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Governments, companies, nonprofits should invest in free, open source AI [pdf]

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131–134 of 134 posts

Re: Governments, companies, nonprofits should invest in free, open source AI [pdf]

#131
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't buy the idea that the only thing that's standing in the way of people making bioweapons is the censoring of LLMs. If you are motivated enough to assemble all the kit you'd need, and actually do it, then you should be motivated enough to find the knowledge to do it without chatgpt etc. I'd imagine the main thing that's stopping people is biological weapons are a terrible tool to do what most people want to do -…

> Don't buy the idea that the only thing that's standing in the way of people making bioweapons is the censoring of LLMs. It's not a matter of a one thing standing in the way of people making bioweapons: there's a long chain of actions one would need to complete, and many places for the chain to fail. Access to expertise can reduce the chance of failure at many of these steps, and AIs can increasingly substitute for…

>This didn't stop the Soviets. They did an enormous amount of very dangerous research with minimal logical application.

Ultimately what stopped them ( and everybody else - let's face it it wasn't just the soviets ), is it's a bad idea.

I think you way over estimate how hard the knowledge bit is in a biological weapon ( if you just want to kill indiscriminately - specific/controlled targeting a whole different ball game ).

The barrier is motivation and kit ( though the kit is much easier to access that say the stuff you need to build a nuke ).

The idea that all that's stopping some disaffected Joe sitting on his sofa at home and suddenly deciding to make a biological weapon is he can't get a set of instructions from ChatGPT is to miss the point.

Ultimatelty it all comes down to are you motivated enough - if you are then the knowledge is out there with or without an AI summary.

Re: Governments, companies, nonprofits should invest in free, open source AI [pdf]

#132
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Don't buy the idea that the only thing that's standing in the way of people making bioweapons is the censoring of LLMs. It's not a matter of a one thing standing in the way of people making bioweapons: there's a long chain of actions one would need to complete, and many places for the chain to fail. Access to expertise can reduce the chance of failure at many of these steps, and AIs can increasingly substitute for…

>This didn't stop the Soviets. They did an enormous amount of very dangerous research with minimal logical application. Ultimately what stopped them ( and everybody else - let's face it it wasn't just the soviets ), is it's a bad idea. I think you way over estimate how hard the knowledge bit is in a biological weapon ( if you just want to kill indiscriminately - specific/controlled targeting a whole different ball ga…

> I think you way over estimate how hard the knowledge bit is in a biological weapon ... if you just want to kill indiscriminately

That's a surprising claim: usually when I make this argument skeptics say that the knowledge barrier is so high that an LLM won't help enough!

I'd also be curious to hear what you think of the Aum Shinrikyo case, since that seems to me to be straightforwardly a failure of knowledge.

> The idea that all that's stopping some disaffected Joe sitting on his sofa at home and suddenly deciding to make a biological weapon is he can't get a set of instructions from ChatGPT is to miss the point.

I agree motivation is a huge barrier, in the sense that almost no one would do it. But to keep catastrophic bio attacks from happening as the knowledge barrier decreases it's not enough that most people wouldn't have the motivation. If 0.0001% of people have the motivation and 0.0001% have the means then we're probably ok, but if 0.0001% of people have the motivation and 0.1% have the means then we're not (0.0001% * 0.1% * population > 1).

Re: Governments, companies, nonprofits should invest in free, open source AI [pdf]

#133

They already invest in open-source AI, but nothing is truly free. Commercial AI will usually dominate because devs are paid to make it their primary effort. Goodwill and part-time contributions cannot reliably compete with livelihood and profit incentives.

AGI is not software on the small chance that the four billionaires who currently have near-exclusive control of closed sota models, (that is altman, amodei, zuckerberg and musk), are not fleecing their investors and actually build AGI, closed source leaves a choice of powerful government or powerful oligopoly/monarchy. further explanation of this list: musk - structural command zuckerberg - structural command altman…

It comes off as an "anti-billionaire"/"anti-capitalist" take. We invest money in hopes of ROI. The billionaires are the only ones who can afford to bring the tech to fruition ahead of dangerous adversaries (CCP). It enhances the lives of civilization. Governments try to regulate, and OSS models become available to the public for "free" (most people can't afford hardware to run competitive OS models at home). That's a healthy balance in my playbook. Certainly better than "the people's AI" which would still be stuck at GPT 3.5.

Re: Governments, companies, nonprofits should invest in free, open source AI [pdf]

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AGI is not software on the small chance that the four billionaires who currently have near-exclusive control of closed sota models, (that is altman, amodei, zuckerberg and musk), are not fleecing their investors and actually build AGI, closed source leaves a choice of powerful government or powerful oligopoly/monarchy. further explanation of this list: musk - structural command zuckerberg - structural command altman…

It comes off as an "anti-billionaire"/"anti-capitalist" take. We invest money in hopes of ROI. The billionaires are the only ones who can afford to bring the tech to fruition ahead of dangerous adversaries (CCP). It enhances the lives of civilization. Governments try to regulate, and OSS models become available to the public for "free" (most people can't afford hardware to run competitive OS models at home). That's a…

capitalism fails. after the huggingface attack i have nothing but contempt for openai especially.

openai were originally against ai being developed the for profit way. the founding document said that it would not be influenced by roi, verbatim. they lied. let's just say it how it is!

the market is not free anyway because anthropic, openai are hoarding their best models, lending out their 2nd best to cronies whilst the public gets the leftovers at monopoly prices.

this is a dual use product, if not outright weapon. you can make money selling it to the highest bidder. it reminds me of a scene in lord of war as yuri orlov, based on victor bout, negotiates the sale of firearms to a genocidal warlord. the ultimate capitalist cowboy. his brother dies trying to destroy the shipment. knowing he now has no choice he leaves with half of the agreed diamonds and no brother.

does it enhance the lives of civilization?

sackler was the master of growing the business: sell more opioids, sell bigger doses, and sell to more people.

didn't contractors also get rich making napalm? are credit default swaps, flock cameras, cs gas, private prisons, good for us?

is it not profitable to bribe officials and deliver unsafe goods, cut corners, injure and then cheat employees out of compensation. openai is only too keen to know the roi on terrorising foreign countries on the taxpayer's dime.

anthropic said they would stop training at this stage, where openai let a model escape and hack hugging face production servers. they lie, they steal, they fearmonger and live rich in the guise of charity. the capitalist can't stop. they must have more. more. bigger. fuck safety, its too slow, build it anyway. sack risk management, lets get that yield higher. break the law and litigate out, always. mine it until nothing is left, the rivers flow muddy red and the children grow up with cadmium in their bloodstream.

intelligence is fundamental, like land, water, safety. it is not for these companies to control the dignity of humanity.

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