Thursday, February 23, 2023

Microsoft has Ethics? Who Knew?

Microsoft articulated principles committing the company to designing A.I. that is fair, reliable, safe and secure. It had pledged to be transparent in how it develops its A.I. and to be held accountable for the impacts of what it builds. ... But the prompt, wide-ranging and disastrous findings by Bing testers show, at a minimum, that Microsoft cannot control its invention. The company doesn’t seem to know what it’s dealing with, which is a violation of the company’s commitment to creating “reliable and safe” A.I.

Nor has Microsoft upheld its commitment to transparency. It has not been forthcoming about those guardrails or the testing that its chatbot has been run through. Nor has it been transparent about how it assesses the ethical risks of its chatbot and what it considers the appropriate threshold for “safe enough.”

I didn't know that Microsoft had ethics. They always struck me as being a rapacious company that, like all other sociopathic companies, seeks to maximize their profit by providing the costly (and buggy) products that they can.

We've done it to ourselves, really. We've promoted a culture of self-interest and greed. The "big thinkers" of economic theory have promoted the idea that companies are not "corporate citizens", but economic pirates that don't care how much destruction they leave in their wake, as long as they can make a buck.

Which gets me to the irony of The TOFF visiting the people of East Palestine, OH, when his administration worked hard to roll back rail safety regulations.

5 comments:

  1. Windows runs better (never crashes) in VM on my MacPro than it ever did on other platforms.

    I can't imagine what the world will be like if AI malware gets loose.

    Colossus - The Forbin Project?

    ReplyDelete
  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVmU3iANbgk

    ReplyDelete
  3. Didn't the FAA start going south under Bush the Lesser?

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  4. JJ, the FAA started going under in 2007. After Reagan fired the striking controllers in 1981, a massive hiring ‘bubble’ began in 82-83, when the FAA hired many people off the street, with many having no aviation experience. Many of these folks took at least five years to become fully certified controllers. As the following years went by, the FAA decided to hire only graduates from authorized college and university programs into the controller ranks. However by limiting themselves to a reduced workforce pool, the FAA found themselves short of controllers again.

    The laws allow controllers to retire after 25 years of service at any age, and they must retire from the boards at age 56 (and move to a staff position or supervisory role to remain in the FAA). So 1982+25 years equates to 2007. At that time a large segment of the most experienced work force began retiring, which left facilities short staffed and over worked which induced even more controllers to retire.

    The National Air Traffic Controllers Association begged and pleaded with the FAA to begin hiring more controllers as early as 2002 but was met with indifference. Only around 2010 did the FAA begin hiring “off the street” people again to refill the ranks. Once again, it was too little - too late. I think that is one reason for the uptick in runway incursions and near catastrophes that are currently happening.

    Dale
    Retired ATC (1982-2008)

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  5. So.. Baby Bush refucked up what Reagan fucked up?

    ReplyDelete

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