Comment by hirako2000
1 day ago
Can't just unplug the thing and use something else.
Obviously the DoD would not want limited use. Strange they don't make their own given their specific needs.
1 day ago
Can't just unplug the thing and use something else.
Obviously the DoD would not want limited use. Strange they don't make their own given their specific needs.
I think this is maybe the most revealing thing about this saga, that seemingly the U.S. government has not been training their own frontier models.
Perhaps getting donations from Altman and "investing" directly in OpenAI is more convenient.
> Obviously the DoD would not want limited use.
I agree in this sense: Hegseth's Dept. of War doesn't want any restrictions. I'll try to make the case this is self-defeating, assuming one has genuine, long-term national interests at the front of mind (which I think is lacking or at least confused in Hegseth).
Historically, other (wiser) SecDefs would decide more carefully. They are aware when their actions would position DoD outside of reasonable ethical norms, as defined both by their key personnel as well as broader culture. I think they would recognize Hegseth's course of action as having two broadly negative effects:
1. Technology, Employees, Contractors. Jeopardizes DoD's access to the best technology. Undermines efforts in hiring the best people. Demotivates existing employees and contractors. Bullying leads to fearful contractors who perform worse. Fewer good contractors show up. Trumpist corruption further degrades an already lagging, sluggish, inefficient system.*
2. Goodwill & Effectiveness. Damages international goodwill that takes a long time to restore. Goodwill is a good investment; it pays dividends for U.S. military strength. The fallout will distract Hegseth from legitimately important duties and further undermine his credibility. Leading probably to a political mess for Hegseth, undermining his political capital.
* Improving DoD procurement is already hard given existing constraints. Adding Trumpist-level corruption makes it unnecessarily worse. There is already an unsavory, poorly tracked, bloated gravy train around the military industrial complex.**
** BUT... Despite all this, the system has more or less worked reasonably well for more than what, 80 years! It has enjoyed bipartisan continuity, kept scientists and mathematicians well funded, and spurred lots of useful industries. It is, in a weird gnarly way, a sort of flux capacitor for U.S. technical dominance.
I agree with the damage. Not simply an unwise spokesman though. It's the trend in the entire administration, or one should identify as the United States slide into less sugar coating, if any.
We will kidnap statesmen, we will conduct illegal arrests, illegal tariffs, threaten to take over lands from our traditional allies, bomb our enemies during negociation, without congress approval. All for the good of the American Empire.
It would be a far stretched script for fiction, but that's exactly the terms and actions taken just in the last year.
I doubt these were the recipe for what worked well for the last 80 years. Momentum is the result of a smoother and more balanced doctrine.