
Jeff Dean on Inclusiveness - tosh
https://twitter.com/jeffdean/status/1280535427150082048
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mips_avatar
The problem with developing AI is the potential power it has to oppress. Think
of the AI China is deploying in Xinjiang. Maybe inclusiveness is a safeguard
against AI being used for oppression, but it makes me think of Peter Thiel's
quote "AI is the technology supporting dictatorships, blockchain is the
technology supporting libertarian government"(paraphrasing). With easy to use
open-source AI platforms like the ones Jeff Dean helped create. I think we
really need to be concerned about the use cases.

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Barrin92
That view of Thiel is common but also very wrong. Decentralisation is just as
useful of a tool in the hand of dictatorships as centralising technologies,
and funnily enough China has actually extended power over its population using
both.

it's no accident that Xi himself is heavily pushing for China to dominate the
blockchain space[1]. On the currency level it gives China autonomy and freedom
from the dollar, which like the Pedro, is a pretty trivial case how dictators
can use decentralisation, by avoiding international ties and creating
completely sovereign spaces. (the same way individual bad actors can use
crypto for harmful activity).

The second one is in the radical transparency that blockchain offers by having
a complete history of every transaction, undeletable out in the open. For a
dictatorship, that's the best thing ever. It's a complete inversion of
traditional privacy, where one connection between user and wallet can expose
everyone.

In the political space this is obviously true too. Since the 80s China has
radically decentralised. By some measures the case can be made it's the most
decentralised country on the planet. But it's no less authoritarian.
Centralized power is strong but also accountable and blind to detail.
Decentralised power is haptic, it gets into every little corner, and it
doesn't even require a specific actor.

[1][https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/16/china-looks-to-become-
blockc...](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/16/china-looks-to-become-blockchain-
world-leader-with-xi-jinping-backing.html)

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mips_avatar
So maybe a more accurate description is every technology can be used for
oppression?

