It's mostly about scale, but there are many issues tbh
- Enables significant increase in surveillance
- Enables highly specific targeted action (i.e. micro-targeted advertising, but not necessarily ads)
- Enables said action to be performed at high speeds with low latency and for cheap.
- Obfuscates decision making processes making it harder to point to who is doing wrong and even how they are doing wrong (because burden of proof is on those being wronged. More black box = more better)
- Enables easier deflection and laziness as one can say it is just math and pretend that math is objective and not subject to usage. You can deflect claims of targeting specific groups because you do not use a variable explicitly defining those groups but you use some or all of the strongly correlating variables.
There's plenty more here too. Of course this isn't all even necessary. I do work in ML and I do have a passion for it. These tools can be great and do a lot to make human lives better. I really do think with them we are capable of doing amazing feats such as reaching a mostly post-scarce society within our lifetimes. You could have them grow the food, pick the food, transport the food, stock the shelves, be the cashiers, and even transport the people (or products) to their desired locations. We could liberate most humans of most labor. That is on the horizon. But even such an amazing outcome which would allow humans to be more human than they've ever had the ability to be in all of history -- allowing them to pursue arts, sciences, community development, and all sorts of things without needing to worry about sustaining one's survival via one's labor. The transition to this post scarce world is not just technological challenges as those jobs won't be homogeneously displaced and as we must adapt to this post world. But I'm sure everyone would absolutely love robot butlers (that are non-sentient. Sentient machines shouldn't be forced laborers, but that's a whole other conversation because sentience isn't required for this. Narrow AI can do many of these already at high competency levels). So even the purely good side is still treacherous.
I'm just saying, we need to think deep and carefully. The nuance is not just digging in the weeds, it is the critical aspect. Ignoring it isn't "good enough" when ignoring the details is what specifically leads to trouble. But it's common to hear that these are claims of pedanticism.
- Enables significant increase in surveillance
- Enables highly specific targeted action (i.e. micro-targeted advertising, but not necessarily ads)
- Enables said action to be performed at high speeds with low latency and for cheap.
- Obfuscates decision making processes making it harder to point to who is doing wrong and even how they are doing wrong (because burden of proof is on those being wronged. More black box = more better)
- Enables easier deflection and laziness as one can say it is just math and pretend that math is objective and not subject to usage. You can deflect claims of targeting specific groups because you do not use a variable explicitly defining those groups but you use some or all of the strongly correlating variables.
There's plenty more here too. Of course this isn't all even necessary. I do work in ML and I do have a passion for it. These tools can be great and do a lot to make human lives better. I really do think with them we are capable of doing amazing feats such as reaching a mostly post-scarce society within our lifetimes. You could have them grow the food, pick the food, transport the food, stock the shelves, be the cashiers, and even transport the people (or products) to their desired locations. We could liberate most humans of most labor. That is on the horizon. But even such an amazing outcome which would allow humans to be more human than they've ever had the ability to be in all of history -- allowing them to pursue arts, sciences, community development, and all sorts of things without needing to worry about sustaining one's survival via one's labor. The transition to this post scarce world is not just technological challenges as those jobs won't be homogeneously displaced and as we must adapt to this post world. But I'm sure everyone would absolutely love robot butlers (that are non-sentient. Sentient machines shouldn't be forced laborers, but that's a whole other conversation because sentience isn't required for this. Narrow AI can do many of these already at high competency levels). So even the purely good side is still treacherous.
I'm just saying, we need to think deep and carefully. The nuance is not just digging in the weeds, it is the critical aspect. Ignoring it isn't "good enough" when ignoring the details is what specifically leads to trouble. But it's common to hear that these are claims of pedanticism.