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by JimDabell 514 days ago
CEO is the one job role that AI can’t take because AI lacks accountability. Who is the person using the AI that will get blamed by the board if they screw up? That’s the CEO, even if you decide to give them a different title.
6 comments
conartist6 513 days ago
CEOs also lack real accountability though. Every time something goes really wrong they claim that they have no responsibility because people below them caused the problems.

How the F do you square that circle? If you're at the top you either are responsible or you aren't.

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richardw 514 days ago
That applies to many roles. Lawyer AI can’t actually lawyer because someone needs to be accountable. War fighting AI needs to know where to kill. Doctor AI needs handholding. If we can find a legal construct for an AI surgeon operating on your child I think we can find one for an agent running a marketing company working on shareholders behalf.
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re-thc 513 days ago
> Who is the person using the AI that will get blamed by the board if they screw up?

The AI will get blamed and they can switch from OpenAI to Claude to something else.

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n4r9 513 days ago
Yeah, the accountability argument doesn't make sense to me from a practical viewpoint. The benefit of accountability is that it provides a path to avoiding repeated errors. There are other ways to achieve this using software tools.
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wisty 513 days ago
You can get a pretty good accountant for $100k I think. They could vet the AI decisions and take responsibility.
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taneq 513 days ago
I've been saying for a long time that the real definition of 'personhood' is the ability to take liability. If something can be sued in court (not counting civil forfeiture sophistry) then it counts as a person.
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autoexec 513 days ago
How about "If it gets sentenced to prison time" instead because corporations routinely get sued in court only to be charged a small percentage of the profit they make through criminal activity and that isn't "liability" it's just paying the justice system a cut of the action as a cost of doing business.
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ulfw 513 days ago
What accountability does Elon Reeve Musk, richest grifter on the planet and CEO of half a dozen companies ever face? An AI can be turned off and replaced at any time.
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