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It's not as simple as this. Google Search came without Safe Search & other guards at first because _implementing privacy & age controls is hard_. It's a second-

It's not as simple as this. Google Search came without Safe Search & other guards at first because _implementing privacy & age controls is hard_. It's a second-order product after the initial product. Bad capabilities (e.g. cyberstalking) are side-effects of a product that "organizes the world's information and makes it universally accessible and useful," and if anything, over time Google has sought build in more safety. It's 2022 and we can be more thoughtful. Yes there are tradeoffs between unleashing new capabilities quickly vs being thoughtful and potentially conservative in what is made publicly available. I don't think it's bad that Google makes those tradeoffs. FWIW Google open sources _tons_ of models that aren't LLMs / diffusion models. It's just that LLMs & powerful generative models have particular ethical considerations that are worth thinking about (hopefully something was learned from the whole Timnit thing).

origin_path 4y ago
You know safesearch is optional, right? It even disables itself if it knows you're looking for porn. There is nothing that stops children from overriding it. As for learning from the timnit thing I'm pretty sure the only thing people outside Google learned from that is that Google ai "ethicists" all seem to be crazy. Certainly that's the clear vibe on this thread.
- kajecounterhack 4y ago
  > You know safesearch is optional, right? It even disables itself if it knows you're looking for porn. There is nothing that stops children from overriding it. You can let your kid use Google to look up math lectures without fearing that they would see something slightly traumatizing though, right? That wasn't the case in 1996! The point is that products have varying levels of readiness, and it's totally fair to say "the thing isn't ready, it has too many sharp edges." Especially when the thing could be used at scale. > As for learning from the timnit thing I'm pretty sure the only thing people outside Google learned from that is that Google ai "ethicists" all seem to be crazy. Certainly that's the clear vibe on this thread. That's a sad take, but who knows if it's true. HN commenters aren't exactly a representative sample.

origin_path 4y ago

You know safesearch is optional, right? It even disables itself if it knows you're looking for porn. There is nothing that stops children from overriding it. As for learning from the timnit thing I'm pretty sure the only thing people outside Google learned from that is that Google ai "ethicists" all seem to be crazy. Certainly that's the clear vibe on this thread.

kajecounterhack 4y ago
> You know safesearch is optional, right? It even disables itself if it knows you're looking for porn. There is nothing that stops children from overriding it. You can let your kid use Google to look up math lectures without fearing that they would see something slightly traumatizing though, right? That wasn't the case in 1996! The point is that products have varying levels of readiness, and it's totally fair to say "the thing isn't ready, it has too many sharp edges." Especially when the thing could be used at scale. > As for learning from the timnit thing I'm pretty sure the only thing people outside Google learned from that is that Google ai "ethicists" all seem to be crazy. Certainly that's the clear vibe on this thread. That's a sad take, but who knows if it's true. HN commenters aren't exactly a representative sample.