Thread

There's no point at which turning your brain off will work

204 points · 156 comments · robin_reala

01284a7e · 1789751992 · focus · HN ↗
"What reason is there for the company to employ the meat proxy?" Maybe some form of liability, accountability...
New concept: the AI patsy
1. jbverschoor · 1789752450 · focus · HN ↗
  It pays 16 craploads of money per year.
2. brap · 1789752654 · focus · HN ↗
  Interesting thought. In a way this is already the case, to some extent.
  But wouldn’t it be way more economical to have some sort of AI-insurance service? i.e. protection against AI fucking things up?
  1. cindyllm · 1789762324 · focus · HN ↗
    [dead]
3. Terr_ · 1789752776 · focus · HN ↗
  Like so: <a href="https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/blame" rel="nofollow">https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/blame
  1. jodrellblank · 1789753891 · focus · HN ↗
    Or a different way around, Asimov's The Machine That Won The War, 1961: <a href="https://xpressenglish.com/our-stories/machine-that-won-the-war/" rel="nofollow">https://xpressenglish.com/our-stories/machine-that-won-the-w...
4. OrderlyTiamat · 1789753298 · focus · HN ↗
  Moral Crumple Zones <a href="https://ferd.ca/notes/paper-moral-crumple-zones.html" rel="nofollow">https://ferd.ca/notes/paper-moral-crumple-zones.html
5. perrygeo · 1789753944 · focus · HN ↗
  More commonly known as an "accountability sink". These existed before but it is so much worse with AI.
6. saltcured · 1789755426 · focus · HN ↗
  Yeah this is the closest I've found to explaining my own discomfort. Why I've been almost entirely an individual contributor my whole career and why I may opt-out and retire.
  I have limited tolerance to take demeaning workload that I know "the boss" could do himself. I think my pride and satisfaction is in my intellectual contribution, not my ability to relay messages nor do repetitive slop work.
  But the real revulsion is being a scapegoat. I will not rubber stamp and take responsibility for things not under my control. I have limited capacity to review and sign off work I've delegated to someone else. It is usually easier for me to do it myself and know it inside-out than to delegate and then review enough to have the requisite confidence in the result.
  When the new plan is to increase throughput via delegation to these generators, I can't possibly review to my standards. So, I refuse to accept any of it as my work.
  It also freaks me out a bit to think of the collective mess that is developing across society, with so many people apparently ready and willing to shovel and rubber-stamp. I think the "move fast and break everything" cult is going too far.
  But, primarily, I just need to protect my own sanity and live to my own standards. And hope that I can back away far enough to avoid some of the splash damage when entropy catches up...

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