It is really nice to see employees creating lists for the next round of laoffs themselves.

Use the feedback forms within their platforms to let the companies know your thoughts

I don't love talking politics on this site. Hackernews has done a pretty decent job of staying non-political and I think that's been a positive thing.

AI is re-shaping American society in a lot of ways. And this is happening at a time where the U.S. is more politically divided than it's ever been. People who use LLMs regularly (most SWEs at this point) can understand the danger signs. The bad outcomes are not inevitable. But the conversations around this cannot only be held in internet forums and blogposts.

Hackernews is an echo chamber of early adopters of tech. The discussions had here don't percolate to the general population.

I believe many of us have a duty to make this feel real to the less technical people in our lives. Too many folks have an information filter that is one of Fox News/CNN/MSNBC. Fox is the worst on misinformation. The others are also bad. Their viewers will not hear, in any clear way, how the Trump admin is trying to bully AI companies into doing what it wants. This will be a headline or an article. A footnote not given the attention it deserves.

Plainly: there is an attempt to turn AI into a political weapon aimed at the general population. Misinformation and surveillance are already out of control. If you can, imagine that getting worse.

This feels like one of those hinge moments. If you can, have real-life conversations with people around you. Explain what's at stake and why it matters now, not later.

It's rather amusing that this is the proverbial 'red line', not y'know, everything else this administration has been tearing up and running roughshod over. Maybe this would've been less of an issue if companies were more proactive about this bullshit in the first place?

That's why it's hard for me to feel bad about companies suddenly finding themselves on the receiving end. They dug their grave inch by inch and are suddenly surprised when they get shoved into it.

really dumb. you don’t win this

It would be funny in the end if the only ones left to not say no to Trump were Alibaba

You have 1) stolen everybody's shit and put it behind a paywall, 2) cornered the hardware market in some RICO-worthy offensive that has priced one of the few affordable pasttimes for young people out of reach, 3) changed your climate story (lie) on a dime, and started putting the horrible power-guzzling data centers on any strip of land within spitting distance of a power plant. I hope you all go out of business, and I hope it happens French Revolution style.

Of course they were going to use it for military purposes you spiritual abortions, and there is nothing your keyboard-soft hands can do about it.

The Department of War doesn't exist, don't meet the fascists on their own terms at any level. They don't debate or operate in good faith.

So big tech wants to court Trump with millions in donations and now that the big bully they supported is bullying them.. we’re supposed to feel some kind of sympathy? Am I missing something here? Why did Anthropic get involved with the military in the first place?

These models are weapons whether the frontier provider founders and their trite and lofty mission statements like it or not.

Private individuals and private companies do not get to create a defensive weapon with unprecedented power in a new category in the US and not share it with the US military.

You guys are batshit insane.