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I missed the boat on the 80s but as a “hacker” who made it through the 90s and 00s there’s something deeply sad and disturbing about how the conversation around

I missed the boat on the 80s but as a “hacker” who made it through the 90s and 00s there’s something deeply sad and disturbing about how the conversation around AI is trending. Imaging telling hackers from the past that people on a website called “hacker news” would be arguing about how important it is that the government criminalize running code on your own computer. It’s so astoundingly, ethically, philosophically opposed to everything that inspired me to get into computers in the first place. I only have to wonder if people really believe this, or it’s a sophisticated narrative that’s convenient to certain corporations and politicians.

lolinder 2y ago
Who is saying this? Do you have specific comments in mind that you're referring to? I can't find anything anywhere near the top that says anything like this.
knodi 2y ago
I think you're missing the point. People are saying that government should make sure AI is not weaponized against the people of the world. But lets face it, US and UK governments will likely be the first to weaponized against the people. As DeepSeek is shown us progress is hard to hinder unless you go to war and kill the people....
bmc7505 2y ago
Called it three years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30142353 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30142353
entropi 2y ago
I would say the debate currently going on is less about "running code on your own machine" and more about "making sure the thing your are replacing at least a portion of your labor force with is at least somewhat dependable and those who benefit from the replacement are still responsible".
- TomK32 2y ago
  I think management is putting too much hope into this, any negative outcome from replacing a human with AI might result in liabilities surpassing the savings. Air Canada's chatbot was decided just a year ago and I'm sure the hallucinating AI chatbot, from development to legal fees, cost the airline more money than they saved in their call-center.
01100011 2y ago
This isn't "news for hackers only". Hacker News is more appropriately described as "a news aggregator and discussion board frequented by those in IT and programming". But that doesn't sound so cool, no? "Slashdot 2.0" also doesn't sound so great.
jart 2y ago
Get involved in the local AI community. You're more likely to find people with whom you share affinity on places like r/LocalLLaMA. There's also the e/acc movement on Twitter which espouses the same gen x style rebellious libertarian ideals that once dominated the Internet. Stay away from discussions that attract policy larping.
buildfocus 2y ago
> Imaging telling hackers from the past that people on a website called “hacker news” would be arguing about how important it is that the government criminalize running code on your own computer. My understanding is that approximately zero government-level safety discussion is restriction of just building & running AI yourself. There are no limits of AI hacking even in the EU AI regaultion or discussions I've seen. Regulation is around business & government applications and practical use cases: no unaccountable AI making final employment decisions, no widespread facial recognition in public spaces, transparency requirements for AI usage in high-risk areas (health, education, justice), no AIs with guns, etc.
TomK32 2y ago
Is there any source for you claim that any (democratic) government wants to criminalize running code on your own computer? I didn't see it in this declaration from the AI Action summit where the USA and UK are missing from the signatories https://www.politico.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/11/02-11-AI-Action-Summit-Declaration.pdf https://www.politico.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/11/02-11-... As you mention ethics: what ethics do we apply to AI? None? Some? The same as to a human? As AI is replacing humans in decision-making, it needs to be held responsible just as a human.
charles_f 2y ago
AI development is not led by hackers in their garages, but by multi-billion corporations with no incentives other than profit and no care other than their shareholders. The only way to control their negative outcomes in this system is regulation. If you explained to that hacker that govs and corps would leverage that same technology to spy on everyone and control their lives because line must go up, they might understand better than anyone else why this needs to be sabotaged early in the process.

lolinder 2y ago

Who is saying this? Do you have specific comments in mind that you're referring to? I can't find anything anywhere near the top that says anything like this.

knodi 2y ago

I think you're missing the point. People are saying that government should make sure AI is not weaponized against the people of the world. But lets face it, US and UK governments will likely be the first to weaponized against the people. As DeepSeek is shown us progress is hard to hinder unless you go to war and kill the people....

bmc7505 2y ago

Called it three years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30142353 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30142353

entropi 2y ago

I would say the debate currently going on is less about "running code on your own machine" and more about "making sure the thing your are replacing at least a portion of your labor force with is at least somewhat dependable and those who benefit from the replacement are still responsible".

TomK32 2y ago
I think management is putting too much hope into this, any negative outcome from replacing a human with AI might result in liabilities surpassing the savings. Air Canada's chatbot was decided just a year ago and I'm sure the hallucinating AI chatbot, from development to legal fees, cost the airline more money than they saved in their call-center.

01100011 2y ago

This isn't "news for hackers only". Hacker News is more appropriately described as "a news aggregator and discussion board frequented by those in IT and programming". But that doesn't sound so cool, no? "Slashdot 2.0" also doesn't sound so great.

jart 2y ago

Get involved in the local AI community. You're more likely to find people with whom you share affinity on places like r/LocalLLaMA. There's also the e/acc movement on Twitter which espouses the same gen x style rebellious libertarian ideals that once dominated the Internet. Stay away from discussions that attract policy larping.

buildfocus 2y ago

> Imaging telling hackers from the past that people on a website called “hacker news” would be arguing about how important it is that the government criminalize running code on your own computer. My understanding is that approximately zero government-level safety discussion is restriction of just building & running AI yourself. There are no limits of AI hacking even in the EU AI regaultion or discussions I've seen. Regulation is around business & government applications and practical use cases: no unaccountable AI making final employment decisions, no widespread facial recognition in public spaces, transparency requirements for AI usage in high-risk areas (health, education, justice), no AIs with guns, etc.

TomK32 2y ago

Is there any source for you claim that any (democratic) government wants to criminalize running code on your own computer? I didn't see it in this declaration from the AI Action summit where the USA and UK are missing from the signatories https://www.politico.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/11/02-11-AI-Action-Summit-Declaration.pdf https://www.politico.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/11/02-11-... As you mention ethics: what ethics do we apply to AI? None? Some? The same as to a human? As AI is replacing humans in decision-making, it needs to be held responsible just as a human.

charles_f 2y ago

AI development is not led by hackers in their garages, but by multi-billion corporations with no incentives other than profit and no care other than their shareholders. The only way to control their negative outcomes in this system is regulation. If you explained to that hacker that govs and corps would leverage that same technology to spy on everyone and control their lives because line must go up, they might understand better than anyone else why this needs to be sabotaged early in the process.