Comment by pdonis
1 month ago
I think the point is not so much that we can just ignore the possibility of AI doing harm, but that if AI really is the existential threat that these people claim, then they are the last people we should want as stewards of the technology. These people like to talk about AI ethics, but if the ethics of the AI they build is their ethics, as demonstrated by their actions, I want no part of it.
Okay, so what should we do?
I for one would like nobody to build the AI, is that an option? How do we get it on the menu?
Should we trust the people who say "nothing could possibly go wrong and there's no reason to worry or think about safety measures, if there are any trifling problems along the way we'll just figure it out as we go?"
I don't think nobody building AI is an option, since we can't control what China and Russia do.
I personally am not concerned about that as far as an existential threat goes, because I don't think AI, in itself, poses one; I think it will hit diminishing returns. But of course it is still capable of serious harm when humans misuse it.
The best analogy we have is probably weapons of mass destruction--we have international treaties about them and we don't let just anybody have them. That's the kind of framework I think we need, and it goes beyond "regulation" in the ordinary sense.
Use of such weapons is considered by international treaty to be an act of war; use of AI by, say, China and Russia against our infrastructure should be the subject of a similar international treaty with the understanding that it would have similar consequences.
Domestically, humans who misuse AI to do serious harm could be treated like, say, the people who tried to spread anthrax years back.
You seem focused on intentional misuse but I think there's an equal or greater potential for harm happening by accident without intention. Nuclear weapons, at least, have so far reliably and predictably done exactly as their owners intended. Nuclear power plants on the other hand have, on occasion, blown up despite nobody intending them to do so, causing some populated areas to become uninhabitable.
Don't you think that AI has by nature at least a little more potential for unpredictable results and unexpected harms than your typical technology? It seems like a major oversight to completely disregard this aspect.
We can maybe hold someone responsible when things go wrong and harm is done, and blame them for negligence as though the harm were intentional, but from a preventative safety perspective that's not usually sufficient nor even always helpful for preventing accidents.
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