Comment by VectorLock
1 day ago
Not that I'm ever one to support anything this regime does but I'm kind of okay with them pumping the brakes on this until we really get a handle on what the
The USG has limited capabilities on technologies from GPS chips to thermal imaging with "national security" implications for a while and now they're doing it but it seems people don't like how ill defined "Mythos-class" means. Would it be better if it was some %X on some benchmark that the frontier model peddlers could just limbo under to make it "acceptable" for release? Do we just accept that jailbreaking will never be prevented?
The part of all this I do have a problem with is the national state cybersecurity cat-and-mouse this kicks off. Will the US tech landscape have enough time to safely get a "Mythos-class" model to harden itself before China releases or leverages a "Mythos-class" cyber munition?
"pumping the brakes" would be fine. This is slamming to a full stop on a crowded freeway and causing a three car pile-up. Warning and advanced notice are the difference between regulation and tyranny, and in this case we're just getting tyranny
Same problem as always. This administration never figured out that how you do things matters. They love the drama of the crash more than actually implementing functional policies.
The goal of this administration has never been effective policy or at least not policy effective at doing things other than self-enrichment and disenfranchisement.
It's not even that. If Anthropic finds a way to variate citizenship the cat is back out of the bag. None of the AI-related worries I've ever heard about are addressed by limiting access to US citizens.
Given the current climate I'd be inclined to declare "tyranny" also but in this case I think given the degree of potential damage the slamming on of brakes is warranted when the alternative is, to strain a metaphor, going full speed off a cliff at relativistic speeds.
Fable was already out for three days. They could have made the call before it was released. They could have given Anthropic the weekend to fix the bug. They could have publicly announced what the issue is once Fable was offline (and they regularly do announcements on the weekends).
If the brakes really were warranted, the administration still screwed up terribly by leaving it out in the open for 3 days. But I'm not aware of any major tragedies in that 3-day window, so I have trouble believing it's really as dangerous as they say.
They didn't slam on the brakes though. They asked access to be limited to US citizens which ended up being hard to implement but is implementable and IMO addresses zero real concerns.
Yeah, we have a lot of critical infrastructure connected to the internet. Based on the trend the last few weeks, I expect major cyber attacks this year.
I expect that to happen no matter what we do (since the open source models are rapidly catching up), but gating access to the frontier models for a while sounds like a reasonable precaution — as annoying as it is to me personally, to be deprived of such shiny toys!
Fable is a massive step up and I didn't expect it public for another month or two. Something tells me we'll get it back in a few weeks though.
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I'm feeling strong alignment with your perspective here. Thanks
> and in this case we're just getting tyranny
You expected different with this administration?
Of course I expect the government to act better than this! But I am not so naive as to assume my expectations will be met.
A broken clock is still occasionally right.
I have no insider information so this is all appreciation, but:
When it comes to legislative things, there is pretty much always a timeline in which to become compliant. I do wonder if there was opportunity to give warning etc. but Anthropic decided to perform an immediate full stop deliberately causing the metaphorical three-car pileup, because the more painful for the users, the more pressure from the people there will be on the government to undo this.
See also: those painfully annoying cookie banners that are malicious compliance in the most irritating way possible, which GDPR does not require, in order to make people think GDPR is dumb.
> The USG has limited capabilities on technologies from GPS chips
Are you referring to Selective Availability? That ended decades ago.
Selective Availability accuracy restrictions ended decades ago, but GPS technology is still subject to various military and export-control restrictions.
Not selective availability. COCOM Limits that prevent a GPS chip from operating above a certain speed and altitude.
It’s funny because it’s just (relativistic) math. It would cost a couple hundred bucks to roll your own with no restrictions.