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Artificial Intelligence Is Now a Pentagon Priority. Will Silicon Valley Help?

nytimes.com

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Re: Artificial Intelligence Is Now a Pentagon Priority. Will Silicon Valley Help?

#51

Post by syshum »

CitizenTekk wrote: post #44

Is it just me? Or I'm just really excited that the war of "people" is gonna be over and there will be a war of "AI" just like on Reel Steel.

It is just you, as war will necessarily always involve death and destruction.

The only thing that will change here is that it will no longer be a human choosing who lives and who dies, it will be an computer algorithm.

The problem with war today is the people that choose who lives and who dies are not the same people that actually have to do the killing, further removing humans from this decision chain is not desirable and should not be "exciting"

We need to be using technology to find better ways to resolve conflicts, and make a more equatable and peaceful world. Not use technology to find way to kill each other more efficiently

Re: Artificial Intelligence Is Now a Pentagon Priority. Will Silicon Valley Help?

#52

Post by syshum »

killjoywashere wrote: post #27
aq3cn wrote: post #25

With the recent uproar inside Google against Maven, it is obvious that Pentagon is going to have difficult time. Google helps Pentagon analyze military drone footage–employees “outraged” https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16532112 Leaked Emails Show Google Expected Military Drone AI Work to Grow Exponentially https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17202179 Google Won't Renew Contract for Project Maven, Pentagon Drone…

[flagged]

In the history of the world violence never really solved any problem, it is moronic to believe that killing people by "sending kinetic energy down range" is a solution to any perceived problems highlights the a huge problem in the military industrial complex.

Violence is an action used when all other actions have failed and your life is directly and imminently threaten by someone else, That is the ONLY ethical use of violence.

It is not ethical "in pursuit of the international agenda" and it certainty not anything I or the vast majority of Americans actually vote for.

Americans vote for elected officials primary on the domestic policies, not on their "international agenda" this is the problem with having only 2 choices at the voting booth.

Re: Artificial Intelligence Is Now a Pentagon Priority. Will Silicon Valley Help?

#53

Post by vlehto »

announcerman wrote: post #46

I wonder if there's anything better than some good old fashioned war and murder to bring humans together to solve hard problems in a coordinated fashion, the Manhattan project springs to mind. Maybe military AI will be the next Manhattan project.

There was a moment in history where clocks were so advanced that they copied needlessly complicated clock mechanisms into pistol firing mechanisms.

But that's the only situation I can come up with. Instinct for survival is pretty good motivator. Now if you have the issue of collective survival at hand, suddenly there is lot of money, effort and creativity around.

Re: Artificial Intelligence Is Now a Pentagon Priority. Will Silicon Valley Help?

#54

Post by vlehto »

EliRivers wrote: post #48
CitizenTekk wrote: post #44

Is it just me? Or I'm just really excited that the war of "people" is gonna be over and there will be a war of "AI" just like on Reel Steel.

I suspect more likely a rich nation's metal with fleshbag maintainers and overseers, against a poorer nation's people.

Also when Kant said "war protects from despotism" he was living a time when the aristocracy needed majority of the population to take part in war effort.

Rich nations have very little reasons to sustain democracy if war is automatized to sufficient degree.

Re: Artificial Intelligence Is Now a Pentagon Priority. Will Silicon Valley Help?

#56

Post by Iv »

announcerman wrote: post #46

I wonder if there's anything better than some good old fashioned war and murder to bring humans together to solve hard problems in a coordinated fashion, the Manhattan project springs to mind. Maybe military AI will be the next Manhattan project.

The search for profit comes to mind as well.

The ego of leaders, who built things like pyramids too.

Concentrations of capital have a lot of nefarious effects on the well-being of population but make some grand projects possible that would not be otherwise possible.

I mean, the Saudi crown prince does have a 500 billion (not a typo) plan to create a fully automated city from scratch (project NEOM).

Wars help states concentrate capital quickly, but other motives have advanced technology in history.

Re: Artificial Intelligence Is Now a Pentagon Priority. Will Silicon Valley Help?

#57

Post by Theodores »

lawrenceyan wrote: post #35

The reason why the military will always be technologically behind is that the salaries they're willing to pay for talent is far less compared to what you can get in the Bay Area and/or New York if you decide to do quantitative finance. It's as simple as that, but there's far more than just the economics that are involved. Even if in the world where the military does pay salaries on par with the Google farm, very few…

I believe that working on B2B software is a force for good. Nations and people that need each other for trade don't have good reason to go to war. Plus we can't all be raising money for do good charities, there has to be some real trade based economy going on. Hence merely working on B2B software is : saving the planet:.

Re: Artificial Intelligence Is Now a Pentagon Priority. Will Silicon Valley Help?

#58

Post by squarefoot »

syshum wrote: post #51
CitizenTekk wrote: post #44

Is it just me? Or I'm just really excited that the war of "people" is gonna be over and there will be a war of "AI" just like on Reel Steel.

It is just you, as war will necessarily always involve death and destruction. The only thing that will change here is that it will no longer be a human choosing who lives and who dies, it will be an computer algorithm. The problem with war today is the people that choose who lives and who dies are not the same people that actually have to do the killing, further removing humans from this decision chain is not desirab…

"We need to be using technology to find better ways to resolve conflicts"

Technology is neither the problem nor the cure. Scarcity, greed and artificial scarcity is what divides the rich from the poor and moves money keeping the status quo in which the rich becomes richer and poor remains poor enough to not be a harm to the rich but rich enough to be taxed (read: used). The day we go to Mars or elsewhere and say we discover an unlimited supply of materials that could change forever our life, someone will find a way to close the faucet in order to keep the economy untouched. There is constant need of poor people because the poor is easier to herd and use, send to work in harsh condition, lure with lies to get votes and/or send to war, etc. The problem (and the solution) is all in the human brain, no technology can help. If we make the next thousand years of evolution without killing our species, then maybe.

Re: Artificial Intelligence Is Now a Pentagon Priority. Will Silicon Valley Help?

#59

Post by s_kilk »

anoncoward111 wrote: post #5
hugh4life wrote: post #4

There would be no Silicon Valley without the military industrial complex. Period. But I think there are problems with getting too close to the Pentagon and then trying to operate internationally as a purported neutral information platform.

While I mostly agree with you on a historical basis, I don't agree with you on a theoretical basis. Post hoc ergo propter hoc. The military invented a lot of things "first", or at least provided the use-case and funding for a lot of things. But that doesn't necessarily and always mean that people couldn't have invented something without military funding and uses in mind. For example, the military probably invented th…

> But that doesn't necessarily and always mean that people couldn't have invented something without military funding and uses in mind.

It's not so much about the Military specifically, but about public funding in general. In short: world-transformative technological innovations tend to come out of public funding, where the license to experiment, sheer volume of funding, and isolation from market pressures enables smart people to build transformative things.

So yes anyone could have invented X, but probably not if they had to operate on the market and without a money-fountain to tap into.

Re: Artificial Intelligence Is Now a Pentagon Priority. Will Silicon Valley Help?

#60

Post by liftbigweights »

Does silicon valley like money? Will an industry created by the military take military money?

I'm no expert, but my crystal ball says yes. If not, the pentagon would simply fund a new silicon valley in virginia and the surrounding area.

Considering the huge defense budget, I'm sure silicon valley is salivating for a piece.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/13/trump-signs-717-billion-defe...

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