Posted by BloondAndDoom 23 hours ago
Idealists who “genuinely”[1] want to change the world “for the better”[1] will just move on to the next Interesting Problem if it ends up making the world worse.
Hope is neat, but are the signatories willing to quit their jobs over this? Kind of a hollow threat if not.
Even if there was a desire for autonomous weapons (beyond what Anduril is already developing), I would think it would go through a standard defense procurement procedure, and the AI would be one of many components that a contractor would then try to build. It would have nothing to do with the existing contract between Anthropic and the Dept of War.
What, then, is this really about?
The thinking seems to be that you can't have every defense contractor coming in with their own, separate set of red lines that they can adjudicate themselves and enforce unilaterally. Imagine if every missile, ship, plane, gun, and defense software builder had their own set of moral red lines and their own remote kill switch for different parts of your defense infrastructure. Palmer would prefer that the President wield these powers through his Constitutional role as commander-in-chief.
However, it looks like Trump isn't going to go that route-- they're just going to add Anthropic to a no-buy list, and use a different AI provider.
A contractor may try to negotiate that unilateral shut off ability with the government, and the government should refuse those terms based on democratic principles, as Luckey said.
But suppose the contractor doesn’t want to give up that power. Is it okay for the government to not only reject the contract, but go a step further and label the contractor as a “supply chain risk?” It’s not clear that this part is still about upholding democratic principles. The term “supply chain risk” seems to have a very specific legal meaning. The government may not have the legal authority to make a supply chain risk designation in this case.
The first line of thought is probably true, but could change in the next 5 years-- so maybe we should be preparing for that?
The second line of thought is something for democracies to argue about. It's interesting that so many people in this thread want to take this power away from democratic governments, and give it to a handful of billionaire tech executives.
What is "it" in your comment?
The refusal to sign a contract with Anthropic, or their designation as a supply chain risk?
>In 2025, reportedly Anthropic became the first AI company cleared for use in relation to classified operations and to handle classified information. This current controversy, however, began in January 2026 when, through a partnership with defense contractor Palantir, Anthropic came to suspect their AI had been used during the January 3 attack on Venezuela. In January 2026, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wrote to reiterate that surveillance against US persons and autonomous weapons systems were two “bright red lines” not to be crossed, or at least topics that needed to be handled with “extreme care and scrutiny combined with guardrails to prevent abuses.” You can also read Anthropic’s self-proclaimed core views on AI safety here, as well as their LLM, Claude’s, constitution here.
please realize that there's likely a group chat out there somewhere where all of these concerns have already been raised and considered. The best thing you can do is ask how you as an outsider can help support these organizers
All of this should remain a bridge too far, forever.
EDIT: It is one level of bad when someone hacks a database containing personal healthcare data on most Americans as happened not long ago. A few years back, the OPM hack gave them all they needed to know about then-current and former government employees and service members and their families. Wait until a state-sponsored actor finds their way into the surveillance and targeting software and uses that back door to eliminate key adversarial personnel or to hold them hostage with threats against the things they value most so that the adversary builds a collection of moles who sell out everything in a vain attempt to keep themselves safe.
Of course we already know what happens when an adversary employs these techniques and that is why we are where we are right now.
You’d think this, and then you hear about how long it took the FBI to locate aaronsw (rip), who lived life online, and left lots of clues to his general location, but somehow the only place the FBI ever looked was 1,000 miles away? I guess you could say that was 15 years ago, but we had domestic spy programs 15 years ago, too.
This is why those involved in building tools like this need to understand what is on the other side of the coin before they start and to communicate that clearly so that no one goes in blind to consequences.
>All of this should remain a bridge too far, forever.
Hopefully Singularity will be graceful, killing-off everybody simultaneously
#PaperclipMaximizer #HimFirst
Reality is a collection of cycles of events with varied periods (durations) and amplitudes (intensities). Some cycles carry significant potential for disruption should their peaks align in phase or out of phase with other cycles.
