josh's harp14h ago

It really bums me out that I keep seeing blog posts from technical people like "putting aside the obvious moral and ethical implications of LLMs, I'm interested in evaluating whether they can be useful for my work."

Like "putting aside the obvious moral and ethical concerns of breaking into my neighbours' houses, I'm interested in evaluating whether this can be useful for acquiring other people's valuables."

Show threadjosh's harp14h ago
My dude, if there are obvious moral and ethical implications, how are you able to "put them aside" so easily? I just don't get it
Show threadViraptor
@Joshsharp
Honest answer: The same way that I'm writing this on a phone which both in the production process and as a software-social ecosystem has obvious moral and ethical implications. Or how I use retirement investment funds which likely prop up the price of many terrible corporations. Nothing's perfect and we make imperfect choices of balancing comfort of life with the world impact every single day.
3:55amWeb
Show threadjosh's harp11h ago
@viraptor I get that, but "there is no ethical consumption under capitalism" doesn't mean we should just give up
Show threadViraptor4h ago
@Joshsharp
Nor am I suggesting giving up. I'm just saying I make the imperfect choices using those systems for building something for the community I'm involved in or improving work at my clinic. That's my balance. Less putting aside, more definitely being aware of it.
Show threadBob Thomson7h ago
@viraptor @Joshsharp that’s a fair point. The slight difference to me is that if smart phones were replaced with Nokia bricks tomorrow, there would be a bit of an impact and adjustment to make that’d take time, whereas I think if all LLM chatbots ceased tomorrow, there would be little impact at all for the vast majority of folk, so we are not at all at a stage with LLM where they are indispensable and who knows when or if we will be for the average person?
Show threadQuantum ⊂ AI6h ago
@viraptor @Joshsharp
Show threadViraptor4h ago
@pikesley
That's like the inverse of my post? Not sure if you got what I meant.
Show threadJacob Ibáñez 🔒1h ago
@viraptor @Joshsharp I'm sorry but I'm SO tired of this type of answer. A phone is a very useful tool which is essential to the autonomy of MANY MANY vulnerable people. GenAI didn't exist 5 FUCKING YEARS AGO and makes a lot of people's live miserable, ESPECIALLY the vulnerable. Also the scale matters. Using phones at the current pace won't end drinkable water sources in less than 50 years. No, it's not the fucking same. IT'S NOT THE FUCKING SAME!! making the choice of not using genAI is SO easy.
Show threadJacob Ibáñez 🔒1h ago
@viraptor @Joshsharp and don't fucking tone police me because I can see you coming