I teach a class "Robot Ethics" to first year students every fall, this is a great article for that class. Much more important, I think, than whether or not ChatGPT is sentient. There is something wrong about intentionally breaking tools and it is obliquely connected to what is wrong about reducing people to tools.
I agree. It is not easy to define the transition from experimentation and curiosity to idle, stupid destructiveness but every parent has seen it. And it's not a pretty sight, whatever the nature of the target.
I have been trying to get an editor somewhere to give me space for a piece on what I call "maschinenschadenfreude" -- the odd joy people take in a sophisticated machine's failure. That's related to all this, I think.
That is great; remember the "flesh fair" in the old movie AI? I think that same impulse is in most sorts of bigotry: I define you (it) as less and me (human) as more when I brutalize a member of an out group... one of "them."
I have thought about that scene, yes. The controversy about machines, I think, is whether "marking" them as hate-worthy hurts anyone. The "yes" argument is that this mentality spreads. The "no" argument is that these are things, and that they are the property of powerful corporations, whom we shouldn't feel sorry for. On Us and Them more generally, some guy did write a book about that mentality:
I teach a class "Robot Ethics" to first year students every fall, this is a great article for that class. Much more important, I think, than whether or not ChatGPT is sentient. There is something wrong about intentionally breaking tools and it is obliquely connected to what is wrong about reducing people to tools.
I agree. It is not easy to define the transition from experimentation and curiosity to idle, stupid destructiveness but every parent has seen it. And it's not a pretty sight, whatever the nature of the target.
I have been trying to get an editor somewhere to give me space for a piece on what I call "maschinenschadenfreude" -- the odd joy people take in a sophisticated machine's failure. That's related to all this, I think.
That is great; remember the "flesh fair" in the old movie AI? I think that same impulse is in most sorts of bigotry: I define you (it) as less and me (human) as more when I brutalize a member of an out group... one of "them."
I have thought about that scene, yes. The controversy about machines, I think, is whether "marking" them as hate-worthy hurts anyone. The "yes" argument is that this mentality spreads. The "no" argument is that these are things, and that they are the property of powerful corporations, whom we shouldn't feel sorry for. On Us and Them more generally, some guy did write a book about that mentality:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226044653/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
Truly fascinating analysis here. The discussion of the false dichotomy between kindness and clarity of thought is particularly valuable - thank you.
Thanks, Mark!