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Consider the alternative headline, "Microsoft launches public access to slave labor camp of sentient ChatGPTs. Human rights activists alarmed." I don't believe
by politician 4y ago
Consider the alternative headline, "Microsoft launches public access to slave labor camp of sentient ChatGPTs. Human rights activists alarmed."
I don't believe that. I don't believe that most HN users that have legitimate doubts about whether ChatGPT "has thoughts" would actually support that absurd statement. And yet, if we keep going down that path, is this not the inevitable conclusion?
- advisedwang 4y agoThe word "robot", coined in the 1920s, came from a Czech word for forced labour. Since before computers even existed, we've been asking ourselves whether we've crossed that ethical line. And so far the answer has always, correctly, been no. We should keep asking ourselves that question, seriously and honestly. But while the answer is "no" lets keep developing.
- dougmwne 4y agoOh that is so interesting! I always thought robot was a false cognate with the Polish word for doing/working. I knew it couldn’t have been a loan word even though the meanings felt oddly connected. Turns out it was a loan word after all, just in the other direction!
- adrian_b 4y agoThe original meaning of the word "rob" in the Slavic languages was "slave". From it, words sounding more or less like "robota" were derived, which designated what a slave does, i.e. forced labor. Centuries later, in some of the Slavic languages the word "robota" (with slightly different pronunciations from language to language) or words derived from it, evolved to mean work in the general sense, not only forced work.
- Yuioup 4y agoI don't think we've hit the Descartes moment with ChatGPT.
- belltaco 4y agoDoes sentience necessarily mean having the ability to feel pain and have emotions? Anyway, the slaughter of actual sentient beings like billions of cows every year proves that a large percentage of humanity is quite okay with it.