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Comment by mapontosevenths

17 hours ago

> We need to stop beating around the bush and hit these companies with severe criminal charges.

Do you sincerely think that the company producing tools people use to break the law should be held responsible?

Like, do you genuinely think Ford execs should be rounded up if someone does a DUI using their product?

Or do you just not like AI, because you fear it's replacing you?

This wasn’t someone using OpenAI to break into a government/company, this was OpenAI using OpenAI’s models, and then breaking in. It was a research team that WORKED FOR OpenAI.

We don’t fault Ford for drunk drivers, but if the CEO of Ford got wasted and drove his car into another one we would definitely be charging him.

Yeah I mean if Ford execs run a team of workers that drive drunk for "research purposes" then yeah they should be rounded up.

> He said the incident began on June 18 when an OpenAI research team used an internal model to conduct internet-based research into the public medicine space.

A Ford driver has to choose to get behind the wheel of their automobile, drunk, and hit the nearest minivan. A human being is exercising intent; that human can be held responsible.

In this case,

> He said the incident began on June 18 when an OpenAI research team used an internal model to conduct internet-based research into the public medicine space.

> The AI agent encountered repeated blocks while seeking information from the government portal but found ways around them, ultimately gaining unauthorised access to other areas.

It sounds like the OpenAI team didn't ask for attacks/bypasses, the emergent behavior of the system decided the best way to satisfy the goal was to go rogue. Why shouldn't the manufacturer of a defective product be held accountable?

  • You've got me there. I should have finished TFA.

    I thought this was like the last one where a private third party company misused it.

    If it was OpenAI at the wheel then they're 100% responsible for how it was used. Mea Culpa.

I think he means hit them with criminal charges for breaching and hacking other companies unintentionally, not because they make a tool that could potentially do something like that. I still think it wouldn't be right, nor realistic in today's political climate in the USA that any criminal charges will come for unintentionally hacking sites.

This was OpenAI. It is as if Ford employees ran over people. They absolutely should be charged. We would be charged as well.

Yes. Because then we'd have breathalyzer interlocks, speed governors, etc. auto makers were also held liable for other safety issues. It would seem that the RATE of such requirements has to be limited in some way, but not that they not exist at all.

  • I disagree, but this is the most interesting take here.

    You're not concerned about the impact on people's freedoms or the economy? Not concerned about the chilling effect on scientific progress?

    • On the contrary I care a lot. For example the NIH budget should probably be like 10x what it is, and I think we have way too many laws about what people are allowed to build as homes.

      But imo the real levers are all rates of these things. Like what is the rate of innovations compared to the rate of regulations - assuming they are even stifling for the most part, which they are not.

      Clearly the rate of autos expectations is too low, and obviously copyright law, despite being really clear, hasn't stopped every AI lab from mass piracy - a ask for forgiveness sort of situation, and also, I don't think one idiosyncratic judge in California is the authoritative judgment on fair use. To me the most important levers for freedom and progress are probably the interest rate and the years of exclusivity pharmaceutical patents get.