Thread

Pentagon says overreliance on AI contributed to missile strike on Iran school

974 points · 553 comments · devonnull

63 · 1790106616 · focus · HN ↗
It's easy to blame the military and the higher-ups, after all they made this choice. But more relevant to HN, this couldn't have happened without technology professionals working for Palantir.
> A Palantir spokesperson told Bloomberg the company “is not responsible for the underlying data nor identifying intelligence deficiencies” and that there is no evidence its software was at fault.
If you work for Palantir, you are writing software that kills people. Software that, in this case, killed 123 children. What salary is worth that?
I encourage others who work in the public sector, whether directly or through a contractor, to read and internalize Don't Get Distracted by Caleb Hearth [0]. I think about it nearly every day.
[0] <a href="https://calebhearth.com/dont-get-distracted" rel="nofollow">https://calebhearth.com/dont-get-distracted
1. PorciiVorbesc · 1790107230 · focus · HN ↗
  >It's easy to blame the military and the higher-ups
  My brother in Cthulu, they're the ones making the life or death decision that killed people, who else should be to blame?
  >But more relevant to HN, this couldn't have happened without technology professionals working for Palantir.
  If you wanna go the historical tech-tree scapegoat route then none of this would have happened if DARPA wouldn't have invented the internet, or if Thomas Edison wouldn't have invented the lightbulb, or if the fish haven't ventured onto land and evolve into us land mammal apes who invented sharpened sticks as murder objects.
  1. cogman10 · 1790108693 · focus · HN ↗
    Look, if Palantir had any redeeming qualities then I might agree with you. Unlike electricity which runs our computers, homes, cars, etc. What does Palantir do? It spies on people and helps governments to create "people we don't like" lists. In the absolute best case it's a "minority report" engine, but it's still just there to try and stop pre-crime (not crime).
    This isn't the case where we are talking about a company doing anything socially good. It's simply there to help authoritarian governments.
    PorciiVorbesc · 1790108894 · focus · HN ↗
    Palantir only exists because government wants and funds these types of tools. If it Palantir wouldn't exist then another dozen companies with different names would exist that would create the same Torment Nexus for the government due to inexhaustible demand for such tools.
    >It's simply there to help authoritarian governments.
    The fact that you're so close yet so far away to figuring out who's to blame still boggles my mind.
    smackeyacky · 1790113583 · focus · HN ↗
    Are you implying that the demand for these evil services absolves the suppliers from any moral responsibility? Simply because “if we don’t do this somebody else will”.
    It’s an evil service and no matter who requests it or supplies it, doing so is an evil act.
    8note · 1790116088 · focus · HN ↗
    its clearly a democratically approved legal act though. If its as evil as you suggest, the better approach would be to convince your peers that its evil and thus should be made illegal
    smackeyacky · 1790116803 · focus · HN ↗
    Again, absolving the company that built it and runs it. They weren’t coerced into doing so and must share the blame for the evil that was created.

Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.