4 ms·

The headline made me think there were going to be specific "safety risks" mentioned, but there do not seem to be. I am not sure what justifies the phrase "safet

The headline made me think there were going to be specific "safety risks" mentioned, but there do not seem to be. I am not sure what justifies the phrase "safety risks", "safety" especially. It makes us think of like, safety to humanity from AI or whatever, but the most focused upon thing in the article is SEC-related stuff; I'm not sure if the word "safety" is meant to refer to securities/financial related stuff, or meant to refer to other stuff? (Note, I am personally a pretty anti-AI person honestly I went to the article hoping to get more ammunition on it, wondering what the "safety risks" employees were worried about were, disappointed to not get info on that, unclear if it was a thing or not).

ryandrake 2y ago
The word "safety" has been seriously overloaded lately. I'm used to "safety" meaning actual physical safety measures, like seatbelts, helmets, railings... things keeping you safe from physical injury. When OSHA talks about a "safe" working environment, they're talking about fall protection, harmful chemicals, contagious diseases, and so on. I don't know what "safety" even means in the context of an LLM that outputs nothing but text. How is text going to cause me to fall off of a forklift or get me hit by a car? How can text injure me?
- elthran 2y ago
  Agreed - I've been unable to get at sensible meaning in my head for "AI safety" that isn't "to prevent ultron/skynet/the matrix"
  - jrochkind1 2y ago
    I suspect "to prevent ultron/skynet/the matrix" is what the headline writers want you to think... I'm not sure if it goes with the text, or with employee concerns.
- jrochkind1 2y ago
  I mean, an LLM could cause you to get hit by a car if in the future it's driving a car! I can think of various ways an LLM could effect physical safety. But I agree it's unclear what the headline authors were even thinking when they put it in the headline (which makes it hard to say if it's justified by the article although i suspect not), in part because the word in general is often being used in unclear ways. While not exactly or necessarily "physical safety", I could see the dangers described by this other HN front-page article about AI-powered phishing as "safety". https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40981067 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40981067 SEC regulation violations? As "safety" without an adjective, like "financial safety" or "regularatory safety" or something (and those would still be kind of weird)? Seems weird.

ryandrake 2y ago

The word "safety" has been seriously overloaded lately. I'm used to "safety" meaning actual physical safety measures, like seatbelts, helmets, railings... things keeping you safe from physical injury. When OSHA talks about a "safe" working environment, they're talking about fall protection, harmful chemicals, contagious diseases, and so on. I don't know what "safety" even means in the context of an LLM that outputs nothing but text. How is text going to cause me to fall off of a forklift or get me hit by a car? How can text injure me?

elthran 2y ago
Agreed - I've been unable to get at sensible meaning in my head for "AI safety" that isn't "to prevent ultron/skynet/the matrix"
- jrochkind1 2y ago
  I suspect "to prevent ultron/skynet/the matrix" is what the headline writers want you to think... I'm not sure if it goes with the text, or with employee concerns.
jrochkind1 2y ago
I mean, an LLM could cause you to get hit by a car if in the future it's driving a car! I can think of various ways an LLM could effect physical safety. But I agree it's unclear what the headline authors were even thinking when they put it in the headline (which makes it hard to say if it's justified by the article although i suspect not), in part because the word in general is often being used in unclear ways. While not exactly or necessarily "physical safety", I could see the dangers described by this other HN front-page article about AI-powered phishing as "safety". https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40981067 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40981067 SEC regulation violations? As "safety" without an adjective, like "financial safety" or "regularatory safety" or something (and those would still be kind of weird)? Seems weird.