Thread

1. edot · 1791067681 · focus · HN ↗

   Absolutely based. Finally someone of stature in the industry calling this whole fear overblown. Bill Gates sounded like a nontechnical goofball in his Ezra Klein interview where he basically just screamed that the Terminator is real.

   There are lots of real worries (government use to suppress the people with minimal manpower or popular support, brainrot and fake news, unemployment due to the belief that LLMs can replace people, education collapse, etc.) we should instead be looking at. This whole rogue AI shtick is tiresome.

   1. Barrin92 · 1791070504 · focus · HN ↗

      >Bill Gates sounded like a nontechnical goofball in his Ezra Klein interview where he basically just screamed that the Terminator is real.

      I saw that episode too and he genuinely looked completely out of it, even in terms of his temperament and how he was coming at Klein for putting common questions in front of him, some people are genuinely starting to lose it.

      I also found the whole debate about cyber-security and 'rogue' software so bizarre because dangerous malware isn't a new thing, and it's often dangerous not because it's intelligent but just the opposite, because it's tiny, viral and fast. Which describes everything that kills humanity in far larger numbers than anything complex, big and intelligent

      1. jswelker · 1791071216 · focus · HN ↗

         Wasn't Bill Gates mostly just saying terrorists could use AI to build a bioweapon? That sounds legit to me.

         1. zozbot234 · 1791072179 · focus · HN ↗

            It's not "legit", it's pointless scaremongering about entirely speculative future dynamics. Current LLMs can't "build" anything novel in this broad space. What if future AIs make it a lot easier for researchers to defend against plausible bioweapons? That's also reasonably possible, and would be a reason to deploy bio-capable AIs more broadly (with meaningful safeguards of course. But these are comparatively cheap because worthwhile bio research is resource-intensive already). At the very least, it'd be nice to have an AI model that doesn't immediately refuse to answer questions about junior-high Biology class.

            1. jswelker · 1791072417 · focus · HN ↗

               So a terrorist can't use a local llm to help grow anthrax? That is not farfetched at all.

               AI democratized the knowledge needed to build bioweapons. Like how with a 3d printer anyone can build a gun with no expertise.

               1. com2kid · 1791086352 · focus · HN ↗

                  [delayed]

                  1. altmanaltman · 1791090789 · focus · HN ↗

                     Also it kind of infantalizes terrorists as if not having an LLM access or 3d printer is what stopping their attacks. Like okay I ask LLM to help me create a dirty nuclear bomb but the moment i start taking steps to do that, law enforcement will already be tracking me.

                     Most people saying LLMs can make terrorism easy have never given doing terroism a serious thought imo.

                     1. DonHopkins · 1791104805 · focus · HN ↗

                        The infantile terrorist in the White House already has missiles, and he has used them to murder 120 Iranian schoolchildren. What AI offers Trump is a convenient patsy. Automating the targeting doesn't automate away responsibility, and Trump doesn't get to pretend it does.

                        Wearing AI like a glove can improve your grip and keep your fingerprints off the gun, but it doesn't make the glove the murderer.

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