←back to thread

Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance

(www.washingtonpost.com)
617 points jbegley | 1 comments | 04 Feb 25 20:28 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
a_shovel ◴[04 Feb 25 20:43 UTC] No.42938313[source]▶
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 a marketing exercise.

replies(26): >>42938388 #>>42938489 #>>42938510 #>>42938591 #>>42938601 #>>42938609 #>>42938748 #>>42938837 #>>42938863 #>>42938964 #>>42939027 #>>42940197 #>>42940547 #>>42942188 #>>42943178 #>>42944331 #>>42945189 #>>42945931 #>>42949501 #>>42950344 #>>42950383 #>>42951161 #>>42954362 #>>42958988 #>>42960021 #>>42991061 #
Retric ◴[04 Feb 25 21:00 UTC] No.42938601[source]▶
> while megacorps aren't fundamentally "evil" (for some definitions of evil),

I think megacorps being evil is universal. It tends to be corrupt cop evil vs serial killer evil, but being willing to do anything for money has historically been categorized as evil behavior.

That doesn’t mean society would be better or worse off without them, but it would be interesting to see a world where companies pay vastly higher taxes as they grow.

replies(8): >>42938707 #>>42938723 #>>42938754 #>>42940638 #>>42942404 #>>42942918 #>>42947224 #>>42957518 #
1. sudoshred ◴[05 Feb 25 01:42 UTC] No.42942404[source]▶
As scale grows the moral ambiguity does also. Megacorps default to “evil” because action in a large number of circumstances for a large number of events does as well, particularly when economic factors are motivating behavior (implicitly or explicitly). Essentially being “non-evil” becomes more expensive than the value it adds. There is always someone on the other end of a transaction, by definition.