IMO, the concern over ASI is overblown/premature, but since the AI bros insist on having that conversation instead of the very real harms that already exist… I’m in favor of just documenting the prohibition of ASI so we can move the fuck on already and hopefully make them less able to what-about their way out of genuine grievances that deserve careful attention.
The real basilisk was the fascist oligarchy we made along the way
Article seriously undersells how Kenyan RLHF was crucial for building the very AI that threatens their livelihood — and also the abuses of those companies, like exposing employees to horrific traumatizing content on a regular basis, and hiding the already low payment behind absurd obstacles like “you can only withdraw your payment once you hit $20 (but we’re only gonna give you $12 of work)”.
Kenyans are, in effect, still doing students’ homework, and they’ve been cheated out of any economic upside for it. Articles like this that are 98% criti-hype (with a little asterisk about how labor disputes pushed RLHF firms out of the country) serve the interests of the tech barons, not Kenyans.
“Hey it’s against my rules to be mean to me! You better stop, or I’ll… I’ll stop talking to everyone!”
Sony is officially a preteen. So proud!
This is what all the big promises have amounted to for most people: cars that are more and more expensive, devoid of physical controls which makes vehicles less safe, and constantly monitoring everything you do with the option for manufacturers to change whatever they want in your vehicle, including sticking a Spider-Man ad in front of you and presenting it as a fun “surprise.”
Reminds me of:
Science fiction’s superpower isn’t thinking up new technologies – it’s thinking up new social arrangements for technology. What the gadget does is nowhere near as important as who the gadget does it for and who it does it to. Your car can use a cutting-edge computer vision system to alert you when you’re drifting out of your lane – or it can use that same system to narc you out to your insurer so they can raise your premiums by $10 that month to punish you for inattentive driving. Same gadget, different social arrangement.
I’ve been watching Doctorow build this set over the past few years, and Jon Stewart is the perfect host for it. This is a master class. The only thing missing is that he didn’t get to mention the price of the Kentuckey Derby winner’s semen.
That’s “midsize”? The fuck?
Age alone doesn’t tell you much about a system’s quality. Well-maintained systems can stay alive for decades and achieve a defect rate that a greenfield effort could only dream of.
We have a tendency to use “legacy” as an insult, but software tends to only stick around for decades if it’s so valuable that it’s hard to replace.
They’re leaving out two big pieces of the story:
Yup. At this point, the only sensible model is harm reduction. I’m not happy about where we are, but we do need to be realistic about it.
What? That’s not what the article says.
They already prosecute people under the unauthorized access provision. They just don’t prosecute rich people under it.
In a good way, I hope?