4 ms·

Let's say LLMs work exactly as advertised in this case: you go into the LLM, say "find corruption in these financial reports", and it comes back with some info

Let's say LLMs work exactly as advertised in this case: you go into the LLM, say "find corruption in these financial reports", and it comes back with some info about the mayor spending millions on overpriced contracts with a company run by his brother. What then? You can post on Twitter, but unless you already have a following it's shouting into the void. You can go to your local newspapers, they'll probably ignore you; if they do pay attention, they'll write an article which gets a few hundred hits. If the mayor acknowledges it at all, they'll slam it as a political hit-piece, and that's the end of it. So your best chance is... hope really hard it goes viral, I guess? This isn't meant to be overly negative, but exposing financial corruption is mostly about information control; I don't see how LLMs help much here. Even if/when you find slam-dunk evidence that corruption is occurring, it's generally very hard to provide evidence in a way that Joe Average can understand, and assuming you are a normal everyday citizen, it's extremely hard to get people to act. As a prime example, this bit on the SF "alcohol rehab" program[0] went semi-viral earlier this week; there's no way to interpret $5 million/year spent on 55 clients as anything but "incompetence" at best and "grift and corruption" at worst. Yet there's no public outrage or people protesting on the streets of SF; it's already an afterthought in the minds of anyone who saw it. Is being able to query an LLM for this stuff going to make a difference? [0] https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/sf-free-alcohol-homeless-19446850.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/sf-free-alcohol...

mulmen 2y ago
Why would you report financial crimes to Twitter? If your LLM uncovers financial crimes you should contact regulators and prosecutors. They're both incentivized to do something about it.
beepbooptheory 2y ago
Are people supposed to be outraged that that is too little or too much money? That's still cheaper than sending them to prison!
- roywiggins 2y ago
  Also, per the link, cheaper than emergency room visits and ambulance transports: > But San Francisco public health officials found that the city saved $1.7 million over six months from the managed alcohol program in reduced calls to emergency services, including emergency room visits and other hospital stays. In the six months after clients entered the managed alcohol program, public health officials said visits to the city’s sobering center dropped 92%, emergency room visits dropped more than 70%, and EMS calls and hospital visits were both cut in half. > Previously, the city reported that just five residents who struggled with alcohol use disorder had cost more than $4 million in ambulance transports over a five-year period, with as many as 2,000 ambulance transports over that time. [emphasis mine] > The San Francisco Fire Department said in a statement that the managed alcohol program has “has proven to be an incredibly impactful intervention” at reducing emergency service use for a “small but highly vulnerable population.”
- Terr_ 2y ago
  > That's still cheaper than sending them to prison! Literally: > It costs an average of about $106,000 per year to incarcerate an inmate in prison in California. https://www.lao.ca.gov/PolicyAreas/CJ/6_cj_inmatecost https://www.lao.ca.gov/PolicyAreas/CJ/6_cj_inmatecost
Scubabear68 2y ago
Oh yeah. This. I live in a tiny community it our district school board has a $54 million budget right now, and all the audits are rubber stamps and wink and nudge from the State. When residents try to dig in and complain about waste and fraud we are shrugged off.
primitivesuave 2y ago
Beautifully stated. I can only speculate, but I'd say the reason it is this way is due to the collective apathy/cynicism toward government. We have collectively come to expect a certain level of corruption and influence peddling. We have a high tolerance for incompetence in carrying out government operations. Only the most egregious offenders are brought to the public's attention, and in an age of increasingly short attention spans, people have forgotten by the time elections roll around. That is, if they vote in the first place - in that example I gave above of a corrupt mayor stealing millions (Tiffany Henyard of Dolton, IL), the voter turnout was only 15%.

mulmen 2y ago

Why would you report financial crimes to Twitter? If your LLM uncovers financial crimes you should contact regulators and prosecutors. They're both incentivized to do something about it.

beepbooptheory 2y ago

Are people supposed to be outraged that that is too little or too much money? That's still cheaper than sending them to prison!

roywiggins 2y ago
Also, per the link, cheaper than emergency room visits and ambulance transports: > But San Francisco public health officials found that the city saved $1.7 million over six months from the managed alcohol program in reduced calls to emergency services, including emergency room visits and other hospital stays. In the six months after clients entered the managed alcohol program, public health officials said visits to the city’s sobering center dropped 92%, emergency room visits dropped more than 70%, and EMS calls and hospital visits were both cut in half. > Previously, the city reported that just five residents who struggled with alcohol use disorder had cost more than $4 million in ambulance transports over a five-year period, with as many as 2,000 ambulance transports over that time. [emphasis mine] > The San Francisco Fire Department said in a statement that the managed alcohol program has “has proven to be an incredibly impactful intervention” at reducing emergency service use for a “small but highly vulnerable population.”
Terr_ 2y ago
> That's still cheaper than sending them to prison! Literally: > It costs an average of about $106,000 per year to incarcerate an inmate in prison in California. https://www.lao.ca.gov/PolicyAreas/CJ/6_cj_inmatecost https://www.lao.ca.gov/PolicyAreas/CJ/6_cj_inmatecost

Scubabear68 2y ago

Oh yeah. This. I live in a tiny community it our district school board has a $54 million budget right now, and all the audits are rubber stamps and wink and nudge from the State. When residents try to dig in and complain about waste and fraud we are shrugged off.

primitivesuave 2y ago

Beautifully stated. I can only speculate, but I'd say the reason it is this way is due to the collective apathy/cynicism toward government. We have collectively come to expect a certain level of corruption and influence peddling. We have a high tolerance for incompetence in carrying out government operations. Only the most egregious offenders are brought to the public's attention, and in an age of increasingly short attention spans, people have forgotten by the time elections roll around. That is, if they vote in the first place - in that example I gave above of a corrupt mayor stealing millions (Tiffany Henyard of Dolton, IL), the voter turnout was only 15%.