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Geoffrey Hinton leaves Google and warns of danger ahead

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Re: Geoffrey Hinton leaves Google and warns of danger ahead

#71
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The first step is state-issued public-key cryptographic identification cards. Governments totally love this antidote. I wonder who could be selling this sort of snake-oil to them whilst also being on the other side selling the poison... ...No-one else but Sam Altman's World Coin scam. [0] [0] https://worldcoin.org/blog/engineering/humanness-in-the-age-...

Wow. What’s the end game there? Seriously, what is their actual vision for the world? I’m amazed any even moderately experienced adult thinks this is progress.

FWIW, I do not agree with anything in that WorldCoin proposal and find it to be the antithesis of my approach to digital governance.

That is, those engaged in crypto-governance schemes are choosing to engage with a fantasy. We need real world solutions based on the current state of affairs, not some year-zero reinvention of global politics.

Re: Geoffrey Hinton leaves Google and warns of danger ahead

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm assuming this is satire. This is exactly my concern about all the recent hype - people are going to use it as an excuse to lock down computing, for commercial benefit and as a power grab.

Authentication != locking down computing. Content that’s cryptographically signed by its creator would (hopefully) have more credence than unsigned AI generated fake content purporting to be from someone else, e.g. deepfakes. Anonymity would not be heavy-handedly prohibited; rather, anonymous content would simply appear untrustworthy relative to authenticated content. It is up to the viewer to decide.

It would be good to have a way of checking if information came from a verifiable human, but I very much doubt that would make much of a difference in the proliferation of machine-generated fake photos, videos, tweets, etc. It requires the content providers and consumers to care, and at least on the consumer side it seems people will believe what they want to believe (e.g. Q-Anon) even when it's extraordinarily obvious that it's not true.

Maybe if misinformation gets too far out of hand (there's already been an AI-generated fake video used in a political campaign) verification will become required by law for anything published on the internet.

Re: Geoffrey Hinton leaves Google and warns of danger ahead

#74

The first step is state-issued public-key cryptographic identification cards. I have been making this argument for years with regards to human actors but perhaps with enough fear of the machines sentiment coursing through society the argument will now be considered. Authentically Human in a World of ChatGPT https://www.williamcotton.com/articles/authentically-human-i... And the article from years ago: The Tyranny of…

Sure, all the governments would LOVE this! I'll take my chances with AI fake posts. At least I can just ignore them.

> At least I can just ignore them

But how will you be able to do that if they can't be distinguished from genuine photos/videos/posts ? I think we're already at that point for photos and text, and video is coming along incredibly fast - give it another year perhaps.

Re: Geoffrey Hinton leaves Google and warns of danger ahead

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where i live gambling is tightly controlled and requires government id due to money laundering laws. A sad side effect is a scheme were poor people sell their identity to organisations "gambling" on their behalf, trading an intangible future risk for hard present cash. Even today most chatgpt answers aren't posted by chatgpt on the social networks, but echoed by humans. Considering how much access people are willing…

“Acceptable losses”? Totalitarians promise water filtration facilities for their citizens as well. Should we also question that infrastructure? Police can obtain a warrant for searching your premises. Should we do away with this because of how this procedure would unfold under a totalitarian government? The root cause of your concerns is poverty. We can address that with other policies. We don’t need throw the baby o…

Water filtration is not a key enablement tech for totalitarianism, tightly controlling who says what in communication is.

Re: Geoffrey Hinton leaves Google and warns of danger ahead

#76

The first step is state-issued public-key cryptographic identification cards. I have been making this argument for years with regards to human actors but perhaps with enough fear of the machines sentiment coursing through society the argument will now be considered. Authentically Human in a World of ChatGPT https://www.williamcotton.com/articles/authentically-human-i... And the article from years ago: The Tyranny of…

First step? Lots of countries have had this for more than a decade?

Yes, such as Estonia! Their digital governance infrastructure should be a leading example for the rest of the liberal world!

I apologize for the incredibly American-centric point of view!

Re: Geoffrey Hinton leaves Google and warns of danger ahead

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it will be so bad. All Internet comment sections, pictures, video, and really anything on electronic screens will become assumed false by default. Therefore the only use of the Internet and most technology capable of generating audio and video will be entertainment. I already distrust-by-default most of what is online that isn't hard reference material, even if not AI generated.

The cult of Qanon effectively killed any hope I have that people are rational actors when it comes to consuming online content.

Remove "online" from your sentence and the sentence will still be true.
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