Comment by nl
2 hours ago
Oppenheimer believed that technological progress is inevitable: if something can be built it will be.
Anthropic (and Deepmind, and some at OpenAI) believe the same thing.
Their ethical argument is:
1) This technology is coming whether or not our company does it or not.
2) Strong AI needs to be under human control, and we are the best placed to develop techniques to make this happen.
To be very clear: Anthropic (at least) is very happy to restrict access to their best models. They have continually campaigned for regulation to make sure others have to do the same.
> Wouldn't the ethical thing, if they were actually concerned about labor displacement, be to shut down the lab and work to disrupt and disable other labs instead
Personally I strongly reject the idea that labor displacement is unethical.
It will be a serious problem to deal with, but that doesn't make it unethical.
The steam engine displaced labor. That doesn't make it unethical.
> Personally I strongly reject the idea that labor displacement is unethical.
Oh, well if you STRONGLY reject it I guess that's it.
> It will be a serious problem to deal with, but that doesn't make it unethical.
What WOULD make it unethical?
> The steam engine displaced labor. That doesn't make it unethical.
The steam engine also created new jobs to replace what it eliminated. It wasn't a mostly one-sided wealth transfer to the elite.
> The steam engine also created new jobs to replace what it eliminated. It wasn't a mostly one-sided wealth transfer to the elite.
Indeed.
You make my point for me.