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The IDF is using AI to whitewash ethics in the same way genai is using it to whitewash copyright. Historically, things have gone badly for society when ills we

by ethbr1 1y ago

The IDF is using AI to whitewash ethics in the same way genai is using it to whitewash copyright. Historically, things have gone badly for society when ills were mostly constrained by potential culpability and prosecution of humans... and then that restriction was suddenly removed by technological advancement. And the cybersecurity industry / CISOs (aka fall people, giving someone responsibility without authority) are a poor pattern to use to effectively limit tail risk. At minimum, something more like financial auditing / engineer sign-off should be put in place around productionalized AI, preferably via a third-party.

originalvichy 1y ago
This is the chilling part. When Mossad hunted down Eichmann, some of his defense could be summarized as the cliche of ”I was just following orders”. Now with this tooling, they are learning from the past, and centralizing the ”orders” into a non-human machine, which means only a few people (if ever) would stand trial if they were accused of crimes against humanity: minister of defense, some procurement guy, some technical lead. That’s it. Will our laws of war account for soldiers getting orders from algorithms? Will people get away with killing innocent civilians if a model paints them as a target?
- sitkack 1y ago
  We were able to largely ban chemical weapons and so far have prevented the use of nuclear weapons a second time. Maybe we can do this with AI? Someday there will be a large shrine in Gaza to all the lives that made AI in war a morally reprehensible thing.
  - ethbr1 1y ago
    The reason we were able to ban chemical weapons and nuclear weapons, to the extent we did, is that it was in everyone's self-interest. In contrast, there's a reason major militaries haven't ratified the land mine treaty: they work. Unfortunately, AI driven weapons are going to effective in terms of decreased response time and increased automomy. Ergo, the best we can aim for should be enforced guidelines around its use. Especially with regards to human authority/responsibility.

by ethbr1 1y ago

originalvichy 1y ago

This is the chilling part. When Mossad hunted down Eichmann, some of his defense could be summarized as the cliche of ”I was just following orders”. Now with this tooling, they are learning from the past, and centralizing the ”orders” into a non-human machine, which means only a few people (if ever) would stand trial if they were accused of crimes against humanity: minister of defense, some procurement guy, some technical lead. That’s it. Will our laws of war account for soldiers getting orders from algorithms? Will people get away with killing innocent civilians if a model paints them as a target?

sitkack 1y ago
We were able to largely ban chemical weapons and so far have prevented the use of nuclear weapons a second time. Maybe we can do this with AI? Someday there will be a large shrine in Gaza to all the lives that made AI in war a morally reprehensible thing.
- ethbr1 1y ago
  The reason we were able to ban chemical weapons and nuclear weapons, to the extent we did, is that it was in everyone's self-interest. In contrast, there's a reason major militaries haven't ratified the land mine treaty: they work. Unfortunately, AI driven weapons are going to effective in terms of decreased response time and increased automomy. Ergo, the best we can aim for should be enforced guidelines around its use. Especially with regards to human authority/responsibility.