Re:Ask HN: Is AI safety simply the thought police?
by toyg on Thursday November 23, 2023 @07:13AM
(#38391926)
This is why nerds are kept far away from the seats of power.
The world is about shades of gray and (typically) minimising harm. We all know people fully bent on doing antisocial things will likely get there, one way or the other, but we still try to make it hard for them. That's why professional locksmiths typically have to register with the police, you can't buy all medicines over the counter, etc etc.
With this view, reducing access to information that is useful almost exclusively when committing crimes, is absolutely fair. It will not solve all problems but it will make it a bit harder to do bad stuff.
The world is about shades of gray and (typically) minimising harm. We all know people fully bent on doing antisocial things will likely get there, one way or the other, but we still try to make it hard for them. That's why professional locksmiths typically have to register with the police, you can't buy all medicines over the counter, etc etc.
With this view, reducing access to information that is useful almost exclusively when committing crimes, is absolutely fair. It will not solve all problems but it will make it a bit harder to do bad stuff.