Comment by neya
4 hours ago
>Dario on the other hand seems to have an integrity that's particularly rare in this era.
Anthropic actually partnered up with Palantir. They are not the saints you think they are, either.
We should stop worshipping people and companies and stop putting them on pedestals. Just because one party is at fault, doesn't mean the other is automatically innocent. These are all for-profit companies at play here.
https://investors.palantir.com/news-details/2024/Anthropic-a...
FWIW he gives his ethical reasoning on his website:
> Broadly, I am supportive of arming democracies with the tools needed to defeat autocracies in the age of AI—I simply don’t think there is any other way. But we cannot ignore the potential for abuse of these technologies by democratic governments themselves. Democracies normally have safeguards that prevent their military and intelligence apparatus from being turned inwards against their own population, but because AI tools require so few people to operate, there is potential for them to circumvent these safeguards and the norms that support them. It is also worth noting that some of these safeguards are already gradually eroding in some democracies. Thus, we should arm democracies with AI, but we should do so carefully and within limits: they are the immune system we need to fight autocracies, but like the immune system, there is some risk of them turning on us and becoming a threat themselves.
Basically, he's afraid that not arming the government with AI puts it at a disadvantage vs. other governments he trusts less. Plus, if Anthropic is in the loop that gives them the chance to steer the direction of things a bit (what they were kicked out for doing).
It's not the purest ethical argument, but I also would not say that there is a clearly correct answer.
Basically he's asking everyone to trust him that he won't cross the line himself. Whatever argument he makes for democracies applies to him as well, and he's not somehow above it. That's the flaw in his argument.
Brutally honest, to me it just sounds like a very elaborate way to say "trust me, bro"
If you look at his comments about Palantir and their proposed safeguards, it's clear it's a case of "if you are dining with the Devil, you'd better bring a very long spoon"
These comments were after the deal had soured. Not before. If it was a case of such morality, the partnership with Palantir would have never happened in the first place.
The contract was explicit - it was for defence purposes with a company known for spying activities. So, obviously spying is involved and they weren't just going to generate cat videos with it.
Again, nobody is innocent here.
I've heard Palantir is essentially the only federal cloud vendor with this administration for secure services. By "partnered up with Palantir", do you mean they provided their models to the government? Or something more?
From the title of the link enclosed:
"Anthropic and Palantir Partner to Bring Claude AI Models to AWS for U.S. Government Intelligence and Defense Operations"
Keywords: "Government Intelligence"
If you actually read the memo they've clearly put in strict terms with Palantir and rejected many of the false "safeguards" offered by the company