Google Removes Pledge To Not Use AI For Weapons From Website 38
Google has updated its public AI principles page to remove a pledge to not build AI for weapons or surveillance. TechCrunch reports: Asked for comment, the company pointed TechCrunch to a new blog post on "responsible AI." It notes, in part, "we believe that companies, governments, and organizations sharing these values should work together to create AI that protects people, promotes global growth, and supports national security." Google's newly updated AI principles note the company will work to "mitigate unintended or harmful outcomes and avoid unfair bias," as well as align the company with "widely accepted principles of international law and human rights." Further reading: Google Removes 'Don't Be Evil' Clause From Its Code of Conduct
Google plans to use it's AI (Score:1)
At this point nobody would be surprised... (Score:2)
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Oaths, vows, and pledges (Score:5, Insightful)
What good is it for some corporation to make a pledge that can be changed in the future? None whatsoever.
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What good is it for some corporation to make a pledge that can be changed in the future? None whatsoever.
I mean, that is not different from any election pledge, right? Maybe they could call it their "New Year's resolution", just so everybody understands how dependable it will be.
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What good is it for some corporation to make a pledge that can be changed in the future? None whatsoever.
I mean, that is not different from any election pledge, right?
Exactly. For example, Trump didn't say he'd bring down the price of *all* eggs ... :-)
Re: Oaths, vows, and pledges (Score:3)
What good are they? You have never heard of a warrant canary, have you?
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Is it actually a warrant canary? I thought most of the anti-DoD folks got pushed out of Google years ago.
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What good is it for some corporation to make a pledge that can be changed in the future? None whatsoever.
That's overly simplistic. Times change. Circumstances change. The people controlling corporations change. I once had a close friend once tell me, "Don't quote me to me!" She might have been talking about her stated policy on penises in her mouth... but I digress! My own life has more than a few moments that ran contrary to the declared positions of my younger self.
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That's why you don't make pledges.
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So what you are saying is that ple
No oath or pledge is broken (Score:2)
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A way of signalling to the world that something has happened.
I mean, there is a wikipedia article [wikipedia.org] about it.
And? (Score:1)
AI will be used for weapons. The only question is by who. Not if.
A pledge like that is like pledging not to use metal tubes for weapons.
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Already has been. The only question is why do people suddenly care.
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The question is nto if metal tubes can be used for weapons, it is whether your particular company will manufacture metal tubes for weapons. Some companies don't want to touch defence for investor/funding reasons. If a company is active in defence, this might change its eligibility to certain public funding schemes, or it might deter some investors, or it might attract/deter a different employee demographics. (My workplace has made such a decision to not touch defence.)
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It's also going to be interesting for Google to be supplying weapons to the US military while also operating as a multinational. I think the US has maintains a list of companies that are sanctioned because they alledgedly supply arms to a certain foreign power's military.
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A pledge like that is like pledging not to use metal tubes for weapons.
Make love, not war.
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Right, and that could be a good thing. Monopoly of Violence theory of government says government's job is to be the strongest, and to use force when necessary to prevent force. (That is very broad, including things like demanding taxes. But in this case it's literal.)
Better (Score:1)
And the bar for better is quite low for these people. It only means they aren't harboring "activist" employees whose primary activity appears to be actively undermining the US DoD.
As durable as the paper it is written on (Score:1)
Motto... (Score:2)
What good is a pledge if you change it (Score:2)
Google Ethical Workers Leave (Score:2)
Google will do anything for money and market position regardless of ethics or morals, capitalism at its finest.
Corporate charters are no longer valid for furthering the Public Good as was their original intent.
Read the past stories below from Google's Own Search Engine:
https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]
Military Killer AI Arms Race (Score:2)
And perhaps they didn't make this clear. But AI is a military and killer technology arms race since whoever gets to the point where they can manufacture and deploy vast quantities of non-human devices to attack and invade other countries and take control of their land and resources, then that power will likely use that technology very quickly to grab control of strategic places where resources are scarce and important .
Unfortunately, the reality is all new technologies get sponsored by the military for kill
Google Captcha = Click in all TANKs! (Score:2)
I was wondering if the Google captchas are going to start making the civilian and our militarian ex-military personnel start clicking to identify enemy assets like tanks, airplanes, drowns and infantry formations? When are we going to start seeing combat pictures that we have to identify enemy assets to ensure that the AI is learning correctly so that we can teach it friend from Pho military versus civilian objects?
I think that time is coming and I wonder if Google is going to use its wealth of personal dat
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What a shame (Score:2)
Diversity does not equal white/passive aggressive anymore. They got some mileage out of it before it died though.....
My surprise (Score:2)
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They had trouble hiring smart people. This way they at least got highly intelligent naïve people. I was at one of their hiring events with Page and Brin back when they pretended to take that motto seriously and where still relatively small.
Google motto de-evolution (Score:2)
1. Don't be evil
2. Be only a little bit evil
3. Only be evil on even numbered days
4. Be evil, our competitors are
5. Make evil weapons
6. Lie about making evil weapons
7. Automate lying and being evil
8. Lie about automating evil
9. Blame it on the poor and downtrodden
10. Merge with Satan
Good (Score:2)
Even if a weapon is never deployed, the state of MAD needs to be maintained.
Development of weapons does NOT contradict a do-no-evil mentality.
Such a surprise (Score:2)
I wonder whether AI will be the end of the human race after all.
The abridged commandments (Score:2)
Honestly google makes itself look like the Animal Farm. Changing its slogans and guiding principle all the time.
I remember when they changed "Don't Be Evil" to "Do the right thing."
Now they just delete a pledge that they probably only made a short time ago in the first place. They really would be better off not making all these pledges and pretending. The truth is, the company postured an ideal of nobility that it probably never had a chance to live up to, and now has a whole bunch of disgruntled employee
Legitimate target (Score:2)
If Google makes weapons then Google has made themselves a target, if those weapons are used in a military conflict.
Not a smart move.