https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2023/07/06/a-faster-supercomputer-will-help-scientists-assess-the-risk-of-controlling-sunlight-00104815

  • UlyssesT [he/him]
    ·
    1 year ago

    Taps the sign about how it's a lie that computers are nonpolitical neutral objective arbiters of things when they're built and programmed by people that aren't like that and never will be

    • Tachanka [comrade/them]
      ·
      1 year ago

      continues to cram 9090234832094820 copies of mein kampf into a blender so I can spoofeed it to Racismbot 3000 GPT

      excuse me kind gentlesir, but computers are absolutely logical and objective

    • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
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      1 year ago

      they aren't but that's not why the bias comes from the data they are trained with. It is very hard to get unbiased data collected in a systematically racist society and crucially would be difficult and expensive to try

      • UlyssesT [he/him]
        ·
        1 year ago

        Functionally, with what we have to work with, right now, what I said is true then.

        If you want to split hairs and talk about theoretically perfect and totally nonpolitical data entry (I still have doubt there because there still has to be decisions made of what data counts and for what purpose), that sounds like science fiction speculation, something you tried to scold me about in a different thread recently.

        • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
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          1 year ago

          I don't know about that I think non racist data collection is a thing that could be done. Completely nonpolitical is of course impossible as life is political. data on for example the price of bread is political as the price of bread is a result of political decisions

          I thought by biased data you were referring to the known trend of racist bias making its way into AI by use of racist training data. For example one now discontinued training set on house prices that included black people as a potential cause of lowered house prices because it was using a study made in the 1970s

          • UlyssesT [he/him]
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            1 year ago

            I don't know about that I think non racist data collection is a thing that could be done.

            Non-racist probably, but completely devoid of political context, even good and well intentioned political context? I highly doubt it. Unless a machine can collect all data from all vectors at all times, decisions have to be made about what data qualifies for the data entry and for what purpose.

            • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
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              1 year ago

              Yes I agree with you. Although depending on the purpose of the AI in question the politics could be less relevant.

              if for example you wanted an AI that identified what is and is not malware then the politics of the situation is less relevant than if you were using AI to sort through applicants for a job

              • UlyssesT [he/him]
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                1 year ago

                Although depending on the purpose of the AI in question the politics could be less relevant.

                I'll stand by my contention that even the attempt to try to remove politics from a data collection goal is itself a political task, no matter how well intentioned. How do we define politics, after all? The data collection and entry task itself surely has some purpose that is intended to benefit someone, and that decision is a political decision, even if its a well intentioned one.

                what is and is not malware

                I would argue that even the definition of "malware" has wiggle room to be a political task. A decision has to be made regarding what is not malware, and where it is allowed to come from, and for what purpose.

                I didn't say it'd have to be to the same level or with the same harmful biases, but I wanted to put that out there.

                • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
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                  1 year ago

                  usually malware is defined as software that violates the policy of the owner of the computer. And while there is politics involved in that decision you do need to define it as malware is harmful to people and organisations

                  once again I agree you can't remove politics from a decsion nor should you try

                  • UlyssesT [he/him]
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                    edit-2
                    1 year ago

                    I could use a cruder example that is recent and relevant: "If it comes from a Russian source, it is malware!" wojak-nooo

                    violates the policy of the owner of the computer

                    At a sociopolitical structural level, it's kind of impossible for policies and ownership to not have some political weight.

                    I see we mostly agree, but I do want to lean on the side of "nonpolitical is mostly an idealistic claim" when I hear out in the internet wild that some program came to a nonpolitical political decision.

                    • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
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                      1 year ago

                      normally the claim is that all Chinese software is malware but yes I see your point. It also doesn't help that the Russian government takes not much interest in policing malware production for various reasons largely to do with the rise of organised crime after the fall of the soviet union

                      yeah programs aren't non political they are made by people for purposes and thus aren't objective measures of truth. Also you shouldn't just accept anything a computer says because computers make mistakes all the time

                      • UlyssesT [he/him]
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                        edit-2
                        1 year ago

                        normally the claim is that all Chinese software

                        I still hear about Russian boogeymen, but then again the same claimants often describe the Russians as "commies" so that's how much their opinion is worth. grillman