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I agree there's a lot more than "sign an open letter" they could be doing. I'm mostly objecting to the "they need to engage in terrorism or they're not serious"

by lkbm 4y ago

I agree there's a lot more than "sign an open letter" they could be doing. I'm mostly objecting to the "they need to engage in terrorism or they're not serious" assertion. As for resigning in protest, my understanding is that Anthropic was founded by people who quit OpenAI saying it was acting recklessly. That seems like the best skin-in-the-game signal. I find that much more compelling than I would the Unabomber route. People like Musk and Woz should probably be pouring money into safety research and lobbying, but I don't think a hunger strike from anyone would make a difference, and resigning only makes sense if you work for OpenAI, Google, or a handful of other places where most of these people presumably don't work. What should I, an employee of a company not developing AI be doing? The only reasonable actions I can see are 1. work on AI safety research, 2. donate money to AI safety research/advocacy, and 3. sign and open letter. (I did none of these, to be fair, and am even giving a monthly fee to OpenAI to use ChatGPT with GPT-4), but my partner, an AI researcher who is seriously concerned, tried to sign the letter pit was ratelimited at the time], and is considering working in AI safety post-graduation. If she weren't making a PhD-student's salary, she might be donating money as well, though it's not super-clear where to direct that money.)

dandellion 4y ago
Yes, engaging in terrorism would be too much for most signers in the list, but the point is more that there is a wide gap between what they're saying and what they're doing. You make another good point that at the very least, they should be putting their money where they mouth is. Anthropic seem to be competing against OpenAI? And getting funds from Google? So they would probably benefit economically from delaying development, since they are currently behind. Personally I think it's more important to look at what people are doing, than just listening to what they say, as there is a strong tendency to posturing.

by lkbm 4y ago

dandellion 4y ago

Yes, engaging in terrorism would be too much for most signers in the list, but the point is more that there is a wide gap between what they're saying and what they're doing. You make another good point that at the very least, they should be putting their money where they mouth is. Anthropic seem to be competing against OpenAI? And getting funds from Google? So they would probably benefit economically from delaying development, since they are currently behind. Personally I think it's more important to look at what people are doing, than just listening to what they say, as there is a strong tendency to posturing.