Tip for Civil Society: Never Negotiate. Always make them do the bad thing. Don’t help them do it, but make their choice either: do something really bad, or nothing at all

I started messing with Unix in my 2nd year at university in 1986, I got into cryptography in 1990, open source/free software in 1991, and then pretty much constant battles with regulators & authorities ever since.

If I was to share one lesson it’d be: always call their bluff. Make them do the bad thing that they are threatening to do anyway.

Generally they will present you with a choice: either you do this small thing for us — tell us who is downloading your software, build an export controlled version of your software, put a backdoor into your software, put an age gate in front of your software, regulate anyone who builds related technologies — OR ELSE we will be forced to legislate you out of existence / ban the internet / ban all cryptographic software / ban artificial intelligence / put a firewall around the whole of Great Britain.

Your response should be: Okay then, you do that.

Don’t negotiate a middle ground — if they have stated an extremist end-game then that is what they are intending to achieve in any case. Your job is to force them to be — to out themselves as being — the bad guy. It is not your job to try and negotiate a liberal and reasonable middle ground on behalf of all humanity. The very fact that they can propose such an extremist position underscores that they do not understand what they are talking about, and that they will be severely bitten by unintended consequences.

You, dear heart, are not the saviour of humanity, and you are not competent to negotiate on behalf of all of humanity and upon the basis of all future innovation.

Always make them do the bad thing, because it will blow up in their face eventually.

#ai #artificialIntelligence #encryption #government #homeOffice #policy #regulation