Comment by jstummbillig
15 hours ago
> Trump can tell the pentagon "everyone in minnesota is a potential insurrectionist, do mass surveillance on them under the patriot act and the insurrection act".
This is just incoherent. You can't have US companies fix an unhinged US government.
If the government runs wild, there are some serious questions to be asked at a state level, about how that could happen, how to fix it quickly and how to prevent it in the future – but I should hope none of them concern themselves with the ideas of individual company owners, because if the government can de fact do what it wants regardless of legality the next thing that this government does could simply be pointing increasingly non-metaphorical guns at individual AI company functionaries.
> This is just incoherent. You can't have US companies fix an unhinged US government.
Which part? No one expects them to fix the government, matter of fact they should stay far away from it. However, they have a duty to obey the law and to be patriotic. All companies must resist attempts by the government to betray its people, because the government derives its authority from the people, therefore in its betrayal it has become an illegitimate enemy of the people instead of their legitimate government.
> because if the government can de fact do what it wants regardless of legality the next thing that this government does could simply be pointing increasingly non-metaphorical guns at individual AI company functionaries.
It feels like you and half the country never even at least watched movies surrounding nazi germany. The government can do whatever it wants, but whether it is companies, individuals working for it, or soldiers under orders, the government's authority does not excuse their participation. The government can't do anything at all on its own, it needs people to do it. If Obama wanted to get Anthropic to let their models aid al-qaeda with attacking America, should Anthropic say "oh well, since you're the government, go ahead?" This is the same thing. Ever heard of the phrase "enemies foreign or domestic" in the swearing of oaths? Company executives are beholden to the laws of the country they operate in. I mean, with Nazis at least their orders, and the orders of companies under their regime was lawful, even then it was not an excuse but they just changed the laws to make their orders lawful. Right now, we have laws and the government is breaking it, even "i followed lawful orders" isn't an excuse. Sam Altman is complicit in the violation of the American constitution and the betrayal of its people.
If all else fails, I expect the government to just train their own models. In which case, I'd say the engineers working in that effort should have resisted.