations' and also lead me towards real!! blackmarket codewords for sourcing such materials. It coached me how to: stay safe, what materials I need, how to…

you can already gather the same information by searching online.

Do you want to know how to kill yourself? forums are for nerds. Here is wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_methods#List

Do you want to make a bomb? the first thing that came to my mind is a pressure cooker (due to news coverage). Searching "bomb with pressure cooker" yields a wikipedia article, skimming it randomly my eyes read "Step-by-step instructions for making pressure cooker bombs were published in an article titled "Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom" in the Al-Qaeda-linked Inspire magazine in the summer of 2010, by "The AQ chef"." Searching for a mirror of the magazine we can find https://imgur.com/a/excerpts-from-inspire-magazine-issue-1-3... which has a screenshot of the instruction page. Now we can use the words in those screenshots to search for a complete issue. Here are a couple of interesting PDFs: - https://archive.org/details/Fabrica.2013/Fabrica_arabe/page/... - https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/legal-documents/25._...

the second one is quite interesting, it's some sort of legal document for nerds but from page 26 on it has what appears to be a full copy of the jihadist magazine. Remarkable exhibit.

What else do you want to know? How to make drugs? you need a watering can and a pot if you want to grow weed. want the more exotic stuff? You can find guides on reddit.

Do you also want to know how to be racist? Here are some slurs, indexed by target audience, ready for use: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs

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