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> The people in AI ethics who spent years thinking their job was marketing or publishing thinkpiece papers may be having to adapt quickly or get out of the fiel
by unknownfuture 2mo ago
> The people in AI ethics who spent years thinking their job was marketing or publishing thinkpiece papers may be having to adapt quickly or get out of the field.
Your disdain is showing.
That you jump immediately to criticizing AI ethicists as counting angels on pins and implying that's why they left OpenAI rather than OpenAI not being a place where AI ethics is a priority is, well, let's say generous to these AI labs.
- madrox 2mo agoI don't really have any particular disdain for AI ethics. I think the field is changing from one of high theory to high application. People good at one are not usually good at the other, and says nothing about OpenAI's view of AI ethics as a priority...merely the people in the field and how they relate to the greater industry.
- 4L3XV33 2mo agoAgree with this. Discussing abstract ethics strategy is very different from planning ethics logistics.
- madrox 2mo agoMaybe if I put it that way there'd be less controversy in the replies
- unknownfuture 2mo agoI'd argue folks in ethics roles shouldn't be responsible for actually creating the systems, processes, and practices required to put those concepts into practice. That's what engineering, product, and people leadership are for. AI ethics is first and foremost about setting policy and advising on how those systems should be constructed. This is because ethics isn't some separable function. It threads through everything an organization does. You can't just treat it as another department/function/unit if you want any hope of actually making it work.
- skinfaxi 2mo agoHaven't we seen from history that handing down policy from your ivory tower is a disservice to all involved? Or do we think out of touch politicians accurately represent the interests if their constituents? Another example you might be familiar with is enterprise architects. When you spend all of your time in theory you lose sight of practical implications. Of course, since you only had the idea, when it doesn't go to your ideal it can always be blamed on the implementers.
- unknownfuture 2mo ago> Haven't we seen from history that handing down policy from your ivory tower is a disservice to all involved? I take it you've never worked with an in-house legal counsel, accounting department, or good ol' fashioned HR?
- skinfaxi 2mo agoI have but at least for the technical domains I have overseen, policy was not dictated by legal by cocreated based on my input, except in cases where we were bound by law specifically (eg reporting timelines to gov agencies). HR is a bit different and strange to bring up, especially considering I used enterprise architect as an example. AI safety would presumably be not cross-cutting for all domains at a company (does the janitorial staff need to know about it? no but they do need sexual harassment training), but be more like the enterprise architects designing in the sky and handing it down for implementation.
- unknownfuture 2mo ago> policy was not dictated by legal by cocreated based on my input, Yes but ultimately legal isn't putting policy into practice, which is my point. > HR is a bit different and strange to bring up, especially considering I used enterprise architect as an example. AI safety would presumably be not cross-cutting for all domains at a company Frankly, you're nitpicking the analogy while missing the broader point it's serving to make.