4 ms·

U.S. military makes first confirmed OpenAI purchase for war-fighting forces

52 points by kawera 2y ago

lukev 2y ago
[flagged]
mentalically 2y ago
On May 3, 2021 I wrote a note to myself about the type of people OpenAI was hiring and this was the note: looks like OpenAI is getting into the military business by hiring a former CIA clandestine operator Will Hurd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Hurd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Hurd. Seems like I was right but this should be expected because every corporation is in one way or another linked to the military industrial complex.
croes 2y ago
So now hallucinations can have deadly consequences. Good job Sam Altman and all the employees who backed his return. You are now in the death business.
- moebeans 2y ago
  [dead]
- monkaiju 2y ago
  Idk why this is downvoted...
  - viraptor 2y ago
    Because it assumes OpenAI being used for anything remotely interesting rather than writing report summaries. This may have a fun media summary, but until unless significantly tweaked, it's still just an expensive multimodal model. It's not going to be used outside of offices.
    - nyc_data_geek1 2y ago
      Have you never heard of the banality of evil? The nazis used IBM punch cards. IBM was in the death business, even if they weren't making bombs or nerve gas.
      - viraptor 2y ago
        Sure. Once OpenAI starts making something actually targetted towards the army at their request, that's a different thing. But as far as I understand, so far the army just bought a volume licence to a public service. The actual line is: > Advanced AI/ML Capabilities: Utilization of Microsoft's native AI services, including Azure AI Search, OpenAI tools, and Azure Synapse for unified analytics and big data processing.
        nyc_data_geek1 2y ago
        analytics and data processing by the military is by definition the death business
        viraptor 2y ago
        And food supplies and healthcare and energy and transportation and housing and... At the US army scale, what isn't death business? There's almost every profession with some connection. As long as OpenAI sells what they normally sell to everyone anyway, I don't see a problem. The document doesn't even mention any special deals.
        rpdillon 2y ago
        It really isn't, in my experience. What makes you think "everything military = death business"? The military tends to be mostly logistics, and ends up funneling resources to tons of efforts that benefit the nation as a whole. One such investment is CCDC SC, which was the subject of a 99 PI podcast, IIRC. They've worked for decades to research and operationalize shelf-stable foods, for example. These approaches have made it into civilian foods for the same reasons they are used in the military: convenience, especially under dire circumstances. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_Capabilities_Development_Command_Soldier_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_Capabilities_Developmen...
  - notinmykernel 2y ago
    [flagged]
  - maxbond 2y ago
    If no one ever downvotes what you say, you're probably not taking enough risks in your commentary. (But if you know most people will downvote it, especially if you know it's going to be flagged, you probably shouldn't say it. Not for any big reason, just because it's rude.)
- greesil 2y ago
  Freedom delivery business, please.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- thisisnotauser 2y ago
  [flagged]
- rpdillon 2y ago
  This makes several logical leaps that are unwarranted. It would be interesting to hear more about how they are using it, though. My experience with the military is that there are huge number of functions involved, and actual warfighting is a small fraction of that.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - hughesjj 2y ago
    It's basically the world's largest logistic enterprise. It's like Amazon but for much heavier/more dangerous goods and service areas.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
  Good, I'm glad someone in SV ain't afraid of working with the military.
- halJordan 2y ago
  Meanwhile Whisper is busy hallucinating while it transcribes you and your doctor's most recent encounter
mrobot 2y ago
Does the paywall on the archive page mean we cannot archive theintercept? : https://archive.is/Lqfyr https://archive.is/Lqfyr
- 0x38B 2y ago
  Unsetting 'max-height' on `#u-s-military-makes-first-confirmed-openai-purchase-for-war-fighting-forces` reveals the rest of the article for me, so it's there, just hidden.

52 points by kawera 2y ago

[flagged]

On May 3, 2021 I wrote a note to myself about the type of people OpenAI was hiring and this was the note: looks like OpenAI is getting into the military business by hiring a former CIA clandestine operator Will Hurd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Hurd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Hurd. Seems like I was right but this should be expected because every corporation is in one way or another linked to the military industrial complex.

croes 2y ago

So now hallucinations can have deadly consequences. Good job Sam Altman and all the employees who backed his return. You are now in the death business.

moebeans 2y ago
[dead]
monkaiju 2y ago
Idk why this is downvoted...
- viraptor 2y ago
  Because it assumes OpenAI being used for anything remotely interesting rather than writing report summaries. This may have a fun media summary, but until unless significantly tweaked, it's still just an expensive multimodal model. It's not going to be used outside of offices.
  - nyc_data_geek1 2y ago
    Have you never heard of the banality of evil? The nazis used IBM punch cards. IBM was in the death business, even if they weren't making bombs or nerve gas.
    - viraptor 2y ago
      Sure. Once OpenAI starts making something actually targetted towards the army at their request, that's a different thing. But as far as I understand, so far the army just bought a volume licence to a public service. The actual line is: > Advanced AI/ML Capabilities: Utilization of Microsoft's native AI services, including Azure AI Search, OpenAI tools, and Azure Synapse for unified analytics and big data processing.
      - nyc_data_geek1 2y ago
        analytics and data processing by the military is by definition the death business
        viraptor 2y ago
        And food supplies and healthcare and energy and transportation and housing and... At the US army scale, what isn't death business? There's almost every profession with some connection. As long as OpenAI sells what they normally sell to everyone anyway, I don't see a problem. The document doesn't even mention any special deals.
        rpdillon 2y ago
        It really isn't, in my experience. What makes you think "everything military = death business"? The military tends to be mostly logistics, and ends up funneling resources to tons of efforts that benefit the nation as a whole. One such investment is CCDC SC, which was the subject of a 99 PI podcast, IIRC. They've worked for decades to research and operationalize shelf-stable foods, for example. These approaches have made it into civilian foods for the same reasons they are used in the military: convenience, especially under dire circumstances. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_Capabilities_Development_Command_Soldier_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_Capabilities_Developmen...
- notinmykernel 2y ago
  [flagged]
- maxbond 2y ago
  If no one ever downvotes what you say, you're probably not taking enough risks in your commentary. (But if you know most people will downvote it, especially if you know it's going to be flagged, you probably shouldn't say it. Not for any big reason, just because it's rude.)
greesil 2y ago
Freedom delivery business, please.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
thisisnotauser 2y ago
[flagged]
rpdillon 2y ago
This makes several logical leaps that are unwarranted. It would be interesting to hear more about how they are using it, though. My experience with the military is that there are huge number of functions involved, and actual warfighting is a small fraction of that.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- hughesjj 2y ago
  It's basically the world's largest logistic enterprise. It's like Amazon but for much heavier/more dangerous goods and service areas.
2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
Good, I'm glad someone in SV ain't afraid of working with the military.
halJordan 2y ago
Meanwhile Whisper is busy hallucinating while it transcribes you and your doctor's most recent encounter

mrobot 2y ago

Does the paywall on the archive page mean we cannot archive theintercept? : https://archive.is/Lqfyr https://archive.is/Lqfyr

0x38B 2y ago
Unsetting 'max-height' on `#u-s-military-makes-first-confirmed-openai-purchase-for-war-fighting-forces` reveals the rest of the article for me, so it's there, just hidden.