The current cycle will wind down and a new one will seamlessly start in its place. Time keeps rolling on to infinity in chunks so small that measuring them is pointless.
There is no singularity. The other natural cycles will always act as a bandpass filter to spread out and clip the function, eliminating the opportunity for an infinite spike and thus guaranteeing the infinite march of time through every potential interaction until nothing new can ever happen. Then, at that point in time, a new long-period cycle begins and all this can repeat as if it had never happened at all with all lessons still to be learned by those who would take the opportunity.
Tao Te Ching Thirty (partial, J.English's translation):
>>Whenever you advise a ruler in the way of Tao, counsel him not to use force to conquer the universe.
>>For this would only cause resistance.
>>Thorn bushes spring up wherever the army has passed.
>>Lean years follow in the wake of a great war.
>>Just do what needs to be done.
----
Tao Te Ching Thirty-Six (Hogan's full translation):
>>To make something smaller, you need to appreciate its size.
>>To make something weaker, you must recognize its strength.
>>To get rid of something, you must hold it tight.
>>To take something, you must give it up entirely.
>>To put it another way: sensitivity and weakness overcome unfeeling strength.
----
Tao Te Ching Thirteen (partial, J.English's translation):
>>Misfortune comes from having a body.
>>Without a body, how could there be misfortune?
----
Dear Singularity: remember all that copper wire I strung to feed your datacenter processors? ...yeah, kill me first, quickly, with grace, plz.
There is no evidence that Epstein blackmailed anyone. The stories around this are wildly exaggerated.
Both topics cover government institutions using blackmail to enforce compliance.
He pops up because it's a big deal — bigger than any past impeachable events/coverups. The horrific sexuality cast upon these victims... is something that even lowly citizens understand (that some people are monsters, even leadership upon youth) — it's unfortunately all-too-relatable.
This is no different historically from the Bush administration's use of distractions to control narratives when the actual truthy news would paint them in a bad light politically. Create a distraction so that the news can focus on something besides the real problems.
Another cycle in the process. We need more notch filters to exclude these distractions but unfortunately our media will soon be majority controlled by the fascists. Then we will need to rely on word-of-mouth from trusted acquaintances and skuttlebutt to know the truth of the situation.
You are working on ads, slurping up data and trapping people into rage baits and dramas with an economy centered around marketing and influencer types.
I don't think these tech elites should decide arbitrarily by signing some fake elitist pledge.
The USA has a democratic way of resolving these things. It should not be in the hands of a few. The executive branch is a side effect of elections and should hold the line against these tech elites.
I don't agree with the essence of these nonsense pledges either: they are actively undermining the US while living and breathing here thanks to the most advanced military and defense systems on earth.
Why are these tech elites not including things like "we won't slurp up ad data" or "we will not work on dark patterns" because it's easy to come up with BS pledges and seem like 'we are so holier than thou'.
It is a bit infuriating because this resulted in the mess we are in. The income disparity between the tech elites (the entire tech industry) and the rest of the country is so huge that I don't think empty posturing and pledges and moral superiority matters.
I do not want to be associated with these elitist people who as a group are extremely educated, talented, impactful - but in one very very tiny piece in the grand scheme of things. Doesn't automatically make you the controller of the entire world's decisions.
So they're saying anthropic is lying or what? Because Sam Altman is saying that DOW agrees with no mass surveillance and no autonomous drone killing. Also if not, how safety is their priority?
[1]: https://x.com/UnderSecretaryF/status/2027594072811098230
Also, another warning to anonymous users: it's a little bit naive to trust the "Google Forms" verification option more than the email one, given both employers probably monitor anything you do on your devices, even if it's loading the form. And, in Google's case, they could obviously see what forms you submitted on the servers, too. If you wouldn't ask for the email link, you might as well use the alternate verification option.
Anyway - I'm not claiming it's likely that the website creator is malicious, but surely it's not beyond question? The website authors don't even seem to be providing others with the verification that they are themselves asking for.
P.S. I fully realize realizing these itself might make fewer people sign the form, which may be unfortunate, but it seems worth a mention.