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Why should this concept be limited to just AI? How many developers knowingly enabled or directly wrote software for predatory companies like Facebook, (sometim

by blunte 6y ago

Why should this concept be limited to just AI? How many developers knowingly enabled or directly wrote software for predatory companies like Facebook, (sometimes/mostly?) Google, sometimes Apple, historically often Microsoft, many of the large banks, Verizon and ATT and Comcast (and probably other major telcos), debt collection agencies, payday lenders, and on and on. I'm quite certain that many HN readers knowingly contribute to companies that do plenty of evil. Heck, some of the HN crowd have created startups that specifically do gray things just for money. Practically speaking, there's no way to know that your efforts will not somehow result in doing harm to others. Rather than taking some oath which frankly has little meaning without full knowledge of the outcomes, I think it would be more beneficial for everyone to make a concerted effort to get out in the world - see places that are in severe poverty or political turmoil. Meet other people who are very different from our bubble. Then we start to have an idea how even some of our good intentions can result in worse situations for others (such as giving lots of clothes away to have shipped to Africa).

Mandatum 6y ago
So true. I'd say much, much more harm has been done by regular CRUD programmers than any others. You really think AI is going to introduce regulation around this? They're just going to treat it like munitions, because that's all the lawmakers know.
- blunte 6y ago
  I suspect this is somewhat a problem of age and experience. When you are younger (at least typically speaking... ignoring the rare exceptional people), you get caught up in the job at hand. It is new to you, and the environment is exciting. You focus your attention and your effort narrowly. If you have someone to shake you from your myopia, or you get older and start to gain perspective, you question your efforts and their potential outcomes. To be fair though, at the lowest CRUD level, it's no worse than someone who builds roads or cooks food. We cannot reasonably consider nor police the use of those roads or the meals we make.

by blunte 6y ago

Mandatum 6y ago

So true. I'd say much, much more harm has been done by regular CRUD programmers than any others. You really think AI is going to introduce regulation around this? They're just going to treat it like munitions, because that's all the lawmakers know.

blunte 6y ago
I suspect this is somewhat a problem of age and experience. When you are younger (at least typically speaking... ignoring the rare exceptional people), you get caught up in the job at hand. It is new to you, and the environment is exciting. You focus your attention and your effort narrowly. If you have someone to shake you from your myopia, or you get older and start to gain perspective, you question your efforts and their potential outcomes. To be fair though, at the lowest CRUD level, it's no worse than someone who builds roads or cooks food. We cannot reasonably consider nor police the use of those roads or the meals we make.