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BitterAd9531 t1_j5idapl wrote

>trivially obvious that AI should never be open-source

Wow. Trivially obvious? I'd very much like to know how that statement is trivially obvious, because it goes against what pretty much every single expert in this field advocates.

Obviously open-source AI brings problems, but what is the alternative? A single entity controlling one of the most disrupting technologies ever? And ignoring for a second the obvious problems with that, how would you enforce it? Criminalize open-sourcing of software? Can't say I'm a fan of this line of thinking.

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Historical-Coat5318 t1_j5juhb7 wrote

AI in my view should be controlled by very few institutions, and these institutions should be carefully managed by experts and very intelligent people, which is the case for companies like Google or OpenAI. If AI must exist, and it must, I would much rather it were in the hands of people like Sam Altman and Scott Aaronson than literally everyone with an internet connection.

Obviously terms like "open-source" and "democratised" sound good, but if you think about the repercussions of this you will surely realise that it would be totally disastrous for society. Looking back in history we can see that nuclear weapons were actually quite judiciously managed when you consider all of the economic and political tensions of the time, now imagine if anyone could have bought a nuke at Walmart, human extinction would have been assured. Open-source AI is basically democratized mass-destruction, and if weapons of mass-destruction must exist (including AI), then it should be in as few hands as possible.

Even ignoring existential risk, which is obviously still very speculative, even LLMs should never be open-source because that makes any regulation impossible. In that world evidence (video, images and text), not to mention human creativity, would cease to exist and the internet would basically be unnavigable as the chasm between people's political conception of the world and the world itself only widens. Only a few companies should be allowed to have this technology, and they should be heavily regulated. I admit I don't know how this could be implemented, I just know that it should be.

This is basically Nick Bostrom's Vulnerable World Hypothesis. Bostrom should be read as a prerequisite for everyone involved in AI, in my opinion.

